Tomorrow marks two years since Michael Jackson, arguably the greatest and most controversial entertainer the world has ever seen, passed away. Even now, debate about how Mike Jack left the world, like any other celebrity who dies in a peculiar manner, is still a highly sensitive topic of debate. LaToya Jackson sat down with CNN’s Piers Morgan on Tuesday and confessed her most honest thoughts about her brother’s death. Read the rest of this entry »

Summer Walker

20 Banned Album Covers [Billboard]

CNN Cares About Black People [Maurice Garland]

Waka Flocka Has A Halloween Mask [Urban Daily]

The 25 Most Depressing Sports Franchises [Bleacher Report] Read the rest of this entry »

Photo by Lee Starnes

As a culture, we’ve come a long way since Kool Herc was spinnin’ records in the park. And, oh those kookie Atlantans keep pushing the envelope. First Big links with the Atlanta Dance Company and manages to work Hip-Hop into the dance circuit. Now, CNN features SMKA & A.Leon’s work with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.

“This is a very special and unique collaboration between Hip-Hop and Classic that is truly the first of its kind. SMKA was commissioned by The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to remix a piece for their “Concerts for Young People” series. The song 808 Blake created is called “Music is My Life” produced by SMKA, and it is written and performed by Aleon Craft. Additionally, Parker Smith played the guitar and Brand Dorfman scored the peice. It has been performed 20 times since October 2009. CNN covered the collaboration last week and aired the special today.”

Three x dope. Imagine telling your mom or lady,”Nah I gotta go play with the orchestra tonight. CNN’s filming the performance and I got an interview with them after.”

[CNN]

Not that anyone really cares but I found this headline strange because CNN felt the need to report on MechanicalDummy abandoning his Twitter account after this weekend’s massive meltdown.

If that’s the case, that means CNN must have a small cubicle for someone @ their offices. In that person’s workspace, there sits one of those wood name things on their desk, signifying their job title right underneath their name. I’m guessing that job title reads “Head of nigga news.” Read the rest of this entry »

In case you are part of the large unaware majority, Black in America 2, the sequel to the wildly successful 2008 CNN documentary of a similar name, aired this past Sunday.

No different from the first one, this consists of hours of inspiring stories and important information and insights. Also like the first one, it’s an obvious ratings pull that borders on being insulting. Black people are not magical clan to be demystified with a handbook and some documentaries. The Black in America series does not pretend to be a guide to Negrodom, but it straddles the line of filling in the racial divide and driving a widening wedge into it.

This time around, the focus is on the revolving doors of prison, the paralyzing misconceptions about education and healthcare and the hardships of maintaining long-term relationships.

Oh, and Tyler Perry.

The Video’s a good 17 minutes long, so grab some popcorn or something

I’ve been waiting on an excuse to speak on this man and here it is. Yeah, I know, easy target, cue Sunshine Anderson and let us know you’ve heard it all before. Join him in his defensive chants. “How dare we?” Who are we to criticize the man and his creations? Well, we are the viewers, listeners, readers, and people who get affected by his doing, whether or not we care to. Ergo the ire, sire.

Seriously. Why put the emphasis on the morals and messages in the films, plays and sitcoms when they all border on being minstrel shows? That’s like saying a slave auction would revitalize the economy. Besides, will the focus really be on whatever the message of the screenplay may be when the recurring themes and characters are so corrosively negative? You realize that without the foul mouthed, cross-dressing, weed-smoking, heat-packing, persistent felon of a grandmother bringing up all your characters, they would probably be normal people, right?

Why don’t we address how to get rid of the Madeas and Mr. Browns and the slew of other characters that could sneak on set in BlackFace and no one would notice? Instead of saying “How can you ignore the message of forgiveness?, riddle me this. How can you ignore the blatant promotion, embellishment and endorsement of stereotypes in your protagonists? How about how do we eliminate the shit-talking 6′ 5″ granny in drag and focus on what you claim to be the focus of your movies?

Now this is not to knock Emmit. He’s a kid from the asscrack of New Orleans whose big dreams turned him into a quasi-billionaire movie producer, director, actor, writer that owns his own full-scale studio in heart of Atlanta. Clap for him. And Precious was pretty tight so I ain’t completely mad at the kid.

But don’t make the man out to be the Black Jesus Christ meets Bill Gates. He, like the executives at CNN, realized that Black misery is an underdocumented story that just so happens to still be a tradeable commodity.

“Just keep your head up & you see all the good things.”

