May 25, 2015

Real Talk

Dear Chris Brown: An Open Letter

chrisbrown

Dear Chris Brown, Mentally Ill Black Women Need Counseling, Not A Good Lay:

When you returned home on Wednesday, May 6th I know you surely had a WTF moment. Discovering that your home was broken into, seeing your cars vandalized and finding a naked woman, whom you didn’t know, in your bed had to be shocking, infuriating and maybe even a little scary. You were violated by a young woman who by all accounts, even Read more...

June 14, 2012

Real Talk

Sex, Lies & Videotape: Erykah Badu & Rihanna

“The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women. It has been made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, the plasticized sensation. For this reason, we have often turned away from the exploration and consideration of the erotic as a source of power and information, confusing it with its opposite, the pornographic. But pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents the suppression of true

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June 7, 2011

Grooves, Videos

Rihanna’s “Man Down”

Reading actress Gabrielle Union’s tweets this morning about her attempt to kill her rapist at the tender age of 19 bought Rihanna’s video for “Man Down” right back to center and in living color for me. Please don’t let the beautiful rural Jamaican backdrop, pulsating beats, or Riri’s rude gyal rumpapapums fool ya, “Man Down” is about rape and more specifically, the very real and possible psychological fallout from such a crime. Rihanna, I feel, Read more...

July 15, 2010

Grooves, Real Talk

Being A Bad Girl: Nicki Minaj (Part1)

NickiMinaj

You know the state of hip hop is really in trouble when a rapper who has yet to drop her own record AND who lip-synchs her live performances wins a BET Award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist. I was out of the country on vacation, but got back just in time to see Chris Brown boo-hoo his way to redemption and see Nicki Minaj proclaim she’s “fighting for women.” Ugh! Fighting? For me? Homegirl flashed Read more...