Nova Giovanni has the anti-dote for cats who fill your timeline up with their struggle music and mixtapes.  You fight back and hit them with this right chea.

By @Boss545

In the midst of my barbecue fun, I stumbled upon a heated discussion about their views on Beyonce Knowles. This isn’t the first nor the last time this woman will grace our lips and as I chimed in, I couldn’t help but think is Beyonce really as bad as everyone thinks or are we all just hating? The consensus of Mrs. Knowles is that we love her passion, her drive, her ambition to be the best but has the path she traveled to get there been the most righteous?

Some time ago, when Irreplaceable was released I was in awe how the song had even men singing loudly to the left, to the left. I loved the video and like most consumers had merely downloaded the song and never saw the credits.  Then one day as I ate my butter pecan ice cream, she was mentioned on the news, not out of the ordinary but this time she had been scrutinized for claiming at a concert that she had penned the hit when in actuality it was co-written by Ne-Yo.  Some days later, Beyonce released a statement retracting the error and apologizing to the song writer and that interest made me wonder what else she had mistakenly stole. Next album, same discussion i finally had to know for myself. I let my fingers get to walking on google and found that she had indeed stole “If I Were A Boy” from an artist named BC Jean and the dance routine for “single ladies” from “Mexican Breakfast” chicks. I was shocked. Not that it was true but that she had taken full credit for everything. Where would be as a people if we didn’t acknowledge those before us.

Maybe she has finally learned her lesson or is finally tired of the lawsuits because during her 30 min special she shows how she found her hot dance routine in “Girls we run this”. I guess we live and we learn. Is it just as important to know the background when what’s jn front of us is so inviting? I guess time will tell. Until then… To B or not to B.

– Ms. Boss

by @WhoDaEffCares

Your Welcome!!!

Okay after I’m done typing this out all I want you to do for me is say
thank you!!! My reasoning for this gesture will come later. I am a 30
year old working, homeless, PROUD African American male(not seen in
this picture sorry), and I’ll be damned if “THE PUBLIC EYE” shuns my
population any longer. Yes we walk amongst you.

Contrary to popular belief, not all homeless people beg for change or
smell like death on a hot Sunday afternoon. Actually, you can probably
look to the left of you in Starbucks. While you order your tall mocha
frappachino, you may notice that lady dressed in the 3 piece business
suit shifting thru the back of the daily news maybe homeless. She’s
looking for a place to stay, because her shelter is closing down soon.
Oh…you aren’t aware that things like this happen huh? It seems as if
homeless shelters aren’t big business. Meaning if the city of (place
any major city here) doesn’t profit from it then it’s a waste. They’d
rather build a jail and let the residual income roll in. Oops did I
say that? Sorry I don’t want to stray away from the topic at hand
which is the working homeless.

I’ve skimmed through the various articles and little TV specials that
mainstream America puts together for the masses. “Knee Grow please”
most of those folks that produced or written that garbage hasn’t had a
hard day in there lives. Hell, hard times for them would probably be
riding in economy instead of their usual first class seat on the
plane. And speaking of people not appreciating things, I hear some of
the situations customers whine about while I’m at work. For instance:
“landlord need to fix my drippy faucet” or “Con Ed bill just went
up”. Well Damn Gucci I wish I had a faucet to bitch about or an
electricity bill to pay. I miss doing simple things like that. Now I
have a cot and a 5ft locker in the basement of a church that I drag
myself to night after night. And don’t let me work overtime, because
guess what?!?! After midnight I got to find a bench in central park.
And in most cases, I’ll probably end up fighting the local crack
whores and druggies for it. Yes I’m a grown ass man with a curfew.
You’d figure “MAN but he’s working… the shelter should give him a
break” HA! If it were that simple then you wouldn’t have this rambling
blog 2 read through.

The moral to this story is APPRECIATION. When was the last time you
showed appreciation towards Pedro the gas pump guy, who was so
gentleman like while pumping your gas and washing your windshield, or
towards Shaneeka the grocery store clerk, who just finished bagging
your fruits and veggies up all nice and neat. No this is not a plea
for a hand out. Nor am I asking for a pity party. But I’ll be dammed
if you think for one moment that you got it hard. Just imagine having
to go to work with bags under your eyes because you couldn’t sleep
comfortably on that subway car last night. And you had no other choice
but to sleep on. So the next time you go to that sporting event and
order popcorn, when I show up with your order the best thing you can
do for me at that point is say_____

 
Written by Tyrone “TJ” Burton
TWITTER: @whodaeffcares
FACEBOOK: Search for TJ B.
YouTube: Paranoya74

 
by @MelBSpeaks

I’m excited to report that I’m looking into PhD programs, and hoping to start back to school in the Fall of 2012!  One of the major things I must decide is whether I will stay in NY and continue to work while pursuing this degree, or if I will move away and go full time.  The major hurdle to moving out of NYC is the fact that I don’t drive.  I know I’m a loser for waiting so long to learn, especially since I had a permit for four years and let it expire last year without getting my license lol.

