Entertainment Archives

Courtesy of Candyman Music Inc., Photographer: Derek Blanks

There's a plethora of talent in Chicago, but it's not a secret that Chicago artists tend to go on the East Coast or West Coast to further their careers. R&B singer Donell Jones, who is  most popular for songs like "Shorty Got Her Eyes on Me" and "U Know What's Up" featuring the late TLC member Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, has cut ties with La Face record label after four CDs and gone independent with his label, Candyman Music Inc.

On December 9, 2009, Donell Jones released "The Lost Files," which were unreleased tracks made during the making of his first four CDs--"My Heart" (1996), "Where I Wanna Be" (1999), "Life Goes On" (2002) and "Journey of a Gemini" (2006). Now he's back in the studio working on his untitled 2010 CD. Although in his beginning years he had to travel to Washington D.C. for a radio conference to get his career going because "if you wasn't making music like R. Kelly, nobody was really checking for you" and loves his current home in Atlanta, which he's nicknamed "The Baby New York," when asked if he's from Chicago, he proudly boasts "Oh, no doubt!"

From the tilted hat, crease in his pants on his Twitter page, laid-back and sultry performances to his friendly demeanor during the interview with Shamontiel, Donell Jones is so Chicago.

The AKAs are on a "mission" to win!

3/20/2010 Update: Click here to read about the Atlanta finale.1/24/2010: When I heard about the Sprite Step Off from FoxBrownFox and Commonground, I was sold from the beginning. But when SpriteStepOff.com advertised that it would be the largest step show in history, I was wondering how true that'd be. However, on Saturday night (Jan. 23) when I drove up to the Regal Theater and saw cars backed down the block of 1645 E. 79th St., and the line to get into the Regal around the corner, I knew this was going to be something serious. And the Regal completely sold out of tickets. Largest step show in history? Looked like it. But would it be the livest step show I'd ever seen? That was the test. I've seen many throughout my college years (Lincoln University alumni!), plus the numerous step shows I've seen all over the world even after I graduated.

Well, this Sprite Step Off was not playing around. Hands down the Sprite Step Off is definitely my all-time favorite step show, and it was definitely the livest!

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Updated 1/25/2010

The original winners announced at the Sprite StepOff on Sat., Jan. 23, were the following:

Sororities: $21,500 Alpha Kappa Alpha (first place); $16,000 Zeta Phi Beta (second place); $11,000 Alpha Theta Omega (third place)

Fraternities: $21,500 Alpha Phi Alpha (Central State University, first place);  $16,000 Phi Beta Sigma (second place); $11,000 Alpha Phi Alpha (St. Louis citywide chapter, third place)

However, 360i and FoxBrownFox PR were notified on Mon., Jan. 25, that there was a voting discrepancy for the sororities during Saturday night's event. According to the Sprite Facebook page, "In the spirit of sportsmanship, we also advised the other two teams who were originally announced as the second and third place winners (now third and fourth place winners), that we wanted them to keep the prize money they had been awarded." So here are the updated sorority winners with corrected prize amounts. 

Sororities: $21,500 Alpha Kappa Alpha (first place); $16,000 Sigma Gamma Rho (second place) and $16,000 Zeta Phi Beta (third place); $11,000 Alpha Theta Omega (fourth place)  

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But just telling you who the winners are doesn't do them any justice. You need proof, right? Check out some of the photos and a video of Greek strolling in the crowd that I took at the Sprite Step Off on Saturday, Jan. 23.

Tyra Banks on 'The Tyra Banks Show, photo courtesy of ChicagoTribune.com

I have never been a fan of talk shows. While I respect Oprah's accomplishments on television, I'm bored to death with her talk show. However, I love some of the other projects she's been affiliated with, such as "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and "Precious." I'd even give a head nod on some of her bookclub selections. But I can't say I'm a fan. It always rubbed me the wrong way that she'd have some of the most controversial topics on her show but not hip hop artists. How do you invite the KKK on your show but then wag a finger at Ludacris? She did finally have Jay-Z on her show, but hip hop has been around for 30 plus years. In my opinion, it took her so long, and I didn't like the way she treated Ludacris, so I didn't even watch that Jay-Z episode. But I still have 100 percent respect for Oprah Winfrey as a professional.

