As you may have heard, Rick Ross came out with the controversial line from his latest song, “U.O.E.N.O.” : “Put molly all in her champagne, she ain’t even know it / I took her home and I enjoyed that, she ain’t even know it.” A few days later, he addressed the lyrics with an “apology” […]
Read More Black Girls/Black Women Are From the Future: Something Men Like Rick Ross Need to KnowAs Ebony celebrated Katherine Dunham, Nick Cave was featuring dozens of Alvin Ailey dancers wearing 30 colorful horse “soundsuits” in his public performance piece at Grand Central station, HEARD•NY. Presented by Creative Time and MTA Arts, the 30 minute performances included a grazing pastoral music and dance sequence followed by a rhythmic choreographed dance, “crossings” […]
Read More Modern Griots Reviews: Nick Cave’s Magical Horses in Heard.NYWhen some think of the song “Lady Marmalade,” one of their first thoughts is that it is a song about a New Orleans prostitute. On the surface it may be, but the song is much more nuanced and has deeper meaning beyond that. Listening to the song, I realized how ambiguous it is. First, the […]
Read More Black Girls/Black Women Are From the Future: Thoughts on LaBelle and “Lady Marmalade”Misha B– “Here’s To Everything (Ooh La La)” Wangechi Mutu + Santigold – “The End of Eating Everything” Preview (Interview here) co-released by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and MOCAtv on YouTube. The 8-minute video (co-released by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University and MOCAtv on YouTube) stars Santigold as […]
Read More Otherworldly Videos: Misha B/Mutu & Santigold/JawwaadLast weekend, I attended the Africa Now! concert at The Apollo, which featured performances from FreshlyGround, Lokua Kanza, Nneka and Blitz the Ambassador. While all the performances were great (FreshlyGround’s silly, energetic dancing, Lokua Kanza tender singing and Nneka’s fierce honesty), the standout performance of the night was Blitz the Ambassador’s with his simulation of […]
Read More Modern Griots Spotlight: Nino“Drifting on a memory/Don”t give a care whoever sees me” is how Arin Maya and The Imagination begin Her Imaginings and that is how the album sounds — like a soulful drifting on a jagged, dislocating yet transformative electronic sonic journey. For example, the space traveling track “Get Outta Here,” Arin Maya sings in a […]
Read More Modern Griots Review: Arin Maya and The ImaginationAs I get older, one way that gauge how old I am is boy bands/boy groups. At 22, I am that crux where I am old enough to be over them and still young enough to swoon over them without that much shame. I still remember singing along to B2K and B5, and that was […]
Read More Behind the Mask: Mindless BehaviorJoey Bada$$ – Unorthodox RebelMatic – Survival Gathering These two songs and videos are sadly relevant for today. This is dedicated to Kimani Gray, Trayvon Martin, Hadiya Pendleton, and the countless other young people who are victims to violence everyday.
Read More Otherworldly Videos: America, the Ugly*Tonight illustrator and animator Tim Fielder will be sharing his work Matty’s Rocket— an episodic-animated series & web comic. The event will have guest appearances and readings from writers Liza Jessie Peterson and Melanie Maria Goodreaux. They will read Afrofuturistic pieces aloud while Fielder will illustrate their work on the spot! *Accra Dot Alt will […]
Read More Moving on the Wires: Tim Fielder, Oya: Rise of the Orisha, Live Unchained…
Sherese Francis 