Archive » The Game

This page contains 50 entries posted under the "The Game" category.

What The Game's Been Missing: Real Live Performers

As summer quickly approaches and faster than you can say "sundress," music events will be popping up left and right. The combination of hot weather, hot artists and hot bodies means that the lowly summer jam-block party-fest will be a...

NubianEmpress | 05/23/2012 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

Who The Game's Gonna Be Missing: Chuck Brown

Sometimes the casual nature of Twitter relays information that is too hard to process. Today I learned of yet another soul legend that passed away, this time the "Godfather of Go-Go," Chuck Brown. While this news was not especially shocking...

NubianEmpress | 05/16/2012 at 8:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Bands

It's almost summer, y'all. Besides getting summertime fine, people are out in the streets trying to find some new way to cool down in the scorching summer sun. Soon everyone will be going to open air markets, bazaars and festivals...

NubianEmpress | 05/09/2012 at 9:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Variety Shows

As someone who loves to eat, there is nothing more appealing than the idea of the buffet -- you get to sample everything that's laid out. Sure, some of it might be kind of gamey from sitting out for too...

NubianEmpress | 05/02/2012 at 8:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Not Been Missing: Skeezy Geezers

By now, we all know what Brian McKnight hath wrought with his infamous song instructing all the ladies on how their vajayjay's work. Besides causing confusion and annoyance amongst his core audience and others, McKnight has reminded us of how...

NubianEmpress | 04/25/2012 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Musicals

Flowers are blooming, filling the air with their pollen and destroying the allergies of everyone from Florida to New York. Birds are chirping in excitement about the fact that the long winter is over, and creeps across the country are...

NubianEmpress | 04/18/2012 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: A Sense Of Wonder

Too often we forget the inexplicable hold that music and other arts have on our personhood. For my mother, The Sound of Music was the score that defined her childhood; I preferred to belt out lines from Disney's The Little...

NubianEmpress | 04/11/2012 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Soul Food Entrepreneurs

We are human beings. We can't live on sunshine or music alone. There are basic needs every human has; according to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, physiological needs come first (food, water, breathing, sex, and sleep), followed by safety, followed by...

NubianEmpress | 04/04/2012 at 6:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Beards

I like many things on a black man -- a sharp suit, a nice smile, tattoos -- but nothing, and I mean nada, beats a black man with a beard. It's just so...manly. It lets me know that he can...

NubianEmpress | 03/28/2012 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: A Blues For Trayvon

Yesterday I had no idea what to write for this column. I couldn't front and write in my normal glib manner about the music industry because one news story -- one -- gripped my heart and mind for the past...

NubianEmpress | 03/21/2012 at 6:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Lady Lyricists

It's no secret that rap is notoriously male-dominated (and misogynist). And while the machismo your favorite gangster rapper sweats through his du-rag gives the music that "authentic" sound, you can't help but wonder where all the lady lyricists are. It's...

NubianEmpress | 03/14/2012 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Music History Lessons

Last week I reviewed Robert Glasper Experiment's incredible new album, Black Radio, and couldn't have been more excited about the music delights that it held. Seriously, if you have not already copped that joint, shame on you! But anyway, in...

NubianEmpress | 03/07/2012 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Cornrow Soul

Stevie Wonder. Charlie "Last Name" Wilson. J. Holiday. These men all have something in common besides the ability to make good baby-making music. They have all participated in and drawn strength from a tradition that has been much maligned but...

NubianEmpress | 02/29/2012 at 8:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Church Voice

I, along with Black Twitter and the white folks who watch CNN, tuned into watch Whitney Houston's homegoing last Saturday and was pleasantly surprised at how "ordinary" it seemed for a pop icon. Outside of the incredibly high-profile stars in...

NubianEmpress | 02/22/2012 at 6:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: People Having A Seat

The past few weeks have hit the black music world particularly hard with the loss of Etta James, Don Cornelius, and Whitney Houston in rapid succession. On top of that, the biggest celebration in music, the GRAMMYs, took place just...

