#ConversationStarter: MC FLOTUS on the Track

via pitchfork.tumblr.com

Just call her MC FLOTUS. The First Lady of the United States has gone viral. Michelle Obama just released a PSA where she raps alongside Saturday Night Live’s Jay Pharaoh. The PSA encourages individuals to consider education post high school.  Check it out below.

This isn’t the first time the First Lady has caught the attention of the social media generation. In a effort to get kids to eat healthy the Chicago native once hooped it up with LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh; she also taught the Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon and Will Ferrell that eating right and working out isn’t “ew!” 

#ConversationStarter: What do you think about the First Lady’s newest PSA? Do you have a favorite of all the PSAs she has done?

#ConversationStarter: Hoopin’ with the FLOTUS.

Check this out:

The Miami Heat and First Lady Michelle Obama team up for a new Let’s Move PSA. Her reaction at the end makes me chuckle; I can’t picture another FLOTUS doing this PSA. Can you? If so who?

Also since it’s a health related  PSA, what gets you moving?  How do you stay health and fit?

#ConversationStarter: “Do What You Love.”

“Do What You Love”–Andrea Valeria

The pop culture boss, who is, Andrea Valeria recently released new vlog called “Do What You Love” and I wanted to share it here.

I couldn’t agree more with the gal who overdoses in pop culture. Why spend life doing something that doesn’t or only makes you somewhat content with life?

Do something that ignites the fire in you and makes you happy that you’re getting out of bed everyday!

Chime In: What makes you happy? Are you doing that thing? If not, why not?

Visit AndreaValeria.com for everything pop.

Follow @itsaPopOD on Twitter too.

Related: TalentedTuesday: It’s A PopOD

#ConversationStarter: Minority Players on #SNL.

Kerry Washinton on SNL.

Saturday Night Live took a jab at itself–with guest host, Kerry Washington in tow–after several SNL cast members and the media began asking why aren’t their any black women on the late night laugh fest which is now in its 39th season.

The opening skit had Washington playing First Lady Michelle Obama, then running out the room to change into Oprah.

According to Melissa Harris-Perry, Washington is the eighth  African-American woman to hold down guest hosting duties.

Series creator Lorne Michaels says finding a black woman for the show is a priority.

From The LA Times:

Michaels said he is focused on finding an African American female cast member for the NBC series, but he did not specify how soon it would happen.

“It’s not like it’s not a priority for us,” Michaels said in an interview with the Associated Press on Thursday. “It will happen. I’m sure it will happen.”

Kenan Thompson, a SNL veteran who tells the LA Times he’s tired of putting on drag, puts the lack on black female performers.

BREAKING NEWS: Three Black people are on screen in an #SNL skit right now and none of the men are in a dress!

— Asani Isapoet (@Asani) November 3, 2013

However, there are plenty of black women who have graced comedic television–Debra Wilson and Wanda Sykes to name a few.

So chime in who in the minority would like to see on SNL? And let’s not just limit it to black women as one person on twitter pointed out:

RT @asteelpeach Let’s not make this a strictly Black women casting issues. They have a multiethnic casting issue.

— …guess (@mschantebaby) November 3, 2013

#ConversationStarter: Did This Bus Driver Do All He Could?

Bus driver, John Moody, is under fire for what occurred in the video above.

A 13-year-old boy has two black eyes and broken arm and a bus driver is under fire after three 15-year-olds attacked the teen.

The trio says they went after the 13-year-old because he told administrators they tried to sell him drugs.

As the assault takes place the 64-year-old bus driver pleads with the boys to stop but does not physically step in to stop the altercation.

From CNN.com

As the boy is pummeled, the bus driver John Moody yells at the assailants to leave the boy alone.

He also asks dispatchers to send help.

“You gotta get somebody here quick, quick, quick, quick,” he says. “They’re about to beat this boy to death over here.”

“Please get somebody here quick. There’s still doing it,” he adds. “There’s nothing I can do.”

Moody, 64, says he was too afraid to step in.

“The three boys just jumped on him and started pounding on him. And I did all can,” he told CNN affiliate WFLA. “I was looking. It was like I was in shock. I was petrified.

Now some say the Florida bus driver’s pleas were not enough and that he should have stepped in.

Chime in: Do you think he should have stepped in?

Or considering his age and fear for his own safety it was okay for him not to intervene?

What can be done to ensure violence like this doesn’t happen on school buses?

#ConversationStarter: Preacher’s Wife Responds To Outfit Criticism.

DeVon Franklin with wife and actress, Meagan Good. (image via HipHollywood.com)

Good with the cast of Cousin Skeeter. She played Nina in the 90s sitcom.

Meagan Good is catching heat from some on social media after the preacher’s wife donned a dress with a plunging neckline.

