Malik Taylor aka Phife Dawg transitioned on March 22, 2016, from complications resulting from diabetes. His was 45 years-old. He was a husband, father, brother, and a member A Tribe Called Quest. Phife Dawg’s passing is a closing portal to my childhood. It was 1991 and I was a Orlando suburban kid, pimping my Afrocentric Cross Colours gear and big purple suede Karl Kani shorts. If it weren’t for my baggy clothes, I was so skinny that I could turn …
Author: Tracy Jones
Loosie is about a track, scoring my life. “Smile,” Jay-Z 4:44, Jay-Z’s 13th studio album, dropped when I was wrestling my courage to the ground. Had to shoot it to get some act right. Jay’s moms, Gloria Carter, spits a poem at the end. I was listening to it on my way home. Right when I opened the door to my apartment, she finished her verse with, “Smile.” The track itself is dope. Jay talks about his mother at the beginning …
I’m so in love with my own bullshit that I look past death just to imagine how the people in my life would react to the absence of my existence. This sad clown wears an electric halo every time his synapses snap. He easily laughs while tears 100 yard dash down the hills of his cheeks. He whitens his blackface with the powder he stole from a chick who fucked his heart, but not his dick. She loved to sleep …
The first time I met Harlemite rapper, producer, filmmaker, and actor Mtume Gant aka Core Rhythm, was in our Harlem Renaissance class at SUNY Purchase College. Gant usually had the most to say when it came to class discussions about our reading assignments. He was so vocal and passionate that I felt intimidated to raise my hand. Thoughtful, and progressive ideas effortlessly sprung off his tongue. There were few places where our opinions diverged. Most times, I was envious of …
