This was the year the Oscars actually got it right, as far as wins go. I guess the Academy can retire that “Oscars So White” title for now. Black films and people are STILL making history. Just in case you missed it:
Regina King won for Best supporting actress for “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Ruth Carter won for Best Costume Design for “Black Panther”
Hannah Beachler won for Best Production Design for “Black Panther”
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Spike Lee Best won for Adapted Screen Play for “BlackKlansman”
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Mahershala Ali won for Best Supporting Actor in “Green Book”
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I feel that every movie that the above movies nominated, that won, were well-deserved. Spike Lee has been making movies for 30 years and he FINALLY got a Oscar. Regina King started off in movies like “Friday” and “Boyz N Tha Hood” and look where she is now. Mahershala Ali has been on FIRE 🔥 the past couple years from “Moonlight” to “Green Book.”
“Black Panther” alone has gotten Grammy nominations for its album to Golden Globe nominations to SAG award wins to now Oscar wins. Ryan Coogler, ALL the actors, everyone behind the scenes like Ruth Carter and Hannah Beachler made that the film what it was and it shows!
I’m glad the Oscars got it right year, especially coming from having all their nominees being white (#OscarsSoWhite) to having black nominees in ALMOST every category. What are your thoughts on the award show?
Lydia Caesar, who goes by the name Miss Caesar, is a talented singer from New York but she’s pursing her career in St. Louis with her husband Wayne, owner of Sauce Records Global.
She has such a beautiful unique voice that reminds you of that 1990’s era, when every voice was strong and soulful. I had the opportunity to interview her and ask her about her upbringing, her music and plenty more. Check out the interview below.
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St. Louis is full of local artist but not all of them get enough recognition. HOT 365 Radio is the station that builds the bridge for local artists to get the exposure they need. Check out my interview I did with DELUX on HOT 365 station
The crew of Hot 365 Radio. Red Hat at the top left is Dj 7Duece, below him is Monae Michelle (cohost in the lady Kave for New Heat Show), to the right in pink hoodie is Malorie Stewart (Artist manager and cohost in the lady Kave for New Heat Show), top tight is DJ Speed (cohost of New Heat Show), to his right is DJ sheBEATZ in White top (cohost in the lady Kave for New Heat Show), bottom in black and red plaid shirt is Dj Durrty Burrd (cohost of New Heat Show)
Hot365 Radio is the new way for local St. Louis artists to showcase their talent. With music being an everlasting craft, there needs to be platforms for the artists to showcase their music and Hot 365 is one of those platforms. The creator of the station DJ 7Duece believes that “If I can provide an avenue to help somebody, so be it.”
With Hot365 being a station that you can access through an app and online, they provide different shows throughout the week; one of them being New Heat. I had the opportunity to sit in on that Monday night show which is hosted by DJ CU. During his show, he talks about the trending topics that have been going on in the past few days and asks his co-host DJ Speed, DJ Durtty, and the Lady Kave DJ sheBEATZ, artist manager Malorie Stewart, Motivational Speaker/Blogger Mona Michele their opinion on the topics. They have a segment where they play a song from an upcoming artist for their listeners to listen to which also gives artists more exposure because Hot365 has a big following of 200,000 plus listeners, including overseas due to DJ 7Duece being a Navy Veteran and having military discounts, says DJ CU.
The crew of Hot 365 Radio. Red Hat at the top left is Dj 7Duece, below him is Monae Michelle (co-host in the lady Kave for New Heat Show), to the right in pink hoodie is Malorie Stewart (Artist manager and co-host in the lady Kave for New Heat Show), top tight is DJ Speed (co-host of New Heat Show), to his right is DJ sheBEATZ in White top (co-host in the lady Kave for New Heat Show), bottom in black and red plaid shirt is Dj Durrty Burrd (cohost of New Heat Show)
DELUX had the chance to sit down with both the creator of the station DJ 7Duece and the creator of show Heat 365 to see what inspired the idea and to get a feel for what more should we expect in the future.
