Tia Mowry-Hardrict

Michael Clark Duncan

Cory Hardrict

Tank

Oprah had a chance to go up to the White House and talk to Michelle Obama for the upcoming edition of ‘O Magazine’

Our new First Lady on the surprises of life in the White House (”If you want pie, there’s pie! If something breaks, it’s fixed. In an hour”)…the rules she’s laid down for Malia and Sasha (”I want the kids to be treated like children, not little princesses”)…and how she hopes to use “one of the best jobs in the world” to help women transform their lives. Here’s a sneak peek…

For all the majesty of the White House, the First Lady has already infused it with a palpable ease; her presence makes the place feel open and approachable. When we sit down to talk, she seems as relaxed as she did when I first interviewed her and her husband in their Chicago apartment in 2004. “This room has the best light in the house,” she tells me as we settle in, shoes off, on a comfortable sofa. “And there’s pie here, too. The pie in the White House is dangerously good.” — Oprah

Oprah: So after the inauguration, what was your first weekend in the White House like?

Michelle Obama: Well, we still had family here, so it was almost like a wedding. A huge, very complicated wedding. The last visitors didn’t leave until Sunday. And then the first Monday was kind of weird. You know: Now we live here, and Barack is getting up and going to work, and it’s just us. This is our home now.

Oprah: I had heart palpitations coming through the White House gate, recognizing that this really is now your home. It’s the White House, and it’s your home.

Michelle Obama: And it’s a beautiful home. When you go out and come back, especially at night, with all the white lights on–it’s just beautiful. We feel privileged, and we feel a responsibility to make it feel like the people’s house. We have the good fortune of being able to sleep here, but this house belongs to America.

I can’t even imagine walking up into the White House and having black kids running around in “their” house.  It’s crazy.

Lil Kim is ready to make her debut on Dancing with the Stars and is letting people know that they will be surprised when they see the real her on t.v. check out her interview with dancing partner Derek Hough on “The Insider”

Only question I have is whats with all the damn makeup.  I gotta say I love my Lil Kim with the copper look.

Check out Aubrey O’Day talking about her playboy cover and her relationship issues when she sat down on E!’s “Chelsea Lately”

This is the reality of most reality show stars.  You gots to do what you got to do to keep paying the rent.  Now whenever Aubrey is in a picture with another woman there will be speculation of whether or not she has a girlfriend. We will see how much time her star has left to shine.

Big ups to Bossip.com for an interview with Hosea Chanchez (Malik from CW The Game) about the future of the show and the lack of black people on the T.V.

Bossip: We personally feel like The Game was moved to Friday nights because the network is trying to cancel the show. It’s a setup. Is there any truth to that? 
Hosea: I think that white America does not know what to do with Black people in television. I would hate to believe that it was a conspiracy to purposely eliminate us. We as black people are literally getting wiped off of the face of television. We’re being pigeon-held by a certain quality of television. There are only a couple of other black shows on TV, so you can see where I’m going. I don’t mind having that as a variety, but Mara Brock Akil has been the longest running show producer and between The Game and Girlfriends she’s been working for twelve years, consistently. My boss is one of the brightest, most educated women that I know. I’m talking about a woman who actually knows her stuff. I see the respect that our network gives to the show and to me it’s disrespectful to her.

Bossip: We used to have a lot of shows, but now we’re barely even seen on certain networks. 
Hosea: Back in the day, the people that I looked up to were Eddie Murphy, Richard Pryor, Will Smith and Bill Cosby. I look back on a time when most of these guys had a show on television. Remember TGIF, Thea, and Sister Sister was on? I look back to when there was so much variety, and all of these shows represented our culture in such a positive way. Not single motherhood, not this, not that. Not buffoonery. I look back on those times and I say ‘what’s changed?’ The only difference between now and then is that everybody was willing to fight for it. People were writing into networks complaining and boycotting. We don’t do that anymore. We leave it up to mainstream America to dictate what we like. We don’t fight anymore because we’re all too afraid to lose what we have. The mentality is,’ I can’t be out here fighting. What if somebody sees me and I’m trying to get on?’ In television, everyone has taken a back seat to not only wages that are just ridiculous, but parts and roles that are ridiculous. They have us so secluded in television and film that anything that comes by, we salivate at it. When you’re deprived of something, when something gets before you, it looks like steak. But, no, you [actually] eatin’ chitlins. But, it looks like you got the prime meat.

