Is Soulja Boy killing hip-hop?

In an interview on a recently released mixtape rap veteran Ice T says that rap newcomer Soulja Boy has "single handedly killed hip-hop." (In case you've been in a coma for the past year, Soulja Boy is the entertainer behind the ubiquitous song "Crank Dat" and the wildly popular dance known as the Superman.)

If I posted Ice T's exact words I'd get fired due to the colorful language used. But the gist is Ice T feels Soulja Boy's lyrics are "garbage" and a disgrace to hip-hop pioneers. Since this diss, Ice T and Soulja Boy have been going back and forth at each other via video blogs and recently Kanye West stepped in and took a side...

Click here to read the complete post on my VelocityWeekly.com blog. While you're over there feel free to weigh in on the Ice T vs. Soulja Boy beef. I also want to know what real hip-hop is to you.

In Memory of Andrea Coller

In the June 2008 issue of Glamour magazine readers were introduced to Andrea Coller, a young hairstylist/musician/shopgirl who won Glamour’s fifth essay contest with a fierce, funny and touching story of her battle with cancer. In the July issue, however, we learned that just as the essay was hitting newsstands, Coller died of complications from her Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Coller’s essay, titled “I want my life back,” didn’t paint a picture of a suffering saint. She was a live-out-loud kind of girl who was mad as hell that cancer was trying to steal her spunk.

Coller’s best friend Meredith told Glamour, “She put her soul out into the world despite her struggles, wrote things heartbreaking and hilarious and lived like she meant.”

Editor-in-chief Cindi Leive said this of Coller’s essay: “It’s an amazing reminder that you can’t make life longer, but you can make it deeper. ”

These statements have stuck with me. Am I living like I mean it? Am I committed to, each day, making my life deeper, richer and fuller than it was the day before?

The truth is, no. I’m not. And that’s a shame. I have no excuse. But in honor of Andrea Coller and all other young women who have been robbed of their lives by cancer, Lupus and other illnesses, I’m making a promise to myself that from now on I will enjoy today like there is no tomorrow. I hope you’ll do the same.

Click here to read Coller’s Glamour essay.

(Crossposted on my Skirt! blog.)

How to Have a Happy Vagina

This week for my Write Out Loud column in Velocity Weekly I interviewed Dr. Katharine O'Connell, an assistant clinical professor of OB/GYN at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City and a blogger for dailybedpost.com. We chatted about vaginal health issues and how to have better sex. She gave me so much great information I had to save some for my Velocity Weekly blog. Whether you have a vagina or not, I think the column and blog post are worth a read. Check them out!

What you've been missing

If you haven’t visited my Velocity blog lately, head over to join the discussion on the Sex and the City movie, to find out about my latest attempt to save the world, to meet Miss Black Kentucky and to share your money management tips.

The Life of a Beauty Queen

Check out my latest "Write Out Loud" column in this week's issue of Velocity Weekly. In it I profile Miss Black Kentucky Shenita McConis, who is hoping to snag the Miss Black USA crown later this month. If you have a down-with-pageants attitude that's even more reason you should read it. McConis is certainly not your stereotypical beauty queen.

Write on,
j.

Shameless self-promotion

This new blog is my special little place in cyberworld where I will unabashedly promote and market myself and my writing.

I am a fulltime journalist, essayist and blogger. To get familiar with my work check out any of the websites and blogs in my links list. And check back here regularly for excerpts from recent articles and any exciting updates in my life as a woman writer.


Writeously yours,
j.