A Fantastic Voyage…

For the last post of this year, I will like to thank everyone who has joined me on this journey. This year has been great with new opportunities and new people coming into my life (for example, my first published review on Bold As Love), and you all have been wonderful. Let us sail on […]

Alchemy of Ideas

A few days ago, I watched Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child documentary and one of my favorite quotations from Basquiat involved the. rethinking of influence and borrowing from the past, which everyone does. He described it as more of a transformation of ideas, taking old ideas and putting them in a new context. Basquiat said, […]

Modern Griots: Blitz the Ambassador and Terence Nance

The pairing of rapper Blitz the Ambassador and director Terence Nance for the short film for Blitz’s album Native Sun is a coming together of two visionary minds. Ghana-born musician, Blitz the Ambassador, first gained attention with his album, Stereotype, which featured the startling image of a radio man shooting himself in the head on […]

The N-Word…

In light of the recent controversy over the Dutch Magazine, Jackie’s ignorant article on Rihanna, in which she was called “de niggabitch” (reminiscent of the term “negro wench“), I decided to give my two cents on how I feel about the word. When I was younger, I was completely against the use of the word. […]

“He’s Making a List, And Checking It Twice, Gonna Find Out…

… who’s naughty or nice.” Although “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” may seem like an innocent Christmas song, could there have been subtle motives to its creation. Last year, I read Mark Anthony Neal‘s post about the song that I found interesting. Here is a sample of it and you can read the rest […]

Rethinking Black Studies…

Professor of Sociology, African American Studies and Library and Information Science, Abdul Alkalimat, has recorded several lectures about theory in black studies. The five lectures are available at the eblack studies website. In his lectures, Alkalimat discusses ideology, methodology, history, tradition and debate. So far, I have seen only the tradition lecture in which he […]

Thoughts for Food…

I was listening to the podcast Blacking It Up yesterday and documentary filmmaker Byron Hurt was there discussing his new film, Soul Food Junkies. Lolis Eric Elie, who came to my college Baruch in September to discuss the show Treme, is in this film, too. Not only is he a jazz journalist, but he is […]

Modern Griot Spotlight: “Studying for My PhD Mixtape”

Singer and violinist, Marques Toliver has released his new mixtape, “Studying for My PhD,” which is a compilation of 14 tracks commenting on the London riots. Toliver samples a variety of sources including Al Green, Nina Simone, Roberta Flack, Beyonce, Jackson 5, Bobby Womack, Shuggie Otis, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, James Baldwin speeches, and even […]

BABALU!!!!!!

Remember Desi Arnaz’s performance of Babalu on the show I Love Lucy? Well, Afrodiaspores wrote a post about the Afro-cuban origins of the song: “Last night was the vigil, and today the day, celebrated as that of Saint Lazarus, associated among practitioners of the Afro-Cuban tradition Lucumí with the orisha Babalú-Ayé, also called Asojano. He […]

Modern Griots Spotlight: “Soul Krops Presents: The Promised Land”

Rapper Kenny’s Myth released last week his new mixtape, “Soul Krops Presents: The Promised Land.” Sampling several sources, including afrobeat music, the album mixes afrofuturism and holistic spirituality. This is the description of the album: The Promised Land is the overstanding that every man is ONE and thus we are all created perfectly. Standing on […]