NubianEmpress | 02/15/2012 at 8:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: 'Soul Train'

The loss of icon Don Cornelius last week at beginning of Black History Month shook many in the music and entertainment industry to the core. Brother Questlove revealed how critical Soul Train was in his own growth as an artist,...

NubianEmpress | 02/08/2012 at 6:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Soul Karaoke

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a party that had all the elements of perfection: a mature crowd that was willing to dance, good (live) music, good (spun) music, some alcohol, and great friends. Of course I'm...

NubianEmpress | 02/01/2012 at 8:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Bodyroll Music

The BodyRoll, defined by Urban Dictionary as "a dance move in which the entire body goes through a wavelike motion focusing on the hips," goes hand and hand with black music. As artistic movement it ranks up there with Alvin...

NubianEmpress | 01/18/2012 at 9:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: A Breakout Reggae Jam

I was out of the country for the holidays, in a place where the weather was hotter than the space between Jennifer Hudson's scalp and lacefront. The air was beautiful, the people were beautiful, even the food was beautiful. Eighty-five...

NubianEmpress | 01/04/2012 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: The Keytar

The end is nigh, y'all. According to the ancient Mayan scrolls, Ms. Cleo, Negrodamus, and three mo' white folks, the world is supposed to end in 2012. The signs have been cropping up all throughout 2011 -- an earthquake that...

NubianEmpress | 12/28/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Concept Albums

Two thousand years ago, the greatest story ever told took place in the little town of Bethlehem. In a narrative fit for Maury, a young woman named Mary, pregnant by someone other than her fiancé (Joseph you are NOT the...

NubianEmpress | 12/21/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: A Hip-Hop Soul Christmas Carol

Ah, the glories of the holiday program! I guarantee you that nothing makes my mother's heart melt more than the treasured holiday program at my elementary school. To her it represents the true spirit of the season, distilled in the...

NubianEmpress | 12/14/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Not Been Missing: Mad Music

If you didn't already know, SoulBounce is the leading authority on all things soul and R&B related, or so we've heard. Our very own Kimberly Hines, better known as Butta, was interviewed and quoted in a recent CNN article, "Where is the...

NubianEmpress | 12/07/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Commercials

I don't watch TV that much anymore. And when I do, I skip straight to the good stuff. I DVR Love and Hip Hop. I wait until a season of Dexter is over and then watch it on Netflix. Instead...

NubianEmpress | 11/30/2011 at 8:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Thanksgiving Songs

A brisk chill has beset the hood, the golden and rouged leaves of maple trees play in dappled autumn light. Back at home Big Mama is putting the finishing touches on the sweet potato pie, and Uncle Junebug is (unsuccessfully)...

NubianEmpress | 11/23/2011 at 5:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

Who The Game's Been Missing: D'Angelo

I remember it like it was yesterday. Everyone talked about him and that video ad nauseum. Mainly women like my mother and aunties on the phone, at work, in the beauty shop, in the supermarket. There were excited whispers of...

NubianEmpress | 11/16/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

Who The Game's Gonna Be Missing: Heavy D

Nobody makes it out alive. It's an inescapable fact of life and its greatest paradox as well; when you think about it, the only guaranteed part of life is our sure departure. What you do in between is your own...

NubianEmpress | 11/09/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Slow Dancing

This past weekend I listened to one of my favorite public radio shows, This American Life. Every week they run a roughly one-hour show based on some theme. Last week's show focused on, of all things, middle school. The drama,...

NubianEmpress | 11/02/2011 at 6:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Show Etiquette

The venue is dark. Hundreds of bodies are pressed against each other in anticipation of the show of a lifetime. You are there with a friend and don't really know what to expect, you just jumped at the chance for...

NubianEmpress | 10/26/2011 at 6:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Television Theme Songs

Good people, I'm going to get to the meat of it right now. The game is missing something so small that it's hard to recognize its absence -- a dangerous thing in the musical world. Television theme songs. Like seriously....

