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Is Ray J. the Most Significant Black Entertainer of a Generation? No. But There Is a Case to Be Made
 A couple of weeks ago, Ray J. went viral when news broke that Suge Knight, the devilâs favorite Blood, ceded control of the rights to his life to Ray J. from the prison cell that Suge will likely die in. In fact, Ray is simply taking over Death Row Records, which I suppose means…
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I Used to Reject Therapy. Now I Embrace It WholeheartedlyÂ
My relationship with therapy is, to say the least, old and complicated. When I was a young child, my public-school teachers sent me to therapy. According to my mama, I was acting like a âdamn foolâ and they thought I was adversely impacted by my parentsâ divorce. I donât remember much about it except the…
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The Unbearable Blackness of Being
Shortly after I entered the world via Detroitâs now-shuttered Grace Hospital one summer day in 1981, I set upon what was an unmistakably black-ass upbringing in one of Americaâs chocolatiest cities. That which we refer to as âblack people shitâ as an adult was simply childhood by default: a quarter for a baggie of assorted…
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The 10 Best Hip-Hop Tracks of 2018
Just about every hip-hop critic and cognoscenti has had the same response about the amount of new music released in 2018: Too damn much. As the genre continues its dominance on streaming services, it seems like artists are in overdrive to capitalize on the moment. If youâve been a rap fan at any point between…
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We Need a New Category for Todayâs Rap Music Because This Shit Ainât Hip-Hop
Eleven years ago this month, I made the decision to get my first tattoo below my elbowâa piece covering my entire forearm that could never be hidden without clothing. I wanted the tattoo to be meaningful, so it only made sense to dedicate it to one of my favorite things ever: hip-hop. The piece is…
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The Wire, the Best Show in History, Ended 10 Years Ago and Changed TV Forever
HBOâs The Wire signed off a decade ago this coming March. Eclipsed in popularity by mainstream shows Sex and the City and The Sopranos on the same network, the Baltimore-set crime drama never received any major television awards, and the showrunners struggled at times to actually complete its five seasons. (Note: if you havenât yet…
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Mudbound and Other Films That Get Black Folks Pissed Off at White People
Over the holiday break, I finally got around to watching Netflixâs Mudbound, last yearâs period drama by director Dee Rees (who also wrote and directed 2011âs magnificent Pariah). The film was adapted from the 2008 Hillary Jordan novel about two familiesâone black and one whiteâattempting to stay afloat by sharecropping the same patch of hard…
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The Otis Effect: 7 Things That Were Never the Same After the Star LeftÂ
When Joe Budden didnât report for his duties as co-host of Complexâs Everyday Struggle webcast this week, folks assumed that he was fulfilling his paternal duties, since he had a son with fellow Love & Hip Hop alum Cyn Santana this past weekend. It turns out, however, that Budden has left the show for good…
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All of Kanye Westâs GOOD Fridays Tracks, Ranked
Seven years ago this month, we were all giddy with the hype and secrecy behind Kanye Westâs upcoming fifth studio album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Many consider that album to be Kanyeâs magnum opus (not me ⊠that honor belongs to Graduation) and the last vestige of the âOld Kanyeâ before he completely succumbed…
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Tame Impalaâs Currents Is the Soundtrack to My Post-Divorce Life
This week at VSB, weâre running a series called Albums That Changed My Life in which different writers let you in on the music that helped shape and mold them into the people they are now. Today we hear from Dustin Seibert as he tells us how Tame Impala helped him move on from a…
