Brown Sista

Wow. Another urban magazine is closing it’s door. According to AOL Black Voices, and numerous other sources, Vibe Magazine will officially cease operations at the close of business today. Words has it the magazine is the latest victim of the media recession (King, Blender, HITS, Jane, Arena). As many of you will remember, Vibe’s sister publication, Vibe Vixen, closed it’s doors just over a year ago as well. No official announcement has been made yet, however an assistant to editor in chief, Danyel Smith, did confirm to DailyFinance.com that was publication was indeed closing down today.
Read the rest of this entry »

The 2009 BET Awards aired last night live from The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The event was totally revamped in less than three days after the unexpected passing of singer Michael Jackson. Many of the artists scheduled to perform either totally scrapped their original performance plans or found a way to pay tribute to the singer by either invoking his name during their performance (Maxwell) or dressing like him (Keri Hilson). There were few standout performances in my opinion. However those that do get Kudos include Ne-Yo singing “Lady In My Life”, The tribute to the O’Jays, Ciara singing “Heal The World” and the always fabulous Maxwell.
Read the rest of this entry »

Letoya Luckett just performed her new single “Not Anymore” on BET’s pre-show. As many of you may have heard by now, there were rumors circulating online that Matthew Knowles, father and manager of Beyonce, threatened to pull his daughter from the line-up if Letoya was allowed to take the stage as well. Neither Beyonce nor her father responded to the rumor, but LeToya did in a radio interview a few weeks ago, stating only that she was “disappointed” if the rumor was true. Whatever the case, Toya gave a great performance (which I will upload when it becomes available) and hopefully one day BET will allow the singer to take to the big stage as well.
Read the rest of this entry »

Pop diva Whitney Houston has chosen a name for her new album. According to a release from Arista Records “I Look To You” will be the title of Whitney’s seventh studio album and is still on schedule to be released on September 1st. As previously reported here, Whitney’s first single will be a Diane Warren penned tune called “I Didn’t Know My Own Strength” and will also reunite the singer with Babyface who acted as producer for the track. So what’s next from Whitney? The label says stay tuned for the album cover which will blow the public away.

As many of you know by now, Usher caved in to the pressure of the Black blogsphere and after less than two years of marriage has decided to divorce his wife and mother of his two young children. Since deciding to dump his Black wife, who has often been called ugly by our people, Usher has been seen in the company of what some would consider a more suitable woman- a Latina sista who herself is reportedly still a married woman. As in most cases like this, both parties (Usher & Tameka) have decided to stay quiet. However, their friends are not doing the same. First up to bat is Tameka’s good friend of over twenty years, Nyeisha DeWitt, who spoke exclusively to Essence Magazine about how her friend is handling the situation.
Read the rest of this entry »

According to Interscope Records, Keri Hilson has her first gold single, thanks to a little help from Ne-Yo and Kanye West. The trio came together to collaborate on Keri’s “Knock You Down” track and the union proved to be a very profitable one. KYD has so far sold over 600,000 units, with the ringtone ringing up another 500,000 in sales. The single presently sits at #3 on the Billboard charts, jumping four spots up from last week and overtaking both “Halo” from Beyonce and “Blame It” from Jamie Foxx. Keri needs only take out Pitt Bull (I Know You Want Me) and The Black Eyed Peas (Boom Boom Pow) to achieve her first #1 single- an accomplishment very few singers achieve with their first record.
Read the rest of this entry »

Queen Latifah is covering the latest edition of Essence Magazine. Gracing the July cover and being more candid than she ever has before, the Queen tells the magazine that she was sexually abused as a child and only recently came to grips with the experience. Queen says in the interview, “He violated me. I never told anybody. I just buried it as deeply as I could and kept people at an arms length.” She says it affected her so strongly, and even altered her relationships in her adult life. Queen continues in the interview, “I never really let a person get too close to me. I could have been married years ago, but I had a commitment issue.”
Read the rest of this entry »