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Kenya Barris Moves to Netflix, Tamar Ignores Vince’s Hospital Visit [VIDEO]

WATCH VIDEO: Is Drake dating a teenager? Nicki and Cardi, can’t we all just get along? Chadwick Boseman shows up big time, and; an interview with Nabate Isles



In the Quick Takes section of this episode of What’s The 411, award-winning journalist, Kizzy Cox, and comedian Onika McLean are talking about Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, Tamar and Vince, Chadwick Boseman's visit to St. Jude's Hospital, Kenya Barris' new deal with Netflix, hip-hop icon, Drake, was spotted in a Washington, DC restaurant with 18-year-old model, Bella Harris, and how Nike's stock price shows the people are embracing the company's moves, even actress Jenifer Lewis wore blinged out Nike gear on the red carpet at the 2018 Emmy Awards show.

Additionally, the episode includes an interview with Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and composer, Nabate Isles, talking about his debut album, Eclectic Excursions.

 

  • Published in Episodes

Whoopi Goldberg, Pat McGrath, Shonda Rhimes, Kim Kardashian, Shiggy, and more! [VIDEO] | What's The 411 News & Commentary - Ep. 129

Shonda Rhimes Lists 8 New Shows for Netflix; Living while Black; family of Duchess Meghan (Markle) trying to cash in; and Michelle Williams coping with mental illness

In this video, journalist Kizzy Cox, and comedian Onika McLean are discussing relevant stories of the week.

In Quick Takes, the duo is giving a rundown of the following news stories:

Kim Kardashian’s latest round of Kimoji fragrances—Kimoji Cherry, Kimoji Peach, and Kimoji Vibes—made $5 million in just five minutes. There’s no verification, but it’s Kim, so nearly anything is possible.

• Talking about the Black Girl Magic of Pat McGrath, we have learned that Black-owned cosmetics line, Pat McGrath Labs, which is a staple at Sephora, was recently valued at $1 Billion.

• ‘Love & Hip Hop’s’ Jessica Dime recently posted a photo of her 3-month-old daughter, Blessing Briel’ Williams, on Instagram for the first time, and she is beautiful.

• Showrunner, Shonda Rhimes, just released a list of eight shows to the NY Times, which includes The Warmth of Other Suns, and Pico & Sepulveda, a series set in Mexican California at the start of the Gold Rush in the 1840s.

• Comedian Shiggy, who came to fame impersonating, ESPN’s star host, Stephen A. Smith on Instagram, is back in the news in another video showing him pushing aside, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, a Super Bowl-winning quarterback at that, so he can take a photo with Ciara at the ESPYs. And, in case you don't know, Ciara is Russell Wilson's wife.

• Gospel singer Cissy Houston, is battling dementia, according to sources close to the Grammy winner. Cissy Houston is the mother of the late pop singer, Whitney Houston. We send our best wishes to the Houston family.

 

WHAT’S POPPIN – HEALTH

Recently, designer Kate Spade, and Anthony Bourdain, a celebrity chef and cultural curator, both committed suicide. Michelle Williams, formerly of Destiny’s Child, is choosing life and is taking another approach. For years, Williams has been coping with mental illness and decided to check herself into a mental health facility to get help.

Q. What do you think it will take for Americans, and particularly, Black Americans, to embrace mental health in the way that we embrace physical health?

 

WHAT’S POPPIN – POLITICS

Jeanine Pirro, a former Westchester County District Attorney, and now a Fox News host was on The View to promote her new book, Liars, Leakers and Liberals: The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy and things went left when Pirro told The View's host, Whoopi Goldberg, that she is suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Q. Why do conservatives feel the need to call people names when they have a legitimate issue with Trump?

 

WHAT’S POPPIN – CULTURE

Rolling Out reported that a white woman in Berkeley, CA. started harassing a group of Black people, yelling at them saying you don’t belong here. When the police arrived, a white female witness backed up the black family’s account of the story. The police arrested the white woman not because she was harassing people, but because she had a parole violation.

Q. What is it going to take for law enforcement to take these complaints more seriously and for there to be more consequences?

 

WHAT’S POPPIN – FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

The family of the Duchess of Sussex, better known as, Meghan Markle, is doing everything to extend its 15 minutes of fame. According to Page Six, Markle’s half-sister, Samantha Grant, is reportedly being lined up to appear on the British version of Celebrity Big Brother. The network is theming this summer’s reality hit as The Eye of The Storm and is expected to introduce housemates that have all been caught up in their own media controversies. Even her father is turning up on various television shows.

Q. Should Meghan Markle's family be in the business of trying to cash in on her royal status?

Shonda Rhimes Names 8 Shows Coming to Netflix

Shonda Rhimes Takes Shondaland to Netflix, and so far, finds success

Showrunner, Shonda Rhimes, just released a list of eight shows to the NY Times, which includes The Warmth of Other Suns, and Pico & Sepulveda, a series set in Mexican California at the start of the Gold Rush in the 1840s.