She wore the striking blue ensemble at the BET Awards while presenting the Best Gospel Artist award.

Good, who gained fame in the 90s in the Nickelodeon sitcom Cousin Skeeter, is married to Sony Pictures Executive and Seventh Day Adventist pastor Devon Franklin.

Below is a sample of the reaction on twitter:

Meagan Good know that dress was inappropriate to present a gospel award. Come on now

— Londan Banks (@LondanBanks) July 4, 2013

Feel for Meagan Good after this worldwide dress criticism she has gotten. She had go and defend what she wore. It wasnt even classless dress

— O’YeahCinco (@OhYeahGuy) July 3, 2013

I knew I wasn’t the only one giving Meagan Good the side eye for that dress she wore to the BET Awards! Hmph!
— 6’0 Snob (@RevoltedSoul) July 3, 2013

The star of the NBC drama, Deception, had this to say to her critics:

From The Christian Post:

“I never forgot God was there for a second.. and would never be ashamed of what I’m wearing (in) front of him…,” Good responded to one person on Instagram. “He loves me for exactly who He created me to be despite what anyone else thinks…”

From NewsOne:

I’m not any less holy because the dress I wore -I may not be who people think I should be -but I’m morphing into exactly who God wants me to be.. My excuse is never “I’m going to do me” and I don’t feel that I need to make an excuse or defend or what I wore .. I know I have a responsibility -and I’m working daily to fulfill the full potential of all God has created me to be..

A dialogue was started about my character, integrity, my walk with God and my Husband -simply based on a dress that I wore.., Of course I’m going to have a reaction to people saying negative things… It’s just sad.. Makes me sad not regretful.. My heart and spirit is always open to whatever my Father would want to share with me… And my spirit tells me to be exactly who I authentically am -because that’s what’s going to reach who I was authentically designed to touch.. people like me who are often misunderstood and told their cut of God’s promise -because they don’t look the role …when God doesn’t care about us “looking the role”..he is always cared about bringing us in -and us being whatever we need to be to bring Those left out in ..

Chime in: Was the dress all good? Or do you side with the “social media motherboard” (as NewsOne puts it) who thinks it was too much?

Read More.

The Christian Post.

NewsOne.

The Huffington Post.

HipHollywood.

The YBF.

#ConversationStarter: Betty & Coretta

Lifetime breaks away from the crime, murder and the romantic plot lines this February to tell the story of the friendship between two Civil Rights wives—Betty Shabazz & Coretta Scott King.

Hollywood’s Angela Bassett will play King and music’s Mary J. Blige will play Shabazz.

Watch the preview below.

From the Washington Post:

The film tells the story of the strong, evolving friendship between Shabazz and King, as they forge ahead to raise the ten children (Shabazz had six and King had four) left fatherless after the tragic assassinations of their husbands. It shows their courage as they braved the danger from black anger and white hate and how their commitment to the human rights movement propelled them to leadership in their own right. For the first time in one place, their surrogates give voice to whom or what killed their husbands.

Betty & Coretta premieres February 2 at 8pm ET.

We know Angela Bassett’s range she’s played everyone from Rosa Parks to Betty Shabazz (in Malcolm X).

The Queen of Hip-Hop Soul has had supporting acting roles before but now she’s taking lead as Shabazz.

Chime in: If you’re reading this before you watch how do you think Mary J. will fare? If you’re reading after, how do you think she did?

#ConversationStarter: First Lady Michelle Obama Rocks A New Hairstyle.

First Lady Michelle Obama just celebrated her 49th birthday.

Malia and Sasha’s mom debuted the new hairstyle on her big day. 

What do you think?

Taking a line from WBOC’s Denise Sawyer is the “First Lady ‘BANG’ing?”

First Lady Michelle Obama at January 2013’s Kid’s Inaugral.

Check out her 2012 style in this vid from the Huffington Post.

Ev Opens Up To Nightline.

“You have to walk away because I have to protect myself.”

–Evelyn Lozada

Evelyn Lozada the star of Basketball Wives, who recently filed for divorce from her husband of six-weeks Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson, is opening up for the first time to ABC’s Nightline about the domestic violence incident that changed her life.

Watch the video below.

Lozada and Johnson met on Twitter and their world-wind romance was told in front of the cameras on the VH1 series Basketball Wives.

Now the couple’s divorce comes after the former player for the Dolphins allegedly headbutted her.

Ochocinco & Evelyn Lozada.

From ABCNews:

On Aug. 11, Lozada was taking groceries out of a car that Johnson used to drive to football practice when she said she found a bag in the backseat with a toothbrush holder and a Walgreens receipt for a box of condoms inside. The receipt was dated July 20, she said, three weeks after they were married.

