Kim Porter’s Best friend Speaks On Al B. Sure!’s Theories On Kim’s Death, Diddy
Tramell Tillman Talks Sparring with Tom Cruise and Bringing That Severance Heat to Mission: Impossible
Books By Black Authors We Can’t Wait to Read in Summer 2025
Kid Cudi Just Spilled the Tea About His Relationship With Cassie, And It’s Not What You Think
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30 Days of Iconic Music Video Blackness With VSB, Day 7: TLC, 'Waterfalls'
To call TLC’s “Waterfall” video iconic is almost underselling it. This award-winning video owned MTV back when that was a thing worthy of note and did it while addressing social issues like violence and HIV-awareness. The video stayed true to concept, used some CGI and showed our favorite girl group of the time in amazing…
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30 Days of Iconic Music Video Blackness With VSB, Day 6: Rick James & Smokey Robinson 'Ebony Eyes'
Have you ever watched something so ridiculous that it becomes both perfect and almost life-changing? That for me is the video for Rick James single featuring Smokey Robinson off of his 1983 album, Cold Blooded. Rick James featuring Smokey Robinson “Ebony Eyes” (1984) I don’t know why God made me the way he did, but…
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30 Days of Iconic Music Video Blackness With VSB, Day 5: Missy Elliott 'The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)'
Let’s go ahead and get a few facts out of the way about Missy Elliot’s song “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).” For one, the song is timeless—I believe if this song was released today, some 23 years after its original release, it would still be a hit. It’s so different and so unique, so special,…
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The Root Jams Weekly (6/5/2020): 'Say Her Name'
Breonna Taylor would be 27 years old today. Unfortunately, she is now with the ancestors, cut down prematurely by a police system that devalues black bodies. She, along with too many other black women whose lives were cut too short often go under-acknowledged. This playlist honors them. “Say Her Name” (6/5/2020) J’Na Jefferson Janelle Monae…
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Viral Sensations Young T & Bugsey Don't Plan on Rushing Their Journey to the Top
If you’re a fan of trying to keep up with what’s hot on social media right now, odds are you know about TikTok. The video-creation app has been all the rage for the past few months, and during quarantine, dance and comedy videos have been keeping many people busy and entertained. One of the most…
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Where'd All These Woke White People Come From?
My grandmother had a “pork pan.” In 1954, my grandfather built the house I lived in for most of my life. And for all of my life, there was a single cast iron skillet that was dedicated to frying bacon, bologna with the red plastic ring, or any part of a pig. Everyone in my…
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The Hollywood Black Squares: A Reckoning on Whether Solidarity With Black Lives Matter Is Fact or Fiction
In the ongoing fight for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, black boxes and squares are Hollywood’s deus ex machina. From Studio Binder: Deus ex Machina is when a hopeless situation is suddenly solved by an unexpected occurrence. It is a contrived plot device often used in film or novels. It is an easy way…
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30 Days of Iconic Music Video Blackness With VSB, Day 4: Jade, 'Don't Walk Away'
Jade’s video for “Don’t Walk Away” is one of those joints that you could toss into a 90s time capsule, open it 50 years from now and have a very clear, if not confused, understanding of what the early 90s in young black America looked like. Everything about this video is awesome and remarkably of…
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Fed Up but Hopeful: Streams of Childish Gambino's 'This Is America' and Kendrick Lamar's 'Alright' Skyrocket Amid Protests
It appears the people of the United States have chosen Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” and Kendrick Lamar’s “Alright” as their protest songs of choice. According to Forbes, Gambino’s song, which debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 in May 2018, jumped from No. 97 to No. 2 on the U.S. Spotify chart this week, amassing…
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Don't Think Voting Is Important? Rihanna Will Correct You on That
Outside of the social media initiative Blackout Tuesday, which encouraged internet folks to post a black square to show their solidarity with the black community and then continue to work to end racial injustice, June 2 was an election day in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Indiana, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico, and the District…