Today In Black History: Amílcar Cabral

Like so many great African leaders of his time, on this date in 1973 Amílcar Cabral was assassinated. Cabral was killed by Guinea-native agents of the Portuguese colonial authorities. His murder was a few months before Guinea-Bissau declared unilateral independence. Cabral was the leader in the African nationalist movements in Guinea-Bissau and the Cape Verde Islands and led Guinea-Bissau's independence movement. Because of his affiliation as a Marxist and guerrilla warfare tactics, he was viewed as a enemy and huge threat to the west.

Today Cabral is a national hero in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau. Cape Verde's principal international airport at Sal, is named in his honor. Also the only privately owned university in Guinea-Bissau is named after him, Amílcar Cabral University.

Throwback Thursday: Cross Colours

Cross Colours is a clothing brand that was launched in 1989 by Carl Jones. It was created on the premise of producing “clothes without prejudices”. The clothing was used to broadcast political and social messages to the youth. Cross Colours clothing became more than just a fashion statement at its peek during the early 1990s. Cross Colours was one of the first companies to make urban gear fashionable to the masses and played a huge part during the afrocentric phase of hip-hop's golden era.

MLK Memorial At the Smithsonian Near Completion

The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial was an idea created by the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity to erect a monument of the late civil rights leader. The fraternity wanted to build something after his death, and their efforts gained momentum in 1986, after King's birthday was designated a national holiday. The project cost a reported 120 million of which 108 million has been raised. Construction of the memorial began in December of 2009. King is the first black man honored with a memorial in the National Mall area and the third non-president.



Find out more about the memorial HERE.

YEBies Making Moves: Tahir Jetter and Sundance Film Festival

Young Filmmaker Tahir Jetter is starting to make a name for himself in the world of film making. The NYU grad will have his film "Close." in this year's Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. I got a chance to meet him for the first time this summer as he's the cousin of a good friend of mines Marcel Marshall. Jetter's film is one of the 200 which were picked out of over 10,000 submitted for this year's festival. Close will be screening for 5 days in Utah. You can follow him on twitter HERE for more information. 

Screening Days @ Sundance

Saturday, January 22, 9:00 a.m.

Holiday Village Cinema IV, Park City

Sunday, January 23, 2:30 p.m.

Prospector Square Theatre, Park City

Thursday, January 27, 10:30 p.m.

Broadway Centre Cinema IV, SLC

Friday, January 28, 9:15 p.m.

Holiday Village Cinema II, Park City

Saturday, January 29, 7:30 p.m.

Broadway Centre Cinema IV, SLC

Danyel Smith Named Editor-in-Chief of Billboard

Oakland, CA native Danyel Smith, the wife of the homie Elliott Wilson is the new Editor-in-Chief of Billboard magazine. This is great move for Smith who in 1993 served as R&B Editor for Billboard, and ran Vibe magazine from 1997-1999 and again from 2006-2009. Smith and Wilson (who is the founder of Rapradar and has served as editor of XXL magazine) are a true power couple in my music business.

While at VIBE:

Stalley – Lincoln Way Nights *Preview* [Video]

Stalley discusses his new project Lincoln Way Nights (Intelligent Trunk Music) which drops later this month.



Previous: Stalley - "Monkey Ish (RIP Pimp C)"

The Top 10 Cities For Young Entrepreneurs

The site Under30CEO has come up with a list of the top cities in America to live in for young up and coming entrepreneurs. The Website’s list came from surveying its readers about everything from resources and schools to social scenes for young entrepreneurs. For all you YEBies thinking about relocating this year here's a list of some great cities throughout the country where you may flourish.

Under30CEO’s top 10 list cities young entrepreneurs:

1. New York
2. San Francisco
3. Austin
4. Boston
5. Denver
6. Chicago
7. San Diego
8. Portland
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Seattle

See why each city made its readers top 10 list here.

Have You Done Your FASFA Yet?

With the consistent hike in the cost for higher education make sure if there is any possibility of you going to school this year that you sign up and take care of your FAFSA. Make sure you get as much money as you can for school from the government this 2011-12 academic year. Don't owe that lady Salie if you don't have to.

Sign up or update HERE

State Financial Aid Deadlines 2011-12

2011 African Journalist Awards

CNN International and MultiChoice have officially launched the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist 2011 Awards. The winners of these annual Awards will be announced at a gala ceremony to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa in June 2011.



This year, the competition will recognise excellence in the following categories:

• Arts & Culture Award
• Digital Journalism Award
• Economics & Business Award
• Environment Award
• Free Press Africa Award
• The HIV/AIDS Reporting Award
• Mohamed Amin Photographic Award
• MSD Health & Medical Award
• Print General News Award
• Radio General News Award
• Sport Award
• Television Features Award
• Television News Bulletin Award
• Tourism Award
• Francophone General News Awards
• Portuguese Language General News Award

A New Alliance To Aid Black Films

Started by Ava DuVernay, African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement is a organization that hopes to spread the distribution of black-themed films in major markets and theaters.  Read the entire story HERE.

You can also find AFFRM on Facebook and Twitter

YEBies Making Moves: Jabari and BET

HU grad Jabari Johnson of "Jabari Presents" fame, has recently been added to the BET family with his own new web series. The first episode will premiere in February and should be a great addition to their site. To celebrate this new endeavor and his birthday, he will be having a huge birthday party for my 24th at Sutra Lounge in NYC. The big homie Jerome Baker III will be the DJ of this affair so you know its gonna be dope.

Raphael Saadiq - Radio [Video]

This new video by Saadiq is for the single "Radio" which is a song from Raphael's upcoming studio album and will be released on iTunes on January 11. The new album celebrates the classic sounds of 60's and 70's soul with a futuristic twist. More details about this album can be found here.

"I thought you said it's the return of the black kings"

In a effort to return this back to its original purpose I thought I would make post a lot more personal.  Here's a little bit of whats going on with YEBIES.....

QuESt – The Reason: A Defense Mechanism [Album]

The Reason: A Defense Mechanism is finally here from the Miami, Florida native QuESt. I have been following the growth of this dude since 2008 and have nothing but love for all of his work. He has yet to disappoint me with a project. Here is his latest material that he has been working on for a while. Go ahead and add that to your iTunes and let it bump for a while. You know I wouldn't lead you astray.

Download: QuESt – The Reason: A Defense Mechanism [Album]

Hil Holla- My Crazy Ass Weekend

This first post of 2011 comes from a person I'm expecting big things from this year. When I saw this email in my inbox my first thought was that it was gonna be another one of our conversations about our ridiculous weekends. To my surprise it was a new track with a fitting title.  Now that I think about it, we still need to have that convo because my first weekend of 2011 was pretty crazy. Sit back and enjoy this new track Hil Holla did over Kanye's Dark Fantasy.

Listen/ Download: Hil Holla- My Crazy Ass Weekend