entertainment Category Archives
Pandora’s Box Office: Race And Revolution In The Biggest Movie Of All Time.
Published on 27 Jan 2010 at 6:48 pm.
6 Comments.
Filed under entertainment, film, war, popular culture.
It wasn’t until several weeks after Avatar’s release that my wife and I managed to squeeze into Raleigh’s iMax theater (mid-afternoon in the middle of the business week and it was packed) to experience the phenomenon. To keep it completely one hundred… despite some slight reservations I thought it was freak’n awesome! It was astounding […]
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Old Ideologies Die Hard: The Persistence of “The Talented Tenth”
Published on 15 Nov 2009 at 4:27 pm.
12 Comments.
Filed under news/politics, black culture, entertainment, poverty, black image, radical politics, history, racial rhetoric, President Obama.
Historicizing “heroes” has proven to be a tricky business for black folk in America, that is, when we choose to undertake the endeavor at all. Oftentimes, our proclivity to re-imagine our icons is nothing more than a static idolatry that fails to account for the full complexity of the individuals we claim to acknowledge. We […]
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Coming of Age With Hip Hop (Part 4.2)
Published on 19 Jul 2009 at 2:08 pm.
21 Comments.
Filed under black culture, mainstream culture, entertainment, music, black image, art, popular culture, Hip-Hip.
Welcome back for the second segment of 1996 as we focus on two titans, Jay-Z and Nas, and their landmark albums, Reasonable Doubt and It Was Written. These two classics were released within one week of each other, instantly causing the summer of 1996 to become “history in the making.” In an era where most […]
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Coming of Age With Hip Hop (part 4.1)
Published on 1 Jul 2009 at 8:05 am.
14 Comments.
Filed under black culture, entertainment, music, art, popular culture, Hip-Hip.
Welcome back for the fourth installment of Coming of Age with Hip Hop. This week, I have the pleasure of tackling one of the biggest years in Hip Hop: 1996. Due to the six heavyweight releases that I have selected as the premier albums of 1996, I will break this installment up into three segments. […]
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Coming of Age With Hip Hop (part 3)
Published on 20 Jun 2009 at 6:11 am.
21 Comments.
Filed under Uncategorized, black culture, entertainment, music, art, popular culture, Hip-Hip.
1995
Who remembers the rawness of 1995? This year was dedicated to the grime and dirt of the B side as rappers moved impervious to mainstream tastes. During this year, it was almost a guarantee that you wouldn’t hear “your shit” on the radio unless you were prepared to stay up all night on weekends to […]
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Coming of Age With Hip Hop (part 2)
Published on 11 Jun 2009 at 3:44 pm.
17 Comments.
Filed under entertainment, music, art, popular culture, Hip-Hip.
Welcome back for the second installment of “Coming of Age with Hip Hop.” As promised from last week, we will be critically reviewing Hip Hop circa 1994. However, before I begin, allow me to recap the best albums and honorable mentions from 1993. You all will see an extra album placed in 1993’s Honorable Mention […]
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Charge it to the Game: Plantation Culture and White Privilege Converge in the NBA to Thwart Black Self-Determination
Published on 15 May 2009 at 9:52 am.
14 Comments.
Filed under men's issues, entertainment, sports, black image.
Neo-plantation sensibilities grounded in the reactionary notions and functions of white supremacy have been on full display this past week in the NBA playoffs. Whether guised as an arrogant sports fan or a franchise team owner that will disparage a black mother, the pervasive agenda of white privilege packaged in the unassuming builds of white men has dwarfed the gigantic black bodies that they have bought and paid for. Respectively, both Kenyon Martin and Glen “Big Baby” Davis, proved their inability to assert their manhood when affronted by white machismo steeped in 5 centuries of imperialist terror perpetuated on the minds and bodies of black folk. While Martin and Davis are listed (translated: paid) as power forwards, their ineptitude at advancing an agency of self-determination proves them to be the tragic antithesis: weak and backwards. Unfortunately, this prescribed condition of dependence and cowardice for black men will persist as long as the sports-industrial complex is rooted in plantation and slave culture.
No Niggas Allowed in Next Day Mail.
Published on 11 May 2009 at 4:53 pm.
4 Comments.
Filed under black culture, entertainment, film.
These days Hollywood Black comedies fall into two categories with very few exceptions. The first, I like to call the Soul Plane category - which is basically a 21st Century minstrel show laden with the tragic identities, exaggerated personalities and stereotypes. In these films one can expect to see plenty of weed-smoking, booty smacking, gratuitous […]
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Can Capcom Make A Video Game Where A White Dude Murders A Bunch Of Black People And Get Away With It?
Published on 11 Mar 2009 at 2:39 am.
14 Comments.
Filed under entertainment, violence, enslavement.
Take a look at this brother… with his budging eyes and twisted mouth, he is the very personification of Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit. He is the new villain in Resident Evil 5 - the 7th installment of Capcom’s wildly successful zombie franchise. The game drops in stores nationally this Friday. For those of you who […]
Lil Wayne Leads All Artists of Any Category in Grammy Nominations
Published on 8 Dec 2008 at 4:48 pm.
7 Comments.
Filed under black culture, entertainment, music.
“Welcome back Hip-Hop, I saved your life,” Wayne triumphantly announced at the end of his song “Dr. Carter” from his multi-platinum album Tha Carter III. The self-proclaimed “best rapper alive” garnered 8 Grammy nominations this year, including Best Rap Song for “Lollipop,” Best Rap Solo Performance for “A Milli,” Best Rap Performance by Duo for […]
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