Nonie Burch Clarke, an African American woman from Halifax County, Virginia, has turned 104 years old, making her possibly the oldest person in the state.
Thank the Lord I have had a long, long life. I tried to help everybody and love everybody and I worked until retirement,” she told WSLS.
Clarke, a proud mother of 7, firmly believes in the importance of creating enduring family memories above all else. She has also been blessed with 8 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
During her leisure hours, she enjoys singing, sewing, traveling, and baking. She’s known for her skills in making delicious caramel cakes and freshly baked rolls.
Even more, she is well-known for her “green thumb” and has shared her bountiful harvest with many over the years.
Chaka Khan Reflects On Illustrious Career, Bond With Prince Ahead Of Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction
Chaka Khan will (finally!) be enshrined in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame Nov. 3. In an interview with the New York Post, the legendary singer discussed what led to her getting a start with Rufus, the 1970s funk/R&B band.
Khan detailed that the band’s lead singer, Paulette McWilliams, who Khan describes as a sister in Chicago’s scene at the time, left the group to go solo. That opened a door.
“When I started with Rufus, Paulette McWilliams had quit. She decided to quit and go solo in the business.”
Khan said her predecessor recommended her to the group.
“And I said, ‘Oh, this is my chance!’ because I really wanted to play with that band. I’d seen them a lot, and they’d seen me a lot. So I happily joined the group pretty quick.”
Eventually, Khan would go solo as well, but not before helping the group have lasting hits like “Sweet Thing” and “Tell Me Something Good” during her six-album run.
In 1978, Khan wrote and recorded the classic song, “I’m Every Woman,” the debut single from her debut album, Chaka. Khan is undoubtedly one of the most important and impactful women in the history of R&B and she will be recognized by her peers as she enters the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Khan told the Post that she’s keeping everything in perspective.
“I don’t live for prizes or trophies,” Khan said.
“That’s not why I do what I do. I do what I do because I have to, you know what I’m saying? God gave me this gift to use. It’s not a competition.”
“Tell Me Something Good” came about because Khan did not like a few songs that Stevie Wonder, arguably one of the greatest songwriters to ever live, had written for her. Khan actually asked for something else.
“And finally, he said to me, ‘What’s your birth sign?’ I said, ‘Aries.’ And he said, ‘Oh, I know the song for you!’” Khan recalled.
Prince and Khan shared a special bond. It was a cover of Prince’s 1979 song, “I Feel For You,” that propelled Khan to new heights.
“We both influenced each other’s careers,” she said.
“I influenced him while he was an up-and-coming artist; he used to tell me that all the time. And he influenced me. We fit musically very well. We did a great album together. We did that album in two weeks.”
LeBron James Top NBA Earner 10 Years Running, Edging Stephen Curry
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James leads the list of Forbes‘ highest-paid players, bringing home a total of $117.6 million split between $46.7 million in on-court earnings and $70 million in off-court earnings.
James’ deals with Taco Bell, Nike, and his position as the largest shareholder in the