My favorite scene from 1997‘s Boogie Nights is when Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), a pornographic film producer, explains to Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg), a young actor, his vision for the types of adult films that he aspires to make: “It is my idea to make a film that the story just sucks them in.  And [...]

My interview with 21-year old Chicago emcee Rockie Fresh was supposed to take place sooner , but we were unable to connect.  The silver lining in the delay though was that I was able to absorb all three of his mix-tapes.  And as an appreciator of lyricism, I became more excited than ever to hear [...]

I was first introduced to Bishop Lamont’s music in the summer of 2006 when I heard “Welcome to Havoc” during the closing credits of the straight-to-DVD film, Havoc.  I learned soon after that Bishop was signed with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment and I eagerly awaited his debut, The Reformation. While working for Billboard Magazine in [...]

April 20, 2012     Dear Lady Justice, On Sunday, February 26, 2012, an unarmed 17-year-old African American male, Trayvon Martin, was killed by a 26-year-old biracial Hispanic American man named George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida.   Martin was returning on foot to the home of his father’s fiancee from a 7-Eleven after purchasing a [...]

Would you rather feel the result of a hand job or a hand grenade?  Given the obvious answer, one would think that sex would be less taboo than violence in this country. But the late great George Carlin once said, “America was founded by slave owners who wanted to be free.” And this double standard [...]