When Johnson came home later that evening, Lozada said she got into his car to confront him about the receipt and threatened to leave him.

“And then the next thing I know, he grabbed me by here [pointing to her head] and he head-butted me,” Lozada said. “I felt blood coming down my face… and I looked at him and I said, ‘You just head-butted me?’ And it just — everything just felt if it was in slow motion.”

Read More at ABCNews.com

Johnson has refuted the incident.

In fact he says that he never headbutted Lozada rather she headbutted him.

The New York native and shoe boutique owner said she still loves Chad but he needs help and that they will never get back together.

“I don’t think any woman should ever have to feel like that or be fearful of her husband.”

After the incident Ochocinco lost his job with the Dolphins and the former couple’s reality series ‘Ev & Ocho’ slated to premiere on September 3rd was canned by VH1.

(Also: Take a look at this TMZ reports Johnson recently got a tattoo of his soon to be ex-wife’s face on his leg.)

___________

Chime in.

Why do you think so many reality television relationships end so badly?

Fans of Johnson or Lozada, do you view them in a different light now?

Do you think Johnson’s career can recover from this incident?

Should either one of them be focused on career right now?

#ConversationStarter: Aaliyah Dana Haughton Revisited.

Eleven years after her death, ‘Baby Girl’ has returned to the music scene and may have a new album in the works.

Actor turned rapper and Aaliyah fan , Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham has hinted at something special coming for months and now he has released her new song ‘Enough Said,’ and is featured on a verse of the track.

Take a listen. Explicit. (Listen to a version with the rap edited out here ►AaliyahAlways)

Mixed reaction is coming from fans.

Some love it, while others say the cussing is over the top and Aaliyah would never laden her music with so much cursing, if any.

Really feeling this Aaliyah & Drake song he could have did without all the cursing though Aaliyah wasn’t about that but it’s cool

— Finesse (@MontariusJ_) August 7, 2012

I like the AALIYAH song with drake… the vibes is right.

— CIPHA SOUNDS (@ciphasounds) August 7, 2012

Finally heard the Aaliyah and drake track, I’m not feeling the cursing she never had curse words on her songs even with DMX #disrespectful

— Jason Maples (@CoachMaples55) August 6, 2012

But honestly an Aaliyah project without Timbaland and Missy is like drinking koolaid without sugar…it just isn’t right

— Tenay(@Tenay979) August 6, 2012

Like the tweet above, some think Missy Elliott and Timbaland should work on the album seeing that they knew the ‘Are You That Somebody’ songstress best and Drake did not know her at all.

Aaliyah & Timbaland

Producer Timbaland recently told New York’s Power 105.1:

“I don’t know what’s going on. The proper way to do that would be for me, him and Missy to be all on the record. For it to be on his record, that would not be right.”

Read more at Billboard.com

In a recent turn of events, Aaliyah’s official twitter account tweeted that Timbaland will work on two tracks for the album. There is still no word on Elliott.

Great news , now we are extremely excited twitter.com/AaliyahHaughto…

— Aaliyah(@AaliyahHaughton) August 6, 2012

However, while her Twitter account confirms the album, her brother denied it on her official facebook page and followed up with a question to fans about releasing an Aaliyah album.

Only time will tell if an album really happens or not.

__________________

Josh’s Note: One qualm with the song—the cursing. Aaliyah’s music was not filled with cursing.

I do not necessarily have problem with Drake appearing on the album or helping produce it. However, if a album is produced. It is also only right to have both her family and those closest to her involved in the project because they are forever hers and she is forever theirs.

Her music was something anyone at any age could listen to whether they were 5 or 80. It was something anyone could relate to be it the beat or the lyrics.

As I told my radio colleague when I first heard the song, out of respect for her and her artistry it would have been smart and best to stay in lane with who she was, who she is.

Aaliyah is a classic R&B artist with a modern feel whose music is timeless.

Rest in Peace Baby Girl. 1979-2001

May You Live Forever Through Music.

__________________

So what do her fans have to say chime in.

What do you think about ‘Enough Said?’

Is the cursing too much?

Would you like a new Aaliyah album of unreleased music?

Related:

Read more ►SAY WHAT? Aaliyah’s Family Says There’s NO Posthumous Aaliyah Album (DETAILS)

Read more ►AMEN! Timbaland Will Produce Songs On Aaliyah’s Posthumous Album (DETAILS)

Read more ►Dear Drake: Let The Voice Of An Angel, Be With The Angels!

Read more ► New Aaliyah: ‘Enough Said’ featuring Drake teases upcoming posthumous Aaliyah album

Other Aaliyah Posts On Unscripted Observations.

► #TalentedThursday: Aaliyah, Gone But Not Forgotten.