Dj 7Duece
DELUX: What made you want to come up with the idea of HOT365?
DJ 7DEUCE: It was actually a spinoff of a company of a DJ Coalition called Unified Sound DJ with me and another DJ. Me and him built that up but eventually me and the DJ had a disagreement and I left Unified Sound DJs but I had already been paying for the station, so I told them in advance “look I’m about to end this but I’m taking the station with me because I’m the only one paying for it”. I hooked up with DJ and he does Southern Soul. We got this going and then we had the Kave Podcast going and that grew into more ideas and we thought that we could stream the podcast live. Then we thought “what more can we do?” So, we gathered more DJs then we got the Sheryl Underwood radio show, we picked up Murphy Lee and Big Wills Podcast down in Atlanta. So now “the sky is the limit, now what?” With Malorie bringing in the A&R studio, the concept kept growing. Then with DJ CU specializing in the independent artists, it’s more than what I thought it was. [speaking of independent artists] It’s so much money out here for everybody to eat so let them eat. If I can provide an avenue to help somebody, so be it. I tell people when they send me their music, make sure it’s on point because you never know who’s listening.
Within the past year or two BET has been on their shit! They fell off the grid for a while and played the safe route by just playing old reruns of shows but it lost it’s music factor and only had it’s award shows to show for their music. But starting in 2017 is when they got their juice back.
In 2017, “The New Edition” 3-Part mini series aired and I would say that was the start of them getting their groove back. The series got over 28 million views, making it the highest rated biopic.
“The Squad” brought in some views in 2017 but unfortunately the show was cancelled after two seasons.
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In the summer of 2017 Irv Gotti Presents “Tales”, which had the BEST stories that came from Hip Hop songs
Then late summer of last year, BET presented us with “The Bobby Brown Story.”
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Another series they just added is “The Family Business” which features Tami Roman, Darrin Henson, Clifton Powell and many more.
They have more coming including the new series “America Soul”, which is the story behind Soul Train. The series stars stars Sinqua Walls who is playing Don Cornelius; you may know him from “Power”, he played Kanan’s son.
Another new series coming is “Boomerang”, which is based off the movie Eddie Murphy starred in back in 1982. Lena Waithe and Halle Berry are producing it. Insta-Famous star Lala Milan is starring in it, along with “Everybody Hates Chris” star Tequan Richmond.
AND My new favorite, “Raq Rants”, which features TMZ reporter Raquel Harper . She interviews celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, Nick Cannon, and many more.
Now don’t get me wrong, they’ve had original content before such as “106 & Park”, “Rap City”, “College Hill”, and of course “Being Mary Jane” but once MJ stopped airing, the original content slowed but I’m glad to see them back doing they thang!!
Mr. Soulja Boy has been in the media for the past week. He seems to think that he had the biggest comeback of 2018 EVEN THOUGH, he did not release a song that charted. He criticized Tyga because everyone said that he had the biggest comeback with his “Taste” record. Check out the video below at the 5:03 mark:
Tyga posted in Instagram his accomplishments according to Spotify and it showed that he had 884 Million streams, 58 million fans and he reached 65 countries. According to Soulja Boy’s accomplishments, he had 98 Million streams, 16 millions fans and reached 65 countries as well, sooooo numbers don’t lie. It’s clear that TYGA had the biggest comeback BUT according to Google, his net worth is $3 million and Soulja Boy’s is $30 Million. Sooooo Soulja was doing something right in 2018 to secure the bag!
But he also had a few things to say about Drake when his name got brought in The Breakfast Club interview. Soulja said he taught Drake everything that he knows and referenced Drake’s intro to “Miss Me” which was on his first album. The line goes:
Tell meeeee what’s really going on
Drizzy back up in this thang, I’m ready, what’s hannenin’
Soulja Boy came out with the song “What’s Hannenin” back in 2007. “Miss Me” came out in 2010.