Not all eight projects have names, for example, Untitled Shonda Rhimes Project — Based on the New York Magazine article How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People by Jessica Pressler. Manhattan makes a new friend like no other. But is she the stuff American dreams are made of or is she New York’s biggest con woman? Is it a con if you enjoy being taken? Shonda Rhimes (EP) will create the series. This project was expected after Rhimes received the rights from New York magazine to use the material.

So, get ready to get your popcorn and/or your favorite beverage and settle in for a slate of smart television programming.

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay's New Film, 13th, on Netflix is Getting Rave Reviews

DuVernay's film, 13th, connects the dots between the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Black Mass Incarceration

Director Ava DuVernay's latest film, 13th, focuses on the words of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 13th Amendment was supposed to guarantee the outlawing of slavery and involuntary servitude with the exception of punishment for a crime where the "party shall have been convicted."

DuVernay shows that these five words are at the heart of police brutality and black male incarceration.

13th is getting rave reviews.

Mocha Girls Pit Stop blogger, Terri Lomax (@TerriLomax), says "All I can say it that every brown person needs to see this documentary on #Netflix...like right now."

Duvernay's film, 13th is streaming on Netflix.

Spike Lee Signs Deal With Netflix for She's Gotta Have It

She's Gotta Have It, the film that put Spike Lee on the map, gets a 10-episode run from Netflix

Shout out to filmmaker Spike Lee!

Brooklyn native Spike Lee inked a deal with Netflix to direct a 10-episode adaptation of She's Gotta Have It.

In case you never saw She's Gotta Have It or need a refresher, the story centers on Nola Darling, a Brooklyn-based artist in her late 20s struggling to define herself and divide her time among her friends, job, and three lovers.

"She's Gotta Have It has a very special place in my heart. We shot this film in 12 days (two six-day weeks) way back in the back, back of the hot summer of 1985 for a mere total of $175,000. Funds that we begged, borrowed and whatnot to get that money. This is the first official Spike Lee feature film joint and everything that we have been blessed with in this tough business of film all have been due to SGHI. Now with the passing (August 8) of the 30th anniversary, it's a gift that keeps on giving. We are getting an opportunity to revisit these memorable characters who will still be relevant and avant-garde three decades later. With all that said, it was my wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, a producer in her own right, who had the vision to take my film from the big screen and turn it into an episodic series. It had not occurred to me at all. Tonya saw it plain as day. I didn't. We are hyped that Netflix is on board with this vision as Nola Darling, Mars Blackmon, Jamie Overstreet and Greer Childs do da damn thang now, today in da republic of Brooklyn, New York," commented Lee.

The Malcolm X director will serve as creator and executive producer; and his producer wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, will also executive produce.

Spike Lee has been nominated twice for an Academy Award, but never won. In November 2015, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences presented Lee with an Honorary Academy Award for his contributions to filmmaking. Lee also won a Black Reel Award for his producing role in the Gina Prince-Bythewood directed Love and Basketball, the Black Movie Awards for Inside Man, and the Berlin International Film Festival for Get on the Bus. Lee's film, Malcolm X, which received critical acclaim, did not get nominated for an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture nor did Lee receive a nomination for Best Director. Actor Denzel Washington received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, but did not win.

Do The Right Thing, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1989, was one of Spike Lee's most memorable films. Lee's 1997 documentary 4 Little Girls, about the children killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 was nominated for the Best Feature Documentary Academy Award.

Lee's other impressive directorial works include: Mo Better Blues; Jungle Fever; and School Daze. Another fan favorite in the Spike Lee toolbox, The Best Man, Lee produced, but did not direct; that honor goes to his cousin, Malcolm D. Lee.

Are you looking forward to seeing episodes of She's Gotta Have It?

What’s The 411 Episode 49: Kanye West; Instagram’s New Nudity Policy

Onika McLean, partner to Ericka Pittman in Bravo's reality TV series, The Singles Project, Guest Hosts

 

 

Kanye West, Netflix's Orange is the New Black, Instagram's new nudity policy are just some of the topics we're talking about on What's The 411 Episode 49.

What's Poppin Quick Takes

Call him King Kanye. Time Magazine has released its 100 Most Influential People and Kanye West topped this year's list. Also on the list is Kevin Hart, Laverne Cox, and Lee Daniels.

Netflix has renewed Orange Is The New Black for Season Four.

Rapper and actor Nelly was arrested recently on felony drug charges in Tennessee. He was released on $10,000 bail

Ten former Atlanta educators will receive prison time for their part in one of the biggest school cheating scandals in U.S. history. A total of 35 educators were indicted on charges stemming from racketeering to making false statements.

Univision TV's longest-running variety show Sabado Gigante bids adios after 53 years.

In memoriam, we remember:

• R&B great Percy Sledge has passed away at age 73. Sledge is known for his hit When A Man Loves A Woman.
Good Times actor Ben Powers, has passed away. He was 64. Powers played Thelma's husband Keith Anderson
Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr., a noted Johns Hopkins Hospital surgeon and civil rights activist, has died at age 70. He was the first surgeon to put an automatic heart defibrillator into a human. He also fought for black students to be admitted into medical schools
• Singer Johnny Kemp has died at age 56. Kemp is known for his hit Just Got Paid.

