Before Def Jam Became Def Jam Before Def Jam became one of the most important labels in hip-hop history, there was a teenager from Queens named James Todd Smith. The world would come to know him as LL Cool J. He was still in his teens when he started sending out demo tapes and trying
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You Can Become Almost Anybody Online The internet has made it possible for people to create identities that look convincing long before anyone checks whether they are real. A person can rent a luxury car for a weekend. They can pose inside a house they do not own. They can buy followers, alter screenshots, invent
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Interest Rates Are Already About Us When the Federal Reserve raises or lowers interest rates, a lot of people hear the news and assume it belongs to Wall Street. It sounds like a conversation for bankers, economists, investors, and people staring at financial screens all day. That assumption can keep ordinary people outside a conversation
When the Fed Moves, Black America Should Pay Attention Read More »
The Corporate Invitation to Speak Up Almost every company says it wants employees to speak openly. Leaders talk about psychological safety, honest feedback, transparency, and the importance of challenging ideas. They tell people to raise concerns before small problems become large ones. On paper, that sounds exactly right. The trouble starts when someone actually takes
Everybody Wants Honest Feedback Until the Feedback Is Honest Read More »
You Are More Than the Role You Perform Sometimes a person performs a role for so long that they forget there was ever a self underneath it. You become the provider, the strong one, the fixer, the dependable one, or the person who holds everything together. Those roles can be necessary. Families need parents. Workplaces
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Attraction Is More Than Looks When people talk about what makes a man attractive, the conversation usually starts with appearance. Looks matter, but they are only one part of the picture. Over time, qualities like stability, judgment, humor, kindness, confidence, and emotional maturity can matter just as much or more. That is especially true when
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The Employee Who Was Excellent Until He Wanted More A few years ago, I worked with an employee whose personnel file told a very clear story. Year after year, his performance reviews described him as exceptional. He exceeded expectations. He was dependable. He produced strong results. He was exactly the kind of employee management said
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How Does the Biggest Song Get Nothing? There are moments in music when you look at an awards show and wonder how the numbers and the nominations can possibly belong to the same universe. One of the clearest examples came with The Weekend and Blinding Lights. The song became one of the biggest records in
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Go Back to the Civil War Do you know how far back absentee voting goes in American history? To understand the modern argument, it helps to go all the way back to the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln was running for reelection in 1864 while hundreds of thousands of Union soldiers were away from their homes
Mail-In Voting Is Older Than Most Americans Realize Read More »
Questioning Is Part of Education If you really want to grow intellectually, you have to become willing to question what you believe. You have to question the status quo. You have to question the assumptions underneath the questions you are already asking. Sometimes education means going down the rabbit hole and following an idea farther
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