Here’s a clip from the interview below:
Yeah….he went there lol BUT DID HE LIE? We all know that big artists have ghost writers write their hits including Drake and the proof is in the pudding. Soulja Boy claims to have paved the way for artists today. He says he was one of the first artist to be on YouTube dancing and doing what influencers are doing now. (he has a point) . He also said he was one of the first artists to have a dance to their song.
He has a point. Besides those “Crank That Batman” “Crank That Yank” songs whom we don’t know the artists to, Soulja Boy WAS one of the firsts to do that of my generation.
Soulja also said that he put Tyga in one of videos earlier in his career. He also said he put Chief Keef on, meaning he co-signed him.
LOOK I’m not saying Soulja Boy had the biggest comeback of 2018 BUT i am saying that he has had an influence on artist such as your Lil Pumps, and Tekashi 69s and of course many more. What I DON’T like is how cocky and arrogant he is when explaining his endeavors. BUT I salute him, he just needs to simmer down and stay off the “lil lean” that he says he partakes in,
The TV show Blackish does not shy away from controversial and trending topics, for example Juneteenth, calling the police on black people, black people not knowing how to swim and recently, on last night’s episode they addressed colorism.
If you haven’t had the chance to watch it, here’s what happened: Diane, played by Marsai Martin, took her class picture and she was poorly lighted in the pictured and it made her look darker skinned.
washingtonpost.com
tvguide.com
Now, for the record, she is the only dark skinned family member in the show. Bow, played by Tracee Ellis Ross, is her mother and light skinned; Dre, played by Anthony Anderson is more caramel skinned and plays her dad; Grandma (Ruby), played by Jenifer Lewis, is caramel skinned; Grandpa (Pops), played by Laurence Fishburne, is caramel skinned; Junior, played by Marcus Scribner, is her older brother and light skinned; Zoey, played by Yara Shahidi, is her older sister and is caramel skinned; and Jack, played by Miles Brown, is her twin brother and is caramel skinned as well.
Bow and Dre made a big deal about it because they felt that Diane was under looked and lighted poorly and they wanted her group school picture retaken. Diana did think it was a big deal but she was really hiding her true feelings. Junior brought up the fact that the light skinned people in the family are treated differently than the light skin people. For instance, he brought up the fact that Dre is always hard on him and he symbolizes his complexion to being soft, like the jokes going around about Drake being emotional and soft because she sings RnB (as well as rap) and because he’s light skin. Junior also brought up the fact that Jack does weird “sensitive” acts but he gets a pass because he’s not light skinned and “that’s just Jack.” Ruby is always clowning on Bow because she’s mixed/light skin and thinks that she can’t raise her kids right, insulting right? Another point that Junior brought up was that light skinned people get joked on more instead of dark skinned people, specifically in their household; he said what if him and Bow started telling dark skinned joke, and Dre’s response was “Don’t you dare.” Which he has a point. If someone was to joke about my skin tone during the time I was struggling with it, I woulda snapped or got really emotional because there has been a standard, in a sense, that light skin is the preferred skin tone and the only beautiful skin. You had your dark skin artists such as Lauryn Hill that was one of the very few people loved no matter the tone of her skin.
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Diane ended up revealing that it actually does bother her that she has to get reminded on the daily of her skin, from band aids being a nude color according to lighter skins and not matching her skin, to trying on lipstick and a BLACK sales assocoiate says that color wouldn’t like good on “our skin tone” and suggests her try on a more toned down color, to a random lady saying she was cute for a “dark skinned girl.” WTF IS UP WITH THAT?
Whether we want to believe it or not, we STILL live in a world that’s full of color stroke people and colorism issues, meaning people past judgment on skin tones. Light skin people are supposedly not as threatening as dark skin people. Light skin men are supposedly softer than dark skin men. Light women are supposedly curve men more and will do you dirty, versus dark skin women are more laid back and outgoing, all SUPPOSEDLY!
