Is T.I. Homophobic?

This guy sure does know how to stay in the media! T.I., who will be soon starring in his reality show entitled “Family Hustle” on VH1, is also on the cover of VIBE magazine. In light of his recent successes, VIBE interviewed T.I., where the rapper defended Tracy Morgan’s tirade on homosexuality.

You can always depend on T.I. to speak his mind and not sugar-coat anything. According to The Grio, the famous rapper let it be known that the funniest joke he ever heard was Tracy Morgan commenting that gay people don’t have the ability to take a joke. T.I. clarified his opinion upon the “over-sensitivity” of the gay community, saying:

“They’re like, ‘If you have an opinion against us, we’re gonna shut you down.’ … That’s not American. If you’re gay you should have the right to be gay in peace, and if you’re against it you should have the right to be against it in peace.”

… Continue Reading

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April

Stop Making Waka Flocka Look Stupid!!!

From chains to chains. It’s interesting, how we’ve progressed as a people but we still are the same, conditionally. Public figures like Waka Flocka would not be a thought if Martin Luther King’s administration was still out here kicking. My generation is WILD, man. But it’s obvious that most of the artists that are in the position to move a lot of our people such as Soulja Boy and Gucci Mane, aren’t interested or aren’t mentally capable. So why keep giving him the mic and camera time to influence more of our youth to be as stupid as them? … Continue Reading

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DJWillieShakes

TI’s New Clothing Ad…Whats the message??

“What’s the message here? ‘If I wear these clothes more women will want to have sex with me,’ ” said James Sawhill, a Rutgers-Newark marketing professor. Maybe, maybe not. The larger question, however, is: Why Newark? Would it be anywhere else? Millburn, Livingston, Bernardsville? City Council President Mildred Crump is fed up with her city being a doormat for degradation.

“I’m so sick of people seeing Newark as a place where they can do whatever they want,” she said. “They think they can put it in a black community and nobody is going to say or do anything.”

It’s one of many problems Newark Mayor Cory Booker believes have to be addressed as issues of basic decency. He says he’s got kids wearing their pants too low, and others using inappropriate language in public places.

“There’s a lot of fronts to this fight,” he said. “On this particular issue, I will work with my city council to see if we can address it.”

An executive at CBS Outdoor, the New York-based billboard company, didn’t think there was a problem with displaying the advertisement.

“It was a sexy, racy fashion ad, as they so often are,” said Jodi Senese, executive vice president of marketing. There are more-explicit ads CBS will not post, she said, but this one didn’t rise to that level. AKOO, whose clothing is distributed by Rp55 in Virginia Beach, Va., has not responded to requests for comment. The billboard raises another important question: Does demeaning women also sell? Sawhill says advertising is designed to impart information and conjure up emotion. It can be laughter, fear, concern. In this case, it’s something primal. Or you could come up with a good caption contest. However, the billboard contains no informational content. It’s strictly emotional, and Sawhill says ads like this are far too common in minority communities.

For that reason, it’s demeaning. There’s the sexual inference for starters, but it also appears to be targeting African-Americans.

Sawhill says nothing is wrong with marketing to a particular audience as long as it’s not insulting to the people you want to buy your product. And this one is clearly offensive.

“What does it say, that it’s all right for oral sex in public?” said Brian Woods, a Newark resident. “That’s not the message we want to send to our young people.”

We can definitely see how an ad with a young woman’s head buried in a man’s crotch, with both her hands tugging at his jeans while he presses his hand against the back of her head could push more than a few buttons. But hasn’t fashion advertising been pushing these kinds of buttons for decades? Is T.I. doing anything that Calvin Klein and Armani haven’t been doing for ages?

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DJWillieShakes

Top 10 Stories of 2009

Top 10 Stories of 2009

2009 is almost a wrap, but it wouldn’t be proper to let it pass without paying homage to the stories that made us ask “Did that really just happen?” Whether it was C.Breezy putting hands on Riri, a runaway balloon watch or Oprah spotted at Marcy projects, much of what was current could be figured out in 140 characters or less on Twitter, the social media site that changed the journalism game in ’09 — but even a Tinkerbellesque trending topic couldn’t keep Michael Jackson alive. We lost a lot of special people this year – but they’ll be remembered. Now lets take a moment to reflect on 2009:

Chrihannagate

2009 turned Chris Brown and Rihanna into this generation’s poster children for domestic violence when the aftermath of Clive Davis’ pre-Grammy party resulted in an entirely different kind of bash. Chrihanna dominated tabloid covers and the talk show circuit, and kept people talking about herpes, illicit text messages and baby blue bowties.

Vick Back in the NFL

If you thought his year in the pen marked the end of Michael Vick’s NFL career, well you thought wrong. After serving his time, PETA’s least favorite quarterback headed back to the field to suit up for the Philadelphia Eagles. Guess his dog days are over.

Kanye’s Big Ego

Armed with a bodacious bi-sexual and a bottle of Hennessy, Kanye invoked international ire after crashing the VMA stage as America’s sweetheart Taylor Swift tried to claim her prize. Amber Rose may be forgotten by 2010 however “Imma let you finish but …” might just rank as the most famous last words of the decade.

Long Live The King

Many doubted Michael Jackson could recover from huge debt, accusations of child molestation and just plain old eccentricity, but death restored his fortune and legacy perhaps more than any comeback concerts ever could. 2009 saw some of America’s best talents (Farrah Fawcett, Steve McNair, Patrick Swayze, DJ AM) take their last breaths, but only one was the King of Pop.

All Hail Hov

Jay-Z aligned his Blueprint3 release with an unprecedented branding plan (who didn’t see those HP and Rhapsody commercials?). The result? BP3 became S Dot’s eleventh #1 album, knocking Elvis from his throne. Oh and did I mention he brought Oprah to Marcy projects and keeps President Obama on speed dial? Forget about running “this town,” Hov runs the globe.

Bernie Madoff

If the recession wasn’t bad enough, thousands of Americans were royally ripped off by Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme literally made off with billions of dollars from investors, proving thievery definitely isn’t just a black thing. Wall Street caught a bailout but Madoff will never make bond, after being sentenced to 150 years behind bars in 2009.

Cheetah Woods

Golf’s great black hope set the tabloids afire after his wife’s Nordic fury sent the Cablinasian in a Cadillac into an Ambien-fueled one-car collision. The fallout from the accident placed Tiger at the epicenter of a 14-sidepiece pussy pileup, sidelining the golf great and costing him endorsements.

Balloon Goon

One of the strangest hoaxes in American history happened this year, when a Colorado man named Richard Heene succumbed to a thirst for fame so great he’d ask his son Falcon to con an entire nation by faking his disappearance in a runaway balloon. P.S. I’d like my hour of CNN watching back please!

Twitter Takes Off

Diddy and Solange helped drive the charge to make Twitter the most popular social media site on the block. It didn’t take long before Chris Brown, Bow Wow and Soulja Boy were proving 140-characters is more than enough to make an ass of yourself.

Jailhouse Rap

With Remy Ma, Da Brat and Prodigy already behind bars, lyricists in lockup are not a new phenomenon, but rappers went to jail in droves this year. T.I., Max B, Boosie, Gucci Mane, Lil Wayne and C-Murder were among the MC’s either sentenced or sent packing, while Shyne was freed only to be deported to Belize.

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Janee Bolden