Rihanna

Jun 27 2011

Humanitarian Award: Steve Harvey

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Chris Brown was the big winner at Sunday’s 2011 BET Awards ceremony, taking home four awards including the Male R&B Artist and the Viewers’ Choice Award.

Brown also took the award for Best Collaboration, a category where he had two nominations and was competing against ex-girlfriend Rihanna, whom Brown admitted assaulting after a pre-Grammy Award party in Los Angeles in 2009.

Jun 23 2011

Discussion rages; Rihanna’s sexual defense

Rihanna shot a man to death in her music video ….

So what?

The television industry was recently up in arms over Rihanna’s racy promo for “Man Down,” saying that the opening scene where she murders a man in the center of town is unwarranted and inappropriate for network television.

In the video, shots of life in an underdeveloped and impoverished Third World are cut with others featuring celebratory African and Caribbean dancing by young Black girls.

Jun 16 2011

Maybe blondes do have more fun

It is not uncommon for artists to reinvent their appearance in order to maintain relevancy or to heighten the buzz around a new album. In many cases, such as Bow Wow dropping the “Lil” and cutting off his braids, artists claim that maturity or change in flavor influenced their new-found signature looks.

May 17 2011

Chris Brown leads with six nominations

NEW YORK, N.Y.—BET Networks announced that actor/comedian Kevin Hart has been tapped to host this year’s BET Awards. Ranked among the top five cable award shows every year among total viewers. The brightest night in music will broadcast live from the historic Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 26 on BET.

Mar 31 2011

The entertainer’s aggression rears its ugly head…again

As Chris Brown took the stage at Good Morning America last week, I held my breath. I was rooting for him, waiting to see him return to grace and reignite the magical flame that had previously put him in the tradition of great R&B artists.

Brown’s up-and-down behavior has been at the forefront of a media circus which developed after pictures of Rihanna appeared on the Internet the night before the 2009 Grammy Awards, displaying eyelids which had been swollen shut, a fat lip, and bruises all over her face.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.