REFLECTION & REASON

Before Lady O[prah] starting taking over the media and influencing millions of women everywhere, before Queen B[eyonce] began to conquer the charts, the big screen, and the world of cosmetics...even before Mary J. Blige was crowed the Queen of Hip Hop Soul...there was our original queen of entertainment: Queen Latifah. With the summer 2010 release of her book " Put on Your Crown: Life-Changing Moments on the Path to Queendom ," Queen Latifah easily entered another area of entertainment, by penning her life story and getting comfortable in the world of publishing. And rightfully so. She has excelled at essentially every other area she's touched, since we were first introduced to her in 1998. Because Dana Elaine Owens is in the media and relevant all the time, it's easy to overlook her contribution to urban entertainment, and now mainstream pop culture. Of course we remember her best for her 1989 album " All Hail the Queen " and the way she would command the s...

On the 11th day of the 1st month of the 2011th year, millions (7.7 to be exact) of viewers across the continent gathered at their televisions for a highly anticipated event: the return and rejuvination of The Game . And I’m not talking about the Raptors. (The Cast L-R: Coby Bell, Wendy Raquel Robinson, Hosea Chanchez, Tia Mowry Hardrict, Pooch Hall, Brittany Daniel) Thanks to day-long marathons, relentless reruns, massive Twitter-ing, casual conversations, and online petitions, the return of the 4th season of the BET program was a huge ratings bonanza. In fact, it set a ratings record for original programming on BET. I was right there on the bandwagon, wondering how Melanie and Derwin’s marriage was going, if Kelly and Jason would rekindle their flame, what was up with Tasha Mack and Rick Fox, and of course, even curious about TT, Janay, and the Sunbeams. The show was taken off the air in 2009, and I became a rerun fan. Just like I did with Sex and the City , Friends , and the countles...

Picture it: 1988. You're in a dim studio in Kingston, Jamaica, and Dennis Brown is on the mic. Behind him seated at the drums is a young Lowell Dunbar (aka Sly) and next to him on guitar, his bredren Robert Shakespeare. Hear the bassline. Feel the shuffle of the percussion. See the birth of the original riddim, instrument by instrument. At that point producers Sly & Robbie had already cemented themselves on the reggae scene for a little over 10 years, and possibly had no idea that well into the 2000s, they would be the most prolific team in the musical genre, having produced around 200,000 songs. Their roster could easily start and stop with Dennis Brown, but Sly & Robbie's production credits continue to include classics from Bounty Killer, Buju Banton, Gregory Isaacs, Luciano, Tony Rebel, and of course Chaka Demus & Pliers. And their affiliations aren't limited to reggae. They've also performed and produced with/for legends like the Rolling Stones, Stin...

Steve Harvey's first book Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man was a hit! It was being quoted, celebrated, recited, dictated, and read aloud like holy scripture to women near and far. Single woman, married women, dating women: it didn't matter. The ladies wanted to hear what Steve Harvey had to say about love and relationships...and were thirsty for his keeping-it-real male perspective that their girlfriends couldn't [accurately] give them. After all, it came from a man we know and love: Broderik Steven Harvey of West Virginia. A well-dressed and well-respected man with a crazy sense of humour, class, success, and at the age of 53--years of experience with matters of the heart and interpersonal relationships. The book made us laugh out loud, and nod our heads in recognition. An instant best-seller that spent months on the top of the Essence booklist, it was a must-have in the female library. So women were now craving this perspective. This truth. The instruction. They called t...

"This is my moment, I just feel so alive..." ~Nicki Minaj Like her or not, you can't deny that this is an historical moment in time for female MCs, hip hop music, and the music industry in general. Rapper Nicki Minaj is making so many statements right now in the entertainment world both visually and lyrically, that her importance in this moment is one worth mentioning. With the release of her debut album Pink Friday in November of 2010, Nicki ended her first year "officially" on the scene as the first artist EVER to have 7 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 charts simultaneously . With the help of Trey Songz, Jay Sean, Sean Kingston, Lil' Wayne, and her 3 solo tracks, she managed to break this record at the beginning of her career. Not only have her collaborations been consistently hot, but the album is dope, too! It carries a feeling of growth, of fun, and a renewed sense of musicality as Nicki confidently takes her place as the next best thing. Onika Tanya M...

Eckhart Tolle's literary voice of reason is so alluring and inspirational, that once you finish the last pages and close the cover of one of his books for good...you find yourself wishing you could continuously hear his thoughts, suggestions, and perspectives indefinitely as you go through your daily routine. I just finished reading his book The Power of Now , and was equally as impressed with it as the previous book I read from him, A New Earth . Like millions of others, I was introduced to Eckhart Tolle through Oprah's Book Club a few years back. Now I'm not one to run out and do whatever "Oprah says" usually, but this is one circumstance where I'm glad I decided to be follow-fashion, and jump on the New Earth bandwagon. A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose (2005) taught me a great deal about the evolution of consciouness, perception vs. reality, and how the application of these concepts could inevitably benefit society at large. It was a grea...