Essays

From Essence:

12.30.2021 / Essay: "What Questlove’s Summer of Soul Documentary Meant to Me This Year”

02.18.2021 / Essay: "Time Decorated Looks at the Influence Music Had on Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Art”

11.21.2020 / Review: "Why Between the World and Me Is an Absolute Must-See”

10.09.2020 / Essay: "No Ordinary Love: An Ode to Sade”

09.09.2020 / Interview with Maurice Marable: "Lamorne Morris’s New Series Woke Hilariously Examines the Spectrum of Blackness”

06.17.2020 / Interview with Bart Cooper: "Artist Bart Cooper Talks Capturing Our Favorite Black Icons”

06.12.2020 / Interview with Jonathan Majors: "Da 5 Bloods’s Jonathan Majors Is Your New Favorite Actor”

04.17.2020 / Review: "Selah and the Spades Gives Us the Black Teen Queen We Need to Take Our Minds Off the Rona”

02.13.2020 / Review: "Brothers in Arms: A Soldier’s Play’s Return to Broadway Is as Timely as Ever”

12.24.2019 / Essay: "Welcome Back Eddie Murphy, I’ve Missed You”

10.09.2019 / Review: "Jeremy O. Harris’s Broadway Debut Slave Play Isn’t for Everyone”

09.19.2019 / Essay: "Thirty Years Later: Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation Album Is Still ‘Alright’ ”

05.02.2019 / Review: "What’s My Name: Muhammad Ali Doesn’t Shy Away From the Losses the Champ Took in His Storied Career”

04.06.2019 / Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks: "HBO’s Native Son Is an Adaptation with ‘Tricks Up Its Sleeve”

03.19.2019 / Interview with Gary Clark Jr.: "Gary Clark Jr. Tackles Racism ‘In the Middle of Trump Country’ in Latest Album This Land”

03.04.2019 / Interview with Adreinne Waheed: "Adreinne Waheed’s Collection of Black Joy and Resistance Is a Reminder of Everything Divine About Black Culture”

11.09.2018 / Review: "If Beale Street Could Talk Is an Iconic Black Love Story for This Period”

04.10.2018 / Interview with Amy Sherald: "Into the Light: Amy Sherald on the Gravity of Creating an Official White House Portrait”

03.02.2018 / Interview with Ayọ: "Nigerian-German Singer Ayọ Didn’t Go Into Music to Make Pop Hits and Is Unapologetic About It”

02.06.2018 / Interview with Ariell R. Johnson: "Living Black History: Ariell R. Johnson Talks Impact of Black Panther and Her Groundbreaking Comic Book Store”

01.05.2018 / Review: "Black Pain as Fodder: Digesting the ‘Black Museum’ Episode of Black Mirror”

11.27.2017 / Interview with Emil Wilbekin: "Google and Native Son Founder Emil Wilbekin Host an Unprecedented Conversation About Black Gay Men and Tech”

09.21.2017 / Essay: "You Should Watch HBO’s The Deuce for the Entertainment, but Also the Complicated Roles”

08.21.2017 / Essay: "We Should All Take a Note from Dick Gregory's Unapologetic Activism”

07.14.2017 / Interview with Sheila E: "Sheila E. Opens Up About What It Was Really Like Creating Timeless Music With Prince”

05.05.2017 / Interview with Carra Patterson: “Straight Outta Compton Actress Carra Patterson Joins the August Wilson Revolution in Jitney on Broadway”

05.03.2017 / Essay: “Why Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Was the Perfect Predecessor to Get Out”

04.11.2017 / “Grammy Newbies: Breakout Artists Making Their First Grammys Appearance”

02.09.2017 / Interview with Erykah Badu: “How Baduizm LIberated and Trapped Erykah Badu at the Same Time”

01.30.2017 / Interview with David Oyelowo: “A United Kingdom Continues David Oyelowo’s Streak of Making Magic With Filmmakers of Color”

