Author and Finance Professor at Syracuse University
10:43 AM on 06/28/2010
OPINION - Through the years, the BET Awards have become a staple of unhealthy and counter-productive broken black family fun...
by Dr. Boyce Watkins
I never bought into the hype that Rick Ross was a fraud. Everyone seemed to feel that because he was found to have been a corrections officer in a previous life, that he somehow violated the oath which says that rappers have to be criminals in order to sell records. I don't know how true or false the rumors happen to be, but the fact is that I never cared.
However, when I found out that there is reason to believe that the rapper Rick Ross took his name from the notorious drug dealer "Freeway" Ricky Ross, I thought to myself, "This is just stupid. Why can't the brother just be himself?"
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, AOL Black Voices
I took a poll of some of my industry homies last week to get a sense of how"Thank Me Later," the debut album for Drake, was going to sell. It turns out that out of those bold enough to make a prediction, my friends Michael Bivins (formerly of Belle, Biv, Devoe and New Edition) and Vigalantee (a rapper in Kansas City, MO), were closest. Vigalantee predicted 450,000 units and Mike Biv predicted 400,000. No matter how you slice it, Drake is now officially the shizzle.
It's not as if anyone is surprised by Drake's stellar debut. He and the rest of the Young Money clique did an outstanding job creating buzz for the album and Drake proved that even in the age of massive Internet pirating, he can still make his money.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, AOL Black Voices
The rapper Fat Joe was detained by police Sunday night after he and his entourage were accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Madison, Wisconsin. According to TMZ, the woman is 33-years old and claims the assault occurred in a Cadillac Limousine after a concert at the Orpheum Theater.
Fat Joe (a.k.a.Joseph Antonio Cartagena) and his entourage were held for questioning, but he was released and not arrested. The details of the case are still being sorted out in the investigation. Relative to most artists, Fat Joe doesn't get into very much trouble. The 39-year old married father of two has not, to my knowledge been accused of any sexual assault, so I'd be surprised if he waited this long to get started. He has been arrested in some of the typical rapper non-sense in the past: In 1998, he and the deceased rapper Big Pun were arrested for assaulting a man with a baseball bat and stealing his gold chain. I'm not even going to try to explain that one.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University
I met spoken-word hip hop artist Shanelle Walker when I went to give a speech atKentucky State University. Shanelle sent me a video of a rhyme she recited in honor of President Barack Obama. I was instantly floored by the performance, since I found her to be an incredibly powerful artist.
But Shanelle's performance led me to consider broader concerns, such as why there are so few women in the hip-hop industry. I remain confused that women are not given a chance to shine in a field dominated by men. While hip-hop has historically been the channel designed to give a voice to urban America, women have been effectively left out. While I've certainly spoken my piece on how hip hop needs to change, here are some reasons I believe women are missing:
1) The hypermasculinity of hip-hop: By becoming so masculine and sexualized, the music doesn't give women opportunities that don't involve a G-string. I look forward to the day when the culture is not driven by who gets shot the most and who does the best job of proving that he's a goon. That might actually lead to better music, since right now, many hip-hop artists come off like World Wrestling Entertainment characters. It's O.K. for an artist to also be a human-being.
by Dr Boyce Watkins
Some of us turned our heads to the side when it was reported that the rapper and businessman Diddy gave his son Justin a $360,000 Maybach automobile for his 16th birthday. People asked me what I thought about this, since I've written a great deal on how to teach your kids about money, and I used a three letter acronym: TAH - "Tacky As Hayell."
I respect Diddy and I apologize for having to lean in on him for this one, but as S Tia Brown and I discuss in our latest episode of Financial Lovemaking, you can find ways to show your children love without spoiling them for the rest of the world. By giving his son such an extraordinary gift at such an early age, Diddy may have minimized his son's ability to conceptualize the value of working hard for his success or empathizing with those who are less fortunate. In other words, receiving such overdoses of dopamine at the age of 16 is a sure-fire recipe for depression later in life.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, AOL Black Voices
Many of you may already know about the "interesting" comments made by the rapperSlim Thug, and his frustration about the lack of loyalty among black women. His comments were met with resistance by myself and Dr. Marc Lamont Hill from Columbia University, who gave him the stable advice to keep his mouth shut. I say that "Slim Thugga" needs to be quiet, not because he's wrong, but because this is a battle he can't win and still sell records. Getting every black woman in America to hate you is simply not good for business. Even Talib Kweli, a fellow hip hop artist, had something to say about Slim Thug's remarks.
On his twitter page, Slim Thug went out of his way to try to protect his image in the face of all the backlash:
AOL Black Voices
NFL star Reggie Wayne is finding out the hard way that giving your credit card number out to anyone may not be such a good idea. Wayne, who is married, is suing his ummm, girlfriend Natasha McKenzie. In the affidavit, Wayne is alleging that McKenzie did it big on Wayne's credit card without asking his permission.
