Featured Videos

MOVIE REVIEW: Good Hair

  Rating: Near Classic   It’s why black women sit under those big, hot machines for hours and why black girls sometimes sit by the bedside worshipping white Barbie dolls: good hair. Chris Rock channels his inner Ken Burns, giving celebrities, hair stylists and clients, and public figures the third degree about their hair practices, […]

GAME REVIEW: Beaterator

  Developer/Publisher: Rockstar GamesPlatform: SONY PSP Players: 1Release Date: 9/29/09 Rating: A-   Have you ever found yourself kicking back to some tunes thinking you could do better? Whether a casual listener or a long time music lover, chances are the thought of producing has come across your mind once or twice. But production equipment […]

Gladys Knight, 9th Wonder, and the Politics of Criticism

“I spit the truth in lethal/ … It’s not the mic; it’s the mind I speak through/” — KRS-One & Buckshot, “Connection,” Survival Skills, 2009. Hip-Hop as a whole, as a cultural community, has always had a problem accepting criticism—whether constructive or conjured, exact or exaggerated. It’s in our bloodline. We suffer no critics, antagonists, or […]

9th Wonder Responds To Gladys Knight’s Comments About Hip-Hop

Last week soul and R&B legend Gladys Knight publicly criticized rap music, addressing the genre with a rather broad stroke. Professor Patrick Douthit, aka 9th Wonder, who has made music with Jay-Z, Beyonce, Jean Grae, Torae and other, has responded in this editorial that originally appeared on newsblaze.com.  Click here to read Knight’s original comments. […]