On Dec. 20, 2017, Reggie “Combat Jack” Ossé died of colon cancer. It’s difficult, and also feels unfair, to give him a single title. He was so many things to so many people. Not only was he a prolific entertainment attorney, but he was also the founding partner of the Loud Speakers Podcast Network and creator-host of…
Once upon a time, on a network where a digital stereotype host named Miss Cita lived, there was also a show called Hits From the Streets. It was a silly sketch show on the BET network that sometimes visited popular colleges and coined phrases like “Moo Phi Moo.” The show was kind of dope for its time. It was the year…
Protecting open secrets in the name of community is like sweeping glass with your bare hands. It’s unwise, impractical, and somebody always gets cut. I’m one of the writers who was cut in the aftermath of what is now simply known as #EbonyOwes.
On the evening of July 26, an inmate from Rikers Island jail in New York City escaped. Officials stated that 24-year-old Naquan Hill was in the recreation yard of the facility where he climbed over the fence and fled captivity. Hill was found the next day, but between the hours of 7:30 p.m. and 10:30pm on July 26, the…
I grew up in the projects in New York City. It was during the time when politicians fell in love with lucrative drug policies and dealers “married the streets”—committed fully to street life and the ugliness that comes with it. This symbiotic relationship birthed what we now call mass incarceration. As data will tell…
“Powerful black men like Chris Lighty don’t shoot themselves. It makes no sense, but somehow there he was, lying in the casket with a bullet in his skull.” This statement, shared by Reggie Ossé, captured many of our original thoughts when learning that hip-hop mogul Chris Lighty died from an apparent suicide in 2012.