10.20.2016 / Interview with Ben Vereen: “You Won’t Want to Miss Ben Vereen in The Rocky Horror Picture Show”

10.03.2016 / Review: “Solange’s A Seat at the Table Is the Epitome of #Woke Music”

09.30.2016 / Review: “With Luke Cage, #BlackLivesMatter Gets Its Superhero

08.23.2016 / Review: “Frank Ocean’s Blonde Is a Complex Tale of Identity”

07.20.2016 / Interview: “Mercy Street Stars Patina Miller and McKinley Belcher III Talk Harriet Tubman and ‘Contraband’ Blacks”

06.29.2016 / Interview with Kendra Foster: “Singer Kendra Foster On Her Rise to Stardom”

06.05.2016 / Essay: “Muhammad Ali Was My First Black Male Superhero”

07.20.2016 / Interview with Heather Headley: “Heather Headley on Her Triumphant Return to Broadway in The Color Purple”

04.26.2016 / Review: “Squeezing the Lemonade from Beyonce’s Visual Masterpiece”

04.21.2016 / Review: “Nina Simone Deserved a Better Biopic”

03.04.2008 / Erykah Badu, New Amerykah: Pt. One (4th World War): “Erykah Badu: The Plebeian, Militant Homegirl”

02.12.2008 / Michael Jackson, Thriller: “Michael Jackson’s Nigh-Unstoppable Thriller Gets the 25th-Anniversary Treatment”

12.11.2007 / Wu-Tang Clan, 8 Diagrams: “Enter the 37th Chamber”

07.31.2007 / Common, Finding Forever: “Common’s Simple Denominator”

07.24.2007 / Prince, Planet Earth: “Purple Drizzle”

03.30.2007 / Macy Gray, Big: “Still Tryin’ ”

02.01.2007 / Pazz & Jop Music Critics Poll Essay 2007: “Insanity and Other Mutations”

11.27.2007 / Jay-Z, Kingdom Come: “Hova’s Slight Return”

10.16.2006 / Janet Jackson, 20 Y.O.: “Lose Control”

09.15.2006 / Method Man, 4:21…The Day After: “Tical 2006: The Falling Off”

08.03.2004 / James Baldwin, Native Sons: “Dear Jimmy, Deal Sol: Old Letters Between Friends”

07.29.2003 / Greg Tate and Alex Hahn, Midnight Lightning: Jimi Hendrix and the Black Experience and Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince: “Deep Purple”

07.03.2002 / Lauryn Hill, MTV Unplugged 2.0: “Reality Soundbites”

03.29.2002 / Mark Anthony Neal, Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic, “Generation Hiphop’s Aesthetics”

01.23.2002 / Interview with comic writer/artist/director Frank Miller: “Thwack! Batman’s Back”

09.19.2001 / Michael Eric Dyson, Holler If You Hear Me: Searching for Tupac: “Black Blueprint”

08.29.2001 / Aaliyah Obituary: “The Highest, Most Exalted One: Aaliyah, 1979-2001”

08.01.2001 / At a Literary Retreat, Authors Debate the Mainstreaming of African-American Lit: “The Black Book”

From Ebony:

06.07.2022 / Interview with Wendy & Lisa: “Happy Birthday Prince! Wendy & Lisa of Prince and the Revolution on His Genius”

04.27.2022 / Essay: “A Tribute to the New York Legend DJ Kay Slay”

09.12.2021 / Interview with Nas: “Nas Is Good”

06.01.2021 / Interview with Tobe Nwigwe: “All Ideas Original: Nigerian-American Rapper Tobe Nwigwe Sidesteps the Music Industry Matrix for the Win”

07.31.2020 / Interview with Katori Hall: “Check Out Our Interview with Katori Hall, the Brainchild of the Hottest New Show P-Valley”

06.10.2019 / Interview with Cast of Shaft: “Shaft x 3: A Family Affair”