Now that I’m preparing to take the learner’s permit test AGAIN lol, I am brushing up on my driving knowledge as best I can.  The one part of the test that I didn’t worry too much about 4 years ago or now are the questions related to road signs.  As I observe the various signs on the back of this booklet and while I relax in my passenger seating in other people’s cars lol, it struck me that these signs tell you exactly what to do with little energy exerted by the driver.  See a stop sign? Stop.  Green Light? Go.  Pretty simple right?  I started wondering what it would be like if we had these kinds of signs in our other areas of our lives and not just for driving safety…

Stop Sign:  This sign in driving means that you have to come to a complete stop before proceeding.  How I wish someone would stop me from making the sometimes impulsive and usually ridiculous decisions I make when it comes to choosing men lol.  Or maybe stop can mean something else, like for some of us ladies who can’t seem to let go of the past.  We need to stop carrying around the hurt of the past–whether it’s awful relationships with past boyfriends, or the absence of a relationship with our fathers.  I’ve seen the bottom of several wine bottles over the years behind the hurts I’ve experienced in dating.  I’ve also wished that my father was a bigger part of my life.  What needs to stop is the negativity that comes out of that hurt, the wall-building that occurs after we’ve let people unworthy of the privilege get too close and cause irreparable damage to our hearts.  We’ve got to stop looking for every imperfection in a man because our judgement is so jaded that we think it’s rational to assume that a good man could never exist, let alone want us.

And fellas, this stop sign can work for you too.  Please stop making women feel like wanting a committed relationship is wrong.  Some women do beat men over the head with the talk about being serious and they go too far. I get that, and totally encourage you to run in the opposite direction if she’s not the one you want to be serious with.  However, if you’ve spent significant time with a woman, you enjoy her company, her personality, the way she makes you feel, and you think you might want to explore where that is going to lead, give that relationship a genuine effort.  No one is saying you have to marry her tomorrow, but at least make it worth both her time and yours by trying.

Rough Road Ahead:  This sign is supposed to warn you that the road you are about to drive on is jacked up in some way lol.  You see this sign a lot when they are re-paving roads.  It would be so great to have a sign like this in life, warning you that maybe the next couple of days, weeks, or months will not be the easiest.  Unfortunately, rough times are seldom planned.  The silver lining to this?  The rough road sign is usually just for a section of the road, and doesn’t go on forever.  In life, nothing very good or very bad lasts for very long, so enjoy the good times, and stay prayed up for the tough times.

Yield: This sign reminds the driver that many accidents occur at intersections when drivers lose track of who-goes-when.  In dating it’s important to remember this as well.  Ladies, we can stand to fall back and let a man be the man for us sometimes.  Yes I wave the flag for women’s rights, equality, etc.  But if you take on the attitude of “I’m a woman, I can do it on my own, and I don’t need your help”, what role does that man get to play?  You want him to be a gentleman, but you go out of your way to assert your “power” as a woman by talking to him in a degrading manner in public, or by insisting that “you got this”.

Sometimes that power would be better used if you let him lead sometimes.  It’s little things, like slowing down your pace a little bit, enough to let him get ahead so he can open the door for you.  Yes, as a woman you are smart and strong enough to fight your own battles, but if he wants to be with you, he’ll want to protect and care for you, so let him.  If he cares about you, he’ll be slaying dragons, taking out your trash when he’s visiting you, and will spend an entire Saturday afternoon under the hood of your car trying to find out what’s causing that funny sound you complained about on your way home from work this week.  That’s the kind of stuff men want to do for the woman they choose to be with.  So if he’s chosen you, yield girl YIELD! lol

I could go on for days with the number of signs that exist on the road, but I think you get the picture.  There are signs and signals all around us in our lives, and there’s many things that can be learned if you stop for a moment to receive it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go find me a dragon-slaying, car-fixing, trash taker outer right quick lol.

- Mel B (@MelBSpeaks)