However, it is a mystery to me altogether why anybody would watch ridiculously stereotypical shows like "The Jerry Springer Show" and "You are not the father" show (aka Maury Povich's show). I was tired of "The Ricki Lake Show" with Ricki Lake talking over her guests. "The Johnny Carson Show" was okay sometimes, but he would ask rhetorical questions or need everything spelled out, so I couldn't handle re-runs of that show either. I remember watching a few episodes of "The Arsenio Hall Show," but all I remember was the dog barking. I was too little to get a good handle on that talk show.

I never connected with Jenny Jones' and Martha Stewart's talk shows either. Ellen DeGeneres is hilarious performing live and I loved her television show, but for some odd reason I can't stay interested in her talk show. I'll watch her dance or watch a good guest, but outside of that, I couldn't be still watching "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." Jay Leno and David Letterman would occasionally have an interesting episode, but those were few and far between. I used to believe I just didn't like talk shows until I started checking out some others like "The Tyra Banks Show," "Lopez Tonight" and "The Mo'Nique Show."

Will Smith, known for million-dollar movies like "Independence Day," "Hitch," "Bad Boys 1-2" and "I Am Legend" and "I, Robot" was nervous. Who would think that the star of the '90s TV sitcom "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" could be nervous in front of a camera? But he was nervous last week during a meeting, even with his wife at his side. Why? Because he was interviewing President Barack H. Obama.

Will Smith stated, "This is the first time I've been nervous in front of a camera in a long time."

Obama's response? "Just think back to Prince of Bel-Air, man."

Jada Pinkett-Smith, most popularly known as Lena James from "A Different World," the voice of the hippopotamus on "Madagascar" and the star of the show "HawthoRNe," seemed at ease. Check out the Smiths' interview with Obama on a Nobel Peace Prize speech comment "expanding our moral imagination," Internet communication, putting yourself in someone else's shoes and First Lady Michelle Obama.

Getty Images, courtesy of ChicagoTribune.com

Throughout this entire season of "So You Think You Can Dance," I've noticed that the judges have been very skeptical about the hip hop choreographers and the selections the choreographers are giving to the dancers. Dave Scott was accused of giving Ashleigh Di Lello and Legacy Perez a vampire hip hop routine that was not challenging enough for their stage in the competition. Choreographers Tabitha and Napoleon were told the routine they gave Ellenore Scott and Legacy Perez as hip hop aliens was a little too strange and the masks were distracting. I agreed with both judges and understood their discontent with some of the dance routines.

The reality is that nobody was creating harder and more challenging routines in hip hop choreography than Shane Sparks. I think the judges were spoiled by him, but when he stopped being a judge on "So You Think You Can Dance" and left for "America's Best Dance Crew," they were left with a lull. He'd re-appeared and disappeared the past couple seasons but never as a regular judge. And even when he created a dance routine, it was unfortunately not performed by one of the original dancers--Ashleigh Di Lello because of a shoulder injury and Shane Sparks' assistant did a mediocre job of dancing with "So You Think You Can Dance?" winner, Russell Ferguson.

Lil' C spends too much time trying to use vocabulary I don't remotely believe he uses in his everyday conversation, so it always bugs me to see him on the panel although his krumping routines are okay. I actually do like most of Tabitha and Napoleon's routines, but none of them had the funk that Shane Sparks was bringing.

But judging from today's TMZ report, it looks like Shane Sparks may be unavailable for a pretty long time for both "America's Best Dance Crew" and "So You Think You Can Dance?"

Chris Brown released his latest CD "Graffiti" on Dec. 8

I have zero tolerance for domestic violence, and I feel like if people can't keep their hands to themselves that relationship needs to cease immediately. So with this attitude in mind, I really had a dilemma on my hands because I'd been a long-time fan of Chris Brown since his "Run It" days and bought all of his music. Was I going to boycott Chris Brown's new CD "Graffiti" because of the issues with Rihanna? Should I buy Rihanna's CD in support of her decision to speak up on "Good Morning America" even though I've never been a fan of her music? Or, should I buy Chris Brown's CD anyway as a supporter of his music but not his choices? I chose the last one.

