Alicia Keys' "No Makeup" gets push back, Mary J. Blige goes off on Twitter, Janet Jackson Pregnancy Update and more

In this episode of What's The 411 recorded on October 4, 2016, the panel of Kizzy Cox, Onika McLean, and Sydney Wayman talked about:

Students at The University of Texas at San Antonio can sign up for a class called Black Women, Beyoncé & Popular Culture.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem is celebrating a year-long exhibit and events to commemorate the Black Power movement. The Black Power 50 exhibit and programs run through June 2017.

Maven, a car sharing service offered by General Motors, has begun rolling out one-way car sharing for its members in Ann Arbor and Detroit, letting users pick up vehicles and use them to get between Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan, and between Detroit and the Detroit Metro airport.

So, for all you naysayers out there, pop star Janet Jackson really looks pregnant. Janet Jackson is 50-years-old and is expecting her first child with husband Wissam Al Mana.

WHAT'S POPPIN

Kim Kardashian was robbed in Paris. She "was held up at gunpoint...by two armed masked men dressed as police officers," as she stayed in the apartment Kanye owns in Paris, her rep told E! News.

Singer Alicia Keys who is a coach on NBC's The Voice, is getting some pushback from viewers about her stand on no make-up?

Snapchat changed its name to Snap, Inc. and it is calling itself a camera company. Snap just introduced Spectacles, $130 eyeglasses designed to let you record 10 seconds of video at a time and sync it to your phone to post on Snapchat.

Singer Mary J. Blige recorded a commercial to promote her interview with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for a new Apple Music segment "The 411". The promo showed the Grammy-winner awkwardly serenading Hillary Clinton with a song about police violence. The Twitterverse went berserk with all kinds of jokes and memes.

The 411 Social Media Team of Nicole Okeke and Jasmine Blake talked about the comments acknowledging the birthdays of LisaRaye, Will Smith, and Kevin Durant. They also congratulated comedian Kevin Hart on his status as the highest paid comedian.

Interviews:

What's The 411 Art and Culture editor, Luvon Roberson, interviewed actors Sean C. Turner and Douglas Wade, who will be performing in the Black Spectrum Theatre's production of August Wilson's play, Two Trains Running on November 4 - 20, 2016.

Kizzy Cox interviewed apparel and jewelry designer, Lisette Ffolkes, regarding her first Jam and Rico jewelry collection.

VIDEO DISCUSSION: Actress Amandla Stenberg puts forth a thoughtful position in a Teen Vogue Snapchat

Outspoken teen actress Amandla Stenberg, famous for her breakout role in the Hunger Games as Rue came out as bisexual on a Teen Vogue snapchat. The 17-year-old said in a series of snaps:

It's a really, really hard thing to be silenced. And it's deeply bruising to fight against your identity and to mold yourself into shapes that you just shouldn't be in."

Stenberg continued "as someone who identifies as a black, bisexual woman, I've been through it, and its hurts. It's awkward and it's uncomfortable. But then I realized because of Solange [Knowles], and Ava Duverney, and Willow [Smith], and all the black girls watching this right now, that there's absolutely nothing to change."

"We cannot be suppressed," the actress added. "We are meant to express our joy, and our love, and our tears, and be big and bold and definitely not easy to swallow."

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) held its 2014 Q3 earnings call on Tuesday and although the social media giant's numbers were impressive, Wall Street was not exactly thrilled.

Facebook's growth slowed from 3.125 percent last quarter to 2.27 percent this quarter. In after-hours trading, Facebook's stock was down 9.76 percent. Additionally, Facebook broke out the financials of its $22 billion WhatsApp acquisition for the first time, and they were a little disappointing. WhatsApp brought in just $15 million in revenue in the first half of 2014 despite having 600 million users.

Ouch!

And, what about the teen metric?

Mum was the word, the world's social connector refused to break out any data about usage levels of teens. Anecdotal evidence says that teens are abandoning Facebook for apps like Snapchat. When asked about engagement for different demographics, Facebook's CFO David Wehner said the company had nothing to report on specific cohorts of users.

So what's the good news?

Facebook's billion user march! Each month, 1.35 billion people log into Facebook; 864 million are daily active users, which is up from 829 million in the second quarter of 2014. If you prefer percentages as a metric, 64% of monthly active users log on to Facebook every day.

Revenues? How about $3.2b in total revenue and $766 million in free cash flow in the third quarter.

Advertising. Facebook turned in a 247% increase in ad prices.

If you are a company without a mobile strategy, you better get moving.

Over a billion users, 1.12 billion users to be exact, use Facebook mobile each month which is up 250million since last year and 703 million use Facebook mobile each day, a 40% growth year over year. Mobile is 66% of ad revenue up from 49% during the same time last year. If these numbers about mobile don't move you, chances are your business could go the way of the Dodo bird.

It's inevitable.

The advertising domino effect has hit another social media platform, Snapchat.

The company recently announced on its blog that ads will begin appearing in "Recent Updates."

"An advertisement will appear in your Recent Updates from time to time, and you can choose if you want to watch it. No biggie. It goes away after you view it or within 24 hours, just like Stories," the company wrote in a blog post.

No need to worry about ads appearing in your snaps or chats or that creepy feeling of being followed by advertisements.

"That would be totally rude," the post reassures. "We want to see if we can deliver an experience that's fun and informative, the way ads used to be, before they got creepy and targeted. It's nice when all of the brilliant creative minds out there get our attention with terrific content."

Unclear why Snapchat and some of your other favorite social media platforms are introducing ads? The answer should be apparent, if not, Snapchat was straight to the point.

"Understandably, a lot of folks want to know why we're introducing advertisements to our service. The answer is probably unsurprising — we need to make money."