One thing I’ve noticed and it’s been spoken about, is that black men love/fantasize about about having a foreign light skinned woman. Public figures have spoken about it saying “i need her to be light skinned, long hair that’s real” etc. What I don’t like is that the media and people in general act like the only kind of beautiful is light skin women, BUT I will say that the media, social and all, has made it their duty to glorify dark skin women such as Lupita Nyong’O, Viola Davis, Danai Gurira, Aja Naomi King, Yvonne Orji, and many more.
I use to deal with skin tone issues when I was younger. The guys I liked in elementary and middle school always liked light skin girls. Then when I got in high school, the guys who did seek interest in me only wanted to talk to me because of my big booty.
The point in all this is: ALL BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL. Yes we hear that a lot but seriously…ALL BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL. Light skin women have been picked on because they are too cute; according to Amber Rose, that happened to her. Dark skin women have been picked on for being to too dark and ugly, as sad as it is. I think we should all learn to stop judging someone by the tone of their skin, EVEN BLACK FOLKS AGAINST BLACK FOLKS. We’ve all been guilty of it, I know I have.
By now everyone has had time to see all 6 part of the R. Kelly Docuseries. I don’t even know where to start. I’ve been trying to figure out what angle I wanted to take on this Surviving R. Kelly. So much content, so much disgust, so much hurt, so much sadness, just so much to take in.
I’ll start here:
From watching part 1 of Surviving R. Kelly, it was expressed that he was molested at from age 7 until 14-15 by a female relative. The sexual abuse also happened to his younger brother. It seems like this sexual abuse was transferred to R. Kelly then he transferred the hurt and abuse to young girls.
Random thought: What if R. Kelly is making these young girls suffer because of what he went through from at a young age by a woman. Just a thought.
Moving along, I really do not want to bring her up but it seems like the first sight of concern of our weirdness should have been with Aaliyah. Yes, it was rumored that he married her when she was only 15 but forwarded the documents saying that she was 18. But during this documentary, R. Kelly’s former assistant Demetrius Smith said he helped forge documents of Aaliyah and R. Kelly’s marriage. Once that news was water under the bridge, it never got brought up again. I feel like Demetrius is just as guilty. Yes he is speaking out now and he admits he was wrong but that doesn’t make it write. If a rapist goes to jail and speaks out in a documentary saying he was sorry and explains why he did it, would you forgive him? FUCK NO!
HisVictims/Survivors
Several of his victims spoke out about how they met him and the abuse they face. The trend was he would meet young girls at the mall or at concerts and woo them over then the manipulation would start. Small things from telling the girlsthat they have to call him daddy to telling them that they have to follow rules. The physically abuse started when the girls “broke a rule,” he would hit them and even starve them.
JerhondaPace
variety.com
This young lady’s case bothered me a little, not only because she was a victim of sexual abuse at a young age but….SHE MET HIM OUTSIDE WHILE SUPPORTING HIM FOR HIS CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CASE, AS HE WAS WALKING INTO COURT. Now, by all mean I AM NOT VICTIM SHAMING AT ALL, but this goes to show that young girls are really naive. The poor girl was only 15 and even though the “relationship” as she calls it, lasted less than a year, she endured manipulation, signing fake documents, being slapped and spat on. Luckily she was able to get out but this case shows that, little girls are easily manipulated and Kelly knows that and he used it to his advantage. Just imagine his train of thought on this girl “oh she’s at my trial for a case that I know I did and she’s still supporting me. I can get one over on her.” He’s a fucking sick clown.