As the story goes, McKenzie, who is 26 years old, just needed Wayne's credit card for a "few little things," like paying her cell phone bill and buying a plane ticket. She was allegedly going to buy the ticket to come and visit Wayne to spend "quality time" with him. To Reggie's surprise, Natasha and her friends "got a little jiggy" with the credit card and charged up $95,000 worth of "necessities." Actually, there were 333 necessities on her list, which is the number of charges she allegedly made to the account.
Reggie originally took the charges to police in April. He has had the uncomfortable challenge of keeping this information from his wife. McKenzie claims that Wayne knew about the charges all along, and that she is only being scapegoated because either his wife found out about her or he has moved on to another mistress. Either way, this entire situation is a little bit strange. Wayne is not the only athlete to be taken for big money as the result of an affair. Tiger Woods allegedly paid millions to keep some of his mistresses quiet.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University
I am not quite sure what to make of the ruffled YouTube video that is now scouring the web out of Paterson, New Jersey. In the video, the woman filming, who mentions that her mother works in the sheriff's office, is taping a New Jersey police officer holding a black man to the ground. The man clearly has his hands behind his back and appears to be restrained.
As the woman videos the incident from a distance, the officer inexplicably grabs the man, turns him around and puts pepper spray into his eyes. He appears to do it twice.
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Rapper Nicki Minaj Gets Sued Over Payments on a Lamborghini
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The rapper Nicki Minaj was sued this week over a pink Lamborghini that she rented for one of her videos. The company, Hollywood Exotic Car Rental, sued her for $12,000, alleging that the car was damaged and that the rental fee was not paid.
The car had been rented for $1,750 a day to shoot her "Massive Attack" music video, directed by Hype Williams.
The suit against Nicki Minaj was filed in LA Superior Court. The company alleges that the car was driven "off road" and that the damage amounted to $11,589.41. They also argue that Minaj didn't pay the three day rental fee on the car, which totaled $5,250.
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by Dr. Boyce Watkins
It appears that the singer Brian McKnight is now a not-so-proud father. Well, the child isn't exactly a baby either. According to TMZ, the child is a 14-year old that Brian hasn't exactly claimed to be his own. Well, whether McKnight chooses to address the child as his own or not, a Florida judge has ruled that Brian must now take financial responsibility for the child. The amount owed? $341,640, which comes out to just over $2,000 per month for every month since the child was born.
The mother of the child, Miriam Lee, took Brian McKnight to court to establish paternity last year. Why she waited so long to do so is not clear. From this point on, the singer is responsible for making child support payments in the amount of $11,388 per month. The ruling was a default judgment, since McKnight was not in court and didn't respond to the woman's claim of paternity.
Slim Thug and his comments about black women continue to get the artist into trouble. Is he going to lose big money because of this?
The age of the Hoochie Mama is over
by Dr. Boyce Watkins | TheLoop21 in Culture & Society
It's time for hip hop, and its audience, to grow up.
Photo Credit: Getty Image AP John Shearer, Getty Images
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Source: BV Black Spin
Shannon Price, the ex-wife of Gary Coleman, is certainly keeping herself busy these days, trying desperately to muscle in on Coleman's estate. Price, who was recently embroiled in everything from orchestrating death shots of Coleman to sell to ... Read More
10:10 AMJun 11
Source: BV Newswire
Yesterday, Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and activist Angelique Kidjo performed hr rendition of the 1970 Curtis Mayfield classic 'Move On Up' at the kick-off celebration for the 2010 FIFA World Cup at Orlando Stadium in Soweto/Johannesburg, ... Read More
9:45 AMJun 11
Source: BV Black Spin
For the first time in United States history, Mississippian Curtis Flowers is being tried for a sixth time for the same murders. Flowers faced a jury of eleven whites and one black yesterday as opening statements were presented. The trial got underway ... Read More
9:23 AMJun 11
Source: BV on Sports
BOSTON -- The Boston Celtics put the NBA Finals back on serve with a 96-89 victory over the Lakers last night, evening the best-of-seven series at 2-2. It now makes the Finals a best-of-three series with two of those games in Los Angeles. Game 5 is ... Read More
1:25 AMJun 11
Source: BV Black Spin
Indianapolis Police Chief Paul Ciesielski called for the firing of a white officer who's been charged with repeatedly striking a 15-year-old biracial boy in the face during an arrest. The attacks allegedly occurred after the boy had been subdued by ... Read More
12:12 AMJun 11
Source: BV Newswire
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11:58 PMJun 10
Source: BV Black Spin
O.J. Simpson's attorneys are planning to try to convince a group of Nevada judges to overturn his 2007 conviction of a hotel room robbery this week. They worry about time, since they are only going to have a few minutes to make their case. "We only ... Read More
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Source: BV Black Spin
On New Year's Day of 2009, Oscar Grant was shot in Oakland, Calif. The shooter was a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer by the name of Johannes Mehserle. Grant was 22-years-old at the time of his death, and the shooting was captured by cell phone ... Read More
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