NubianEmpress | 10/19/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Dancing Rappers

Apparently the best part of last night's EBT BET Hip Hop Awards '11 was at the end of the show, when the only slightly-overweight lover Heavy D broke it down with a four-minute medley of his certified jams. And since...

NubianEmpress | 10/12/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Privacy

We live in a new day. No longer can celebrities (or you, for that matter) tip toe under the cover of darkness to commit misdeeds, or have shadow families, or have a drug problem, or be imperfect in any way....

NubianEmpress | 10/05/2011 at 6:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Venues

While reminiscing on the Harlem Renaissance last week, I told Butta about Bricktop, a similarly freckle-faced and red-haired dynamo who owned her own jazz spot in France during that era. All the poppin' artists of the jazz age frequented Bricktop's...

NubianEmpress | 09/28/2011 at 6:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: A Movement

As I write this piece, everyone I know is retweeting, re-posting, and petitioning to get the word out about the Troy Davis case and why they believe it is a gross miscarriage of justice (for more information you can click...

NubianEmpress | 09/21/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Wedding Songs

A couple of weekends ago I attended one of the most beautiful wedding ceremonies I have ever been to. No, it didn't have angels with harps hanging from the ceiling like a scene out of a Tyler Perry fantasy movie....

NubianEmpress | 09/14/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Cameos On Television Shows

In today's current climate of endless reality shows, it struck me that there are few quality situational comedies on television today that accurately reflect the lives of people of color. (No, House of Payne and Meet the Browns don't count....

NubianEmpress | 09/07/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: The Art Of Begging

Can you feel it in the air? The mornings are a little cooler, pretty soon the leaves will begin to turn colors, and the geese will fly south. People will start wearing camel instead of tan, boots will become appropriate...

NubianEmpress | 08/31/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Soundtracks For Life

Don't judge me, but I saw Love Jones for the first time the other night. (Hey, I said don't judge me!!) Because Dionne Farris' song "Hopeless" annoyed me to no end, I had never gotten around to watching the movie,...

NubianEmpress | 08/24/2011 at 6:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Girl Groups

Beyond the hustle and bustle of endless status updates and tweets, beyond the din of every individual artist's new single, and even beyond the aggressive grind of the solo singer trying to "get on," there is a glorious, glorious sound....

NubianEmpress | 08/17/2011 at 8:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: A Workout Plan

Fearful of the "late-twenties spread" (and being a Southern woman, this is hard to fend off), I have been making a concerted effort to do better, eat healthier, sleep longer, drink more water, and be more active. So last week,...

NubianEmpress | 08/10/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Neo-Soul Video Vixens

Music videos are part and parcel of the game, and unlike many aspects of the industry, they have gotten better with age (see: Exhibits A, B, and C). Thanks to technological advances, everything from production quality to set design to...

NubianEmpress | 08/03/2011 at 8:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Cover Art

My mother has blessed me with many things. They include a slight gap; flightiness; a certain degree of charm; a dangerous set of curves; and general aura of creativity. Oh -- and her record collection. Of all these things I...

NubianEmpress | 07/27/2011 at 8:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Unattractive Artists

My 80-year-old grandmother, a Mississippi native, always uses the most colorful language to describe the world around her. Words like "vegetables" became "veggibles," and her turns of phrase included gems such as, "you don't believe fat means greasy." My all-time...

NubianEmpress | 07/20/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Not Been Missing: Jheri Curls

"Those who don't know history are destined to repeat it." -- Edmund Burke There are certain things that need not be revisited. Phenomena that we wish would go away, that we want to sweep under the rug. However, staying silent...

NubianEmpress | 07/06/2011 at 7:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

What The Game's Been Missing: Duets

While watching the EBT BET Awards this past Sunday, one performance in particular stood out to me as especially riveting to watch: Alexander O'Neal and Cherrelle's "Saturday Love." It's easy to assume that the spectacle of two geriatric mature adults...

NubianEmpress | 06/29/2011 at 9:00 PM | Comments () | Permalink

Archive » The Game

Search

Subscribe

SoulBounce Elsewhere

Archives by Month