I respect Tyler Perry to the fullest because I believe that he is one of the greatest businessmen despite whether or not you agree or disagree about his content. His business sense is phenomenal. His giving back to his community is also a great thing, but it’s to the point where were so secluded, Tyler Perry could write a movie about throwing wet paper towels up against a wall and it would probably be a blockbuster hit.

Click here for the rest of the interview

I remember meeting these guys on the red carpet at the BET Hip Hop Awards.  And when I found out that they were a R&B Group named Brutha and had a T.V. show on BET I already felt kind of bad for them without even hearing a note.  Cause I felt that if you are on a reality show then your career will only last as long as the show does.  

Now when they came up to the studio the other day I had a chance to ask them about the T.V. show and their future.

First of all I have to say that these guys are some of the most professional guys I have met.  So whoever has been preparing them for the media has been doing a great job and damn it they sound good.  So good in fact that Barack Obama invited them to the inauguration to perform.  Check out these videos from their YouTube page.

Here they are singing ‘Love Lockdown’ Acapella

So like I said that outside of their T.V. show they are truly a talented group.  And hopefully they can keep their momentum going after the show is all done.  

Here are a few of their links

MYSPACE

YOUTUBE 

Essence.com got to sit down with Faith Evans to talk about the movie “Notorious”:

ESSENCE.COM: How does it feel to be immortalized on the big screen?
FAITH EVANS: It’s really only by association. I’m proud of Ms. Wallace and I support her project and told her anything they needed they could call on me for it. Although I hadn’t seen the film, I did see a couple of dailies. It was great talking to Antonique and I was able to give her a copy of my book ["Keep the Faith"] early on, which I believed help. Honestly, I was sitting there tapping my foot nervously, anxious to see what made the final cut (laughs).

ESSENCE.COM: Overall, are you content with the film? 
EVANS: I am happy. I can’t say there aren’t some discrepancies within the film because it’s not like I was a creative partner in the film. Of course, there are things that I know aren’t correct. For instance, a particular song might not have been out when a certain incident occurred. The people who are watching won’t know but those of us who lived it will. A perfect example is the one scene in the studio with me, Lil’ Kim and Biggie—I don’t remember that happening and it might have been tension between them that I was unaware of, and it happened when we were separated. I didn’t know that happened before. No matter what your walk in life is, you get to know B.I.G. through his words. The footage from the day of the funeral was one of my favorite scenes because I was right there in the limo, and although there is no footage of Ms. Wallace inside the car, Angela Bassett captured her exact look. It was powerful. Seeing all those people who were out there for Biggie that day made it more of a celebration. It was a perfect ending to that day.

For the rest of the interview click here

In an Essence.com interview Jermaine Dupri sets the record straight on his exit at Island Def Jam:

ESSENCE.COM: The blogosphere has been abuzz recently about your exit from Island Def jam Records as president of urban music. Why did you leave the label?
JERMAINE DUPRI: It was a situation where it felt very stagnant to me. As a person who is used to putting out new records and continuing to do that, it just wasn’t turning over as being that place to me where I should stick to it and see if it was going to turn around.

(continue reading…)

Its good to see Teairra Mari is getting another shot in her career. Here is her new video ft Pleasure P “Hunt 4 U”

and here is an interview I had with her at the BET Awards back in June especially if you wondering what the hell happened to her…

Luda Performs his Pop Champagne Remix

Ludacris and Block Exchange Performance