Everyone seems to have opinions on whether Chris Brown was justified in the fight with Rihanna. Diehard fans swear up and down that Rihanna did something wrong and she deserved it. I think that statement is ridiculous. I don't care what a woman verbally says. Rihanna never deserved the butt whooping handed to her in February 2009. But I can't go so far as to say nobody deserves to be dealt with because it's not like I've never been in a fight. I can't even say I've never been in a fight with a guy because I have--once. It didn't last long though, but I can see how anger gets the best of a person and I didn't start that fight. (I didn't lose the fight either, by the way, but fighting is nothing to brag about. However, I never spoke to that guy again for the rest of my life.) I hear the accusations that Rihanna hit Chris Brown first, but we all know her strength does not compare to his. And then what if Rihanna didn't hit him at all, and Chris Brown just beat the living daylights out of her for the reasons in the police report?

I even thought about the accusations that if a man hits you once, he will hit you again. But I was frustrated by that belief because I know of two marriages with one partner who hit the other and then it never happened again, even years later. But to be fair, I have heard and known other couples who had one partner who was consistently abusive. Which category would Chris Brown fall in? Could he beat the odds?

In this film publicity image released by Disney, Princess Tiana, voiced by Anika Noni Rose, left, and Prince Naveen, voiced by Bruno Campos, are shown in a scene from the animated film, "The Princess and the Frog." (AP Photo/Disney)

On December 11, Walt Disney Animation Studios presents "The Princess and the Frog," and Diamonds & Lace EventScaping plans to honor more African-American princesses next Friday too with their Princess Coronation Weekend in Chicago.

"'The Princess and the Frog' was more or less the inspiration for the Princess Coronation Weekend," said Relana Johnson, co-owner of Diamonds & Lace EventScaping. "An affiliate of ours is handling the private screening of the film, and we felt that this was just too historical of an event to just limit it to the private screening. Everyone in the community is excited about it."

The film, "The Princess and the Frog," is about an African-American young lady named Tiana who meets a frog prince trying to become human again. Their chance encounter and a kiss lead them into the lively Louisiana bayous.

"The Disney princess franchise is a billion-dollar franchise, and for them to take note that the African-American buying power of women, children, parents, grandparents is worth giving us a princess that people in our community can identify with makes it a big deal," Johnson said.

Getty Images photo by Frank Micelotta / February 7, 2009 - Singer Rihanna attends the 2009 Grammy Salute To Industry Icons honoring recording executive Clive Davis at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday in Beverly Hills, California.

Around 4 p.m. today, I was switching between CDs and Power 92 happened to be the last station I was listening to in between. The radio personality was discussing an interview question with pop star Rihanna about who she was "getting it in" with since Chris Brown.

Rihanna made a comment about not being interested in love over her career and instead choosing to pleasure herself. Now if that response wasn't wild enough, the Power 92 radio personality asked women to call in to find out if they pleasure themselves too. I just shook my head, changed the station and popped a new CD in. This is why I listen to the radio about 10 percent of the time I'm in a car or walking down the street with my MP3 player. Some of the conversations are ridiculous to me, and I definitely didn't want to hear a bunch of women calling in talking about rabbits and their fingers. When did daytime radio personalities get so risqué?

Call me prudish, but I felt like Rihanna could've kept that comment to herself and so could the radio personality. The problem is the media is forever digging for information we really have no business knowing. Whoever Rihanna chooses to date is really between herself and her new "beau" when/if she has one. But I think people automatically assume that everybody you're dating is someone you're banging. Not true.

Who do you think this is wearing these pants?

There are fashion do's and fashion don'ts. Some of the "in" fashion is stuff I'm rocking already and sometimes I take notes from fashion magazines if I'm comfortable, but one thing I never could get into was pants or shorts with words on the booty. I always thought women who wore these crazy bottoms either didn't have anything back there and needed to bring attention to it or wanted to bring more attention to it.

But wearing these pants is like wearing shirts with the cleavage showing. (I'm guilty of that one.) I have more than a little bit of V-neck sweaters or fitted tops. But words? I saw a tweet from @entertainreal about Starcasm.net's coverage and several photos of one-half of "Daddy's Little Girls" Angela Simmons, daughter of Reverend Run (Run DMC), rocking purple spandex pants with the word "Yes" in white letters across her butt.

There is no R&B artist that I like more than Marvin Pentz Gaye Jr. His music was just as relevant when he started out in the late '50s as it is now, and one of my favorite songs of his is "Inner City Blues (Makes Me Want to Holler)." The issues that Marvin Gaye talked about in that song are just as on point in 2009 as they were when the song first came out in the early 1970s--inflation, the struggle with paying bills, increasing crime, war overseas and taxes. Sound familiar?