Too often, the good that athletes do is overlooked. Whether it be for a tax write-off or for genuine good, any act that involves you taking what you have and sharing with others is respectable. Read the rest of this entry »

Courtney Starrburst, Busting Out

5 Reasons Google Is the New Evil Empire [Coed]

Detroit Facing Corpse Surplus [The Onion]

Aubrey O’Day Is Obviously Still Upset About Those Nude Photos
[Don Chavez]

Life After Print: URB Magazine 2.0 [Huff Po]

Rhapsody Passes 200k iPhone Downloads In 20 Days [Music Ally]

CNN Does Nas Dirty [Hood Nerd]

Field Mob’s Shawn Jay Arrested After Missing Court Date [TBB]

Superhero Facebook Status Updates [CA]

Adios, Juan and Juanita: Latin Names Trend Down [Time]

Mickey Factz On Alexa Chung [GFCNY]

10 Examples Of Reporters Getting Interrupted [Uncouched]

Spiritual Women Have The Most Sex [Asylum]

Spotted @ [Broken Cool]

Yes, I love Atlanta but these two items featuring Atliens left me shaking my head.

Point 1: Big Boi in CNN’s “Sneakerhead” article

Platinum plaques, stacks on deck & more butts than ashtrays. Sure, all of that. But never, never ever ever ever Read the rest of this entry »

It’s finally officially official.

Above is a video of the press conference from TI’s sentencing. Since he has 30 to 60 days to begin his sentence, the video below is (presumably) one of his final TV interviews before his enrollment in our nation’s fine federal penal system. Read the rest of this entry »

Freak Something Saturday With Katt A.

Four Oakland Police Officers Shot, In Critical Condition [Mercury News]

Omarion’s New Wife Is A Bi-Sexual Ex-Stripper? [The YBF]

The Cool Kids x Hot Topic T-Shirt [FSD]

Gummi Shot Glasses [Instructables]

Drunk Punch FAIL [Coed]

McDonald’s = Corporate Welfare [DP]

CNN Becomes the Huffington Post [Jossip]

YN Vs. Charles Hamilton [Rap Radar]

Nike Air Force 1 Low White Ice Hits NDC [KATC]

Best Buy Customer Gets Free, Hilariously-Titled Porno With Purchase of DVD Player [Gizmodo]

4 Ways For Kanye To Further Up His Street Cred [YFWB]

Soulja Boy The Crocodile Hunter [TRU]

I caught the end of the Larry King Show when Robin Givens was on there speaking on the Chris Brown/Rihanna incident. Granted this was at like four in morning & I was just getting home from work and the gym. So i kept it on & powered up my laptop. Not to belittle the situation, but I’m somewhat surprised on how much coverage this is getting given the grave condition of our economy, as well as whatever we have our hands tied to overseas. I understand the celebrity factor & ever-changing storyline heighten the interest level, but I still walk around in amazement due to the scope of people I see talking about it.

I began to wonder what else was going on in the news, because I always feel like something is being kept under wraps or swept under the rug when a story like this gets so much of everyone’s attention. Read the rest of this entry »

For you Star Wars geeks (Read: Me) we call this the Princess Leia Hologram. For the rest of you, just know we’re about two ray guns and one moon colony away from teleportation. Read the rest of this entry »

While we were doing The Recession review, there were several of us who felt like Jeezy did his fair share of social commentary, speaking on today’s issues that would allow this album to encapsulate a period similar to how Amerikkka’s Most spoke for the unrest during its time. While I know Jeezy’s no Eldridge Clever, I feel like he did manage to keep his “all I know is trap” persona intact, satisfying the hood, while going outside of himself a little to talk about what Jay Jenkins is seeing going on in the world as well. Read the rest of this entry »

Words By David D.

I am not gonna lie. I was initially skeptical when I saw the previews to CNN’s Black in America show. It’s not that I thought the concept was bad or formed out of some hidden racism. I give Soledad O’Brien the benefit of the doubt for how she was going at folks over the Katrina debacle.

It was one sentence (swiped from MTV’s Diary show) that struck a bad chord with me:

“You think you know. You have no idea.”

This statement seemed to imply that the documentary was speaking to a group of people unfamiliar with blackness in America, most notably white people.

After watching the piece on the Black man, I feel as though my hesitation was founded. Granted, the low-end of the expectation was that the documentary would showcase a hidden underbelly of savagery and dependency for the White man to save. I can assure you that this was not the case. However, as a Black man I feel as thought Black in America offered nothing new to me. When I asked Gottyâ„¢ if he was watching, he replied “I ain’t watch it. I was busy being Black…in America.” Unfortunately, he was right. Read the rest of this entry »