03.26.2019 / Interview with Diana Ross: “Diana Ross: Supreme Icon”

03.25.2019 / Interview with Debra Lee: “Being Debra Lee”

12.28.2018 / Interview with Michelle Obama: “On Becoming Michelle”

05.23.2016 / Essay: “The Beautiful Ones: The Women Who Inspired Prince”

03.04.2016 / Interview with Angela Bassett: “Angela Bassett Talks About Her Iconic Movie Roles”

02.22.2016 / Travel Essay: “48 Hours of Stax, Civil Rights x Black Theater in Memphis”

01.28.2016 / Rihanna, Anti: “Rihanna Anti Climax Satisfies”

01.12.2016 / David Bowie Obituary: “Bowie, Back to Stardust: David Bowie in Memoriam”

08.28.2015 / Interview With Prince: “Prince Makes King Move With Tidal”

06.18.2015 / Interview With Stromae: “Stromae Invades America!”

03.17.2015 / Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly: “Kendrick Lamar Voices the Ferguson Era”

12.15.2014 / D'Angelo, Black Messiah: “Black Messiah D'Angelo Resurrected!”

From Ebony “Common Sensual” sex/relationships column:

Books

2022-2010

2022: Contributor, Prince on Prince: Interviews and Encounters, Chicago Review Press

2021: Author, Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar, St. Martin’s Press

2012: Contributor, Black Cool: A Thousand Streams of Blackness, Soft Skull

2011: Contributor, Hip-Hop: A Cultural Odyssey, Aria

2010: Author, Irrésistible, Furthermucker Press                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

2009-2007

2009: Contributor, Music + Travel Worldwide: Touring the Globe Through Sounds and Scenes, Museyon Guides

2007: Contributor, Approaching Literature in the 21st Century, St. Martin’s

2007: Contributor, 33 1/3’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, Continuum Books

2007: Editor, Bronx Biannual Issue 2, Akashic Books

   2006-2004

2006: Contributor, The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers, McSweeney’s

2006: Author, There’s a Riot Goin’ On, Continuum Books

2006: Editor, Bronx Biannual Issue 1, Akashic Books

2004: Author, Scars of the Soul Are Why Kids Wear Bandages When They Don’t Have Bruises, Akashic Books

                       

Fiction

2018-2007

2018: “(What Did I Do to Get So) Black and Blue”, The Root

2011: “Turnstile”, Open

2007: “Numbers Up”, Bronx Noir, Akashic Books

2007: “The Wu-Tang Candidate”, Bronx Biannual Issue 2, Akashic Books

2006-2004

2006: “Irrésistible”, Wanderlust: 14 Erotic Tales, Plume

2004: “Diva Moves”, Brown Sugar 3: When Opposites Attract, Washington Square Press

 

 

CONNECT

Instagram: @MMLunlimited

william klein exhibit today, a major inspiration: ‘Street photographer. Fashion photographer. Painter. Graphic designer. Abstract photographer. Writer. Filmmaker. Book maker. Few have transformed as many fields of art and culture as William Kle
first 2022 movie screener came: Hustle, directed by a dear friend, Jeremiah Zagar! 🥳🥳
my 16-yr-old, enjoying iceland! 😯 beats mcdonald’s 😆
crate digging w/the bestie @darkfeather_returnz in BK!
my kendrick book dropped 11 whole months ago! in the spring, kendrick released new music—blessing the book with even higher sales. as the 1st anniversary comes up, major thanks & gratitude to everyone involved in its success!! 🙏🏽🙌🏽🙏🏽?
big birthday shoutout to dave chappelle! 🎂 (first draft soon! iykyk) #davechappelle #chappelle
destination wedding throwback! 🇵🇷
y’all: neptune frost is amazing afrofuturist fantasia. run don’t walk to see it asap if you ain’t already. LOVED [directed by the homie saul williams.]

Tweets by @MMLunlimited