Welcome! This is an unapologetic, agenda-free zone. Just commentaries on current events that’ll move you to think, laugh, rage, and even cry.
Jay-Z channels but does not ape Kanye I’ve been pooh-poohing The Grammys for years. To attest, I need only share the titles of three previous commentaries: “The Grammys? A Friggin’s Snoozefest” on February 9, 2015 “The Grammys Fading into Irrelevance. Even Drake Says So” on February 11, 2019 “The Grammys: Not only Irrelevant but Rigged!” on January… Read more.
Producers hyped Sunday’s telecast of the Grammys as a smorgasbord of music performances. What they presented smacked of a hip-hop binge. Even the few pop artists who performed featured rappers as condiments – like ketchup on hotdog. Granted, according to a Nielsen report on January 3, last year saw hip-hop finally surpass rock and roll… Read more.
On Saturday’s inaugural edition of The Van Jones Show, Jay-Z took issue with Trump taking credit for lowering black unemployment. Specifically, Jones asked if it’s okay for Trump to diss blacks as long as he “put[s] money in our pockets.” Truth be told, Jay-Z gave a rambling answer – filled with rich-man platitudes about money… Read more.
When Beyoncé performed in North Carolina last year, I argued that it was tantamount to endorsing that state’s anti-LGBT law. Further that, in doing so, she was being every bit as mercenary as entertainers who performed in South Africa during the Apartheid regime. More to the point, though, here is what I wrote about her… Read more.
In the mid-1980s, Miles Davis, U2, and Run-D.M.C. headlined a long list of entertainers who boycotted South Africa. They did so because they knew performing there would be tantamount to endorsing the Apartheid government’s discrimination against blacks. Bear that in mind as you read the rest of this commentary. Laws in North Carolina and Mississippi… Read more.
I don’t care too much for his acting (as seen on NCIS: Los Angeles), but LL Cool J is so good hosting the Grammys that he’s fast becoming as identified with this awards show as Ellen DeGeneres is becoming with the Oscars. Tonight was his third-consecutive gig (for The 56th Grammy Awards), and he did… Read more.
Hell, given their cozy relationship with President Obama, it would not surprise me to learn that he personally sanctioned their visit as goodwill ambassadors pursuant to the ‘people-to-people’ program he initiated to promote greater cultural exchange between Americans and Cubans. (“Beyoncé and Jay-Z Representing Pop and Hip Hop in Cuba,” The iPINIONS Journal, April 8,… Read more.
Beyoncé and Jay-Z incited a lot of outrage for visiting Cuba last week. They reportedly went to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, which they did by touring historical landmarks and spreading the goodwill of American Pop and Hip-Hop music. But, given the way Republican congressmen beholden to Miami Cubans are reacting, you’d think Bey and… Read more.
There’s nothing more venal about the cult of celebrity that now defines Western culture than the way celebrities conspire with tabloids to pimp out pictures of their new-born babies. And there’s nothing redeeming in celebrities declaring that the money will go to charity; because that invariably means less than 10 percent of the millions they… Read more.
A quick browse of my commentaries on previous MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) will attest to the fact that my review of this annual show is invariably as informed (and I hope as entertaining) as that of any music industry critic. But watching Kanye and Jay Z perform at this year’s show, I could not… Read more.
