(ThyBlackMan.com) Few artists in modern R&B pose the moral puzzle as sharply as Chris Brown. The talent is immense, the history of harm is documented and long, and the culture has spent years dodging the plain question of how those two truths are meant to share the same room. I ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) There are records made for the party and others made for the hours after, once the house has emptied and there is no longer any reason to perform. Michael Jackson built his legend on the first kind. The moonwalk, the glove, the stadiums that shook on cue. Yet the ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) I’ll say the quiet part first. Tyler Perry drives me crazy. He also amazes me. And I gave up a while ago trying to pick one, because watching his stuff feels like arguing with a cousin you love who keeps making the same mistake at every cookout. My auntie ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) When I think about what these two have done, I don’t start with the songs. That feels strange coming from somebody who has loved this music his whole life, but stay with me a second. Music was only ever the front door. What Beyoncé and Jay-Z actually constructed is ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) Closing out this month of celebrating Black Music, I would like to do some sankofa sharing of some essential sensitivities and thoughts about the meaning and magic of Black music. Although we celebrate June as Black Music Month, every day and hour is an open space for making and ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) June is almost gone. Black Music Month goes out the door with it, and honestly there’s no better company to see it off than these two. People love to stand them back to back and make it a fight. Always have. It sells, I guess. Gives a morning show ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) Every few years the culture circles back to the same question, and the name sitting in the middle of it never changes. Is Drake real hip hop? Brothers argue it in barbershops, in group chats, in comment sections that turn into warzones by noon. That question refuses to die ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) With the passing of Clive Davis at 94, respect has to come first. Before we talk about records sold, artists signed, labels built, or how many voices became household names under his watch, prayers and condolences go out to his family, loved ones, friends, and all who knew him ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) Aretha Franklin did not simply sing soul music. She carried it like a woman walking into church with a Bible in one hand and somebody’s broken heart in the other. Her voice had thunder in it, but also kitchen table truth, front porch memory, mother wit, and that deep ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) June is Black Music Month, and for anybody who loves R&B the old way, that means more than playlists and quick social media posts. It means remembering where the sound came from, who carried it, and why certain records still feel alive after the needle leaves the vinyl. Earth, ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) Online gaming is a vast global industry, and Canada has a small but significant stake in it, with millions of residents regularly participating in interactive entertainment during their free time. While the Canadian iGaming market might be growing year on year, there’s one very obvious hurdle to its long-term ...
(ThyBlackMan.com) Jay Z is one of those artists you cannot discuss in a small way. Not if you really understand hip hop. His name brings up albums, arguments, business, Brooklyn pride, grown man ambition, public mistakes, private discipline, and a catalog that still makes people stop mid conversation when the ...