Born on April 2, 1939 in Washington D.C., Marvin Gay aka Marvin Gaye (who later added the "e" to "Gaye" when he signed up with Motown) started off traveling with his father at the age of five, singing in church conventions and took off singing all kinds of music from 1957 with the Marquees until he went solo.

I don't think there's a singer who has put out the same amount of sexy, smooth and political tracks that he's put out with equal success. Marvin Gaye was still seen as an intelligent sex symbol (and grew even more handsome with age), and that really made me dig his music, especially with political songs like "What's Going On?" and "Inner City Blues (Makes Me Want to Holler)" played right before I blasted "Ego Trippin'," "Sexual Healing" and "Let's Get It On."

In this publicity image released by ABC, Diane Sawyer, left, interviews singer Rihanna about her relationship with ex-boyfriend Chris Brown in New York. The interview aired on the morning program "Good Morning America," Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009, and will also air Friday on the prime time news program "20/20: Good Morning America". (AP Photo/ABC, Ida Mae Astute)

A week before Valentine's Day, R&B singer Chris Brown was being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department for assault on his then-girlfriend pop star Rihanna. After the February 8 notorious fight that put Rihanna in the hospital with a bruised face, an image of her face taken by LAPD was then posted on TMZ's Web site. Nine months later, Rihanna finally spoke out after Chris Brown had already issued a public apology on his Web site and gone on CNN's "Larry King Live." In the interview on ABC's "20/20: Good Morning America" on Nov. 6 at 9 pm, Rihanna talked about what a woman goes through after being physically abused.

The terms "Rihanna" and "Chris Brown" immediately became trending topics on Twitter.com, but another topic to hit the top of the trending topics was "#rihannasforehead." Rihanna had finally decided to talk to the public about how horrifying, embarrassing and personal this tragedy was between her and someone she was in love with, and Twitter users treated it like a joke with tweets like "While driving up #RihannasForehead, I had to fill up twice and got lost three times!" (1:53 am) and "Can #rihannasforehead compete with #tyrasforehead" (1:53 am). Some Twitter users were not amused by this trending topic, declaring "#rihannasforehead This is the most mean and hateful thing ever. You people have no hearts. Rihanna is beautiful inside and out" (1:53 am) and "I C #rihannasforehead is trending, wow, people can be so rude, how do you think she's gonna feel when she C's this." (1:52 am)

Robin Thicke at Chicago's Rednofive

Robin Thicke fans, are you ready to meet him? Mr. "Complicated" and "Lost Without You" R&B artist extraordinaire will be visiting Macy's in Chicago, IL on Oct. 28.

If you're one of the first 150 customers to purchase Hugo Boss Element men's fragrance for $65 at Macy's (starting from store opening), you'll get the chance to meet Robin Thicke and get an autographed copy of his new single, "Sex Therapy" from his upcoming album, also called "Sex Therapy." He'll also be performing a couple of songs if time permits.

Location Information:
Wednesday, October 28, 12pm
Macy's State Street - Fragrance Arcade
111 North State Street
Chicago, IL 60602

Photo courtesy of Six Flags Great America

Halloween is coming. Why not scare yourself silly and drop 147 feet on the American Eagle, speed through six 160-degree turns or have random "dead" people jumping out at you at Six Flags Great America? Chicago is already giving Illinoisans the gloomy weather for nearby Gurnee, IL's Six Flags location, but don't let the cold weather stop you. The water park is closed, but the rides are still zooming like crazy. Over 75 rides (including 13 roller coasters, 35 kids' rides and 22 family ride in addition to other water rides), two haunted houses, two "scare-thru areas" and the "Thrill the World" Michael Jackson tribute with thousands of people re-enacting the "Thriller" scene sounds like a lot of fun.

Brooke Gabbert, Six Flags' Director of Communications, took time out to talk to ChicagoNow.com blogger Message from Montie about how Chicago's B96 deejay Jerzy is handling living in the Sky Trek Tower (since Oct. 10) until the Raging Bull gets 1.5 million riders, what's new this year for the Fright Fest and why people should spend their weekends at Six Flags.