Azriel Clary
oxygen.com
This situation was sad because she could’ve avoided him on a few occasions and SHE STILL IS WITH HIM! A lil synopsis on this girl, she was an aspiring singer and she went to an R. Kelly show with her parents, she was called from the crowd and was able to go backstage to meet him. She sang for him and later on she “auditioned” for him in hotel room without her parents. Once she was there she told her parents and they immediately rushed to the hotel to “rescue” her.But come to find out she was not in danger and she claimed that her parents were messing up this opportunity for her because she wanted to be a singer so bad. Eventually time went on in her and her parents were in contact with R. Kelly to help pursue her career. Things got weird when her older sister decided to go with her to the studio and a situation went down. What’s the girl turned 18 she pretty much was out of sight. The last time her parents seen her was for her high school graduation.
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My concern is: if her parents were getting worried to the point that they didn’t want Azerial alone withR. Kelly, then that means that they have their suspicions about him and they should have told their daughter “fuck him we’ll figure out another way for you to get exposed to the music industry.” No disrespect but her parents should be held accountable for this situation. They took her with them to the R. Kelly concert, let her go backstage, let her continue to do business with him even though they had Erie feelings that he should not have been with her alone regardless of the fact that she was 17. They wanted to make their daughter happy so bad that it literally cost them and now they haven’t seen her in 2 years.
Asante McGee
mercurynews.com
First of all, I’ve seen multiple interviews Of artists saying that they were not date girls who were super fans of their u of artists saying that they were not date girls who were super fans of theirs due to it being weird and the fans could be obsessive; so I’m confused as to why R. Kelly decided to date this woman. Oh yeah because she’s easily to manipulate even though she was actually of age and 35.
Asante and Kelly met in 2014 at a concert and eventually started dating. He told her that he had other girls but she didn’t care of course. They did the long distance relationship thing for a year-ish and when she moved in, that’s when she said he got controlling. He would lock her in room and of course abuse her. Luckily she was able to get out. My concern is: Baby Girl, you were so oblivious to the fact that he “didn’t do anything to those girls” and you still “supported him” but he ended up abusing you, he just didn’t manipulate you as much because you were a child but you were still brainwashed a bit. Again, I’M NOT VICTIM BLAMING, but you can’t put anything past nobody, especially a person who was publicly know for sexually abusing young girls and even went to court for it.
Lisa Van Allen
youtube.com
This young lady met Kelly when she was 17. She was involved with him the same time he was involved with him the same he was involved with the 14 year old girl. She had to participate in a threesome with him and the young girl and the encounter was recorded. Lisa was the one who found the tape with him and the 14 year old, gave it to someone who made copies, then got the tape back. By the time she got the tape back, it was too late, and copies were being handed out throughout the U.S. Eventually the tape got in the hands of the police and that’s when Kelly had to go to trial for multiple counts of child pornography. Kelly plotted to kill Lisa for exposing the tape and honestly if she didn’t then people would be even more in denial about his acts. Unfortunately he was found not guilty of the 14 counts of child pornography. But I commend her for speaking up BUT she is still kind of guilty for thinking that the girl was older but still underage. I commend her but she is still partially guilty.
To the girls who started dealing with R. Kelly because they wanted him to help their career:
WHO DO YALL KNOW THAT R.KELLY HAS HELPED MUSICALLY, besides Aaliyah? (God rest her soul).
To his ex-wife, Andrea Lee:
I’m glad you were able to escape him. My question is, how did you have two other children by him after giving the birth the day he was taken to jail for the child pornography allegations/charges? That would be a turn off for me but I understand you sticking by your man. Also, I commend you for speaking out despite the fact that you have kids with him. Speaking out about your kid’s father says a lot especially with it dealing with it dealing with abuse. I commend you.
To R. Kelly:
You are a sick individual and I hope you get ALLLLLL the bad you deserve. You will reap what you sew You psychotic, mentally unstable peace of shit.
One last thing:
His whole camp should be held accountable for their actions or lack there of. They seen what R. Kelly was doing and clearly didn’t report it. Even if he had connections with the Chicago PD, when they traveled across state lines where it wasn’t legal to have a 17 year old, his people should’ve spoke up.
What are your thoughts on the docuseries? Comment below and let me know!
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Danii Gold 