What's Poppin'

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is not happy with Spike Lee. He recently met with the filmmaker and urged him to change the title of his upcoming film. The title, Chiraq, is a nickname for Chicago often employed by rappers to highlight the violence in parts of the city.

Fox News is reporting that a planned concert by R&B/Hip-Hop artist Akon was cancelled in Kuwait. Conservative members of the parliament pressed for the cancellation saying that children need protection from "negative people".

Shelly Sterling, the wife of disgraced former L.A. Clippers owner, Donald Sterling, has won her court case against her husband's ex-girlfriend, V. Stiviano. Ms. Stiviano has been ordered to pay back 2.6 million dollars. The Washington Post reports that Stiviano also has to turn over the keys to a 1.8 million dollar duplex and $800,000 in cash to the Sterling Trust.

Under the Radar

Instagram had come under fire for allowing some nude photos to remain on its platform and removing others. The social media platform has revised its terms of service and now, no nude photos will be allowed except a breastfeeding mother or photos of woman post-mastectomy.

On The Carpet

On The Carpet is the UNCF and its CEO, Michael Lomax.

Last year, when the UNCF announced a gift of $25 million from the Koch Brothers as 'one of its largest gifts ever', several people took to twitter to express shock and anger. One person wrote:

"#UNCF literally 'sells their souls to the devil' accepting checks from the #koch brothers without knowing their evil history. Craziness".

Another tweet read:

#Koch donation to @UNCF tells children everywhere that money is first and integrity is unnecessary. Sends the wrong message. Period."

A little background on the Koch Brothers, according to the progressive Center For Media and Discovery, Charles Koch was once a member of the John Birch Society, a far-right group that so opposed the civil rights movement, that it declared the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., a communist.

Additionally, Charles Murray, author of the bell curve that depicts black and Latino people as innately intellectually inferior to white people was a guest speaker at a Koch retreat.

A very telling reaction to the Koch Brothers involvement with the UNCF is that the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the largest predominately black labor union in the country, severed ties with UNCF because the UNCF accepted the Koch donation of $25 million.

What's in the Pipeline?

Rolling Stone is reporting that Snoop Dogg will produce an original family drama series with HBO. It is currently in production.

Blackfilm.com and WBLS is reporting that the cast is in place for the new Nat Turner biopic. The film will star Gabrielle Union, Nate Parker, Aja Naomi King (How To Get Away With Murder), Aunjanue Ellis, Colman Domingo, Dwight Henry, Roger Guenveur Smith, and Arnie Hammer. The film, entitled The Birth Of A Nation, is in response to the controversial 1915 film and it is currently in production.

Variety is reporting that actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw has joined the cast of the new Disney live-action film Beauty And The Beast. She will play Plumette the Feather Duster.

Former Destiny's Child, Latoya Luckett, has joined the cast of the upcoming NBC pilot Love Is A Four Letter Word.

Shondra Rhimes, Ava Duvernay, Debbie Allen, and Issa Rae will grace the cover of the May issue of Essence magazine.

Empire sensation Taraji P. Henson is working on a memoir. The book will be released in 2016.

Erica Campbell, with special guests Brian Courtney Wilson and the Allen AME Choir will perform live in concert at B.B. King's on May 2nd.

TV One will begin its 2015-2016 season with 8 new original series and 16 original movies beginning on May 9th.

  • Published in Videos

Mark Zuckerberg on a List of “10 People Who Don’t Matter”

It's hard to believe, but there was a time when CNN's Business 2.0 had Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, on its list of "10 People Who Don't Matter."

Yes, that's right, CNN's Business 2.0, a magazine that once lived as part of CNN Money, listed Zuckerberg as No. 10 on that list. The article also dismissed Netflix as a passing fad; thanks to Mashable for digging up this story.

The article also proclaimed MySpace as the most important player in the social media game, calling the network, the "80-million-user gorilla," whose success Facebook was simply chasing.

In entrepreneurship, timing is everything. So we'll give Zuckerberg credit for launching his online social directory for college students just as the social-networking craze was getting underway. He also built it right, quickly making Facebook one of the most popular social-networking sites on the Net. But there's also something to be said for knowing when to take the money and run. Last spring, Facebook reportedly turned down a $750 million buyout offer, holding out instead for as much as $2 billion. Bad move. After selling itself to Rupert Murdoch's Fox for $580 million last year, MySpace is now the Web's second most popular website. Facebook is growing too - but given that MySpace has quickly grown into the industry's 80-million-user gorilla, it's hard to imagine who would pay billions for an also-ran.M

Well what a difference a decade makes; we all know what happened to MySpace.

One lesson here for aspiring entrepreneurs is to be careful from whom you take advice. Imagine if Zuckerberg had followed the advice of CNN's Business 2.0.

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