We all miss the fallen icon, but dropping subpar releases after her death is straight-up disrespectful — If you’re going to release a “new” song from Aaliyah, it should at least be audible. That not only meets the bare minimum for any musical release in 2021, but when it comes to Aaliyah specifically, it’s a sign of reverence for someone who managed to become one of the…

Joseph Patel produced stories for and on some of the best in music. Now he’s on the verge of landing his first Oscar. — In 1996, the now-defunct hip-hop magazine Rap Pages published The Roots’ very first cover story, written by Bay Area scribe Joseph Patel. Twenty-five years later, Patel is an accomplished visual storyteller living on the intersection of culture and music. His résumé boasts media brands like VICE and Vevo. …

The late visionary lived an impossible life — and inspired Black creatives to do the same — In 1965, James Baldwin, writing for the New York Times, opined that “unless we can establish some kind of dialogue between those people who enjoy the American dream and those people who have not achieved it, we will be in terrible trouble.” In other words: Unless we figure out how…

The late hip-hop moguls poured into themselves, their families, and their communities before their tragic demises. And as a result, their names and legacies will live forever. — “Happy C-Day, Neighborhood Nip,” said Young Dolph in a clip posted to Instagram in August, on what should’ve been Nipsey Hussle’s 36th birthday. “R.I.P. my boy. Real niggas still miss you down here, bruh.” Dolph drove the point home by showing off a brand-new custom chain, a sequence of chunky…

How the individualism of self-care is fueling community divide — I was proclaimed dead at birth. After many grueling hours of labor, I finally decided to make an entrance into this world. My entrance however was sickening — I was very blue colored, wheezing and my appendages were disjointed. One of the doctors declared my condition terminal with merely just…

A co-parenting cautionary tale — I will never understand why people willingly choose to broadcast their drama to the world on social media, but by now we should all be used to DaBaby delivering chaos and bullshit to the masses. The rapper, still reeling from a controversy of his own making this summer, started the…

Travis Scott’s deadly concert was a failure on the part of many to act with an ounce of decency and empathy — As much as I’ve grown accustomed to waking up to bad news, I still struggle with accepting what little empathy so many people seem to have. When it comes to the tragedy that took place over the weekend in Houston at the Astroworld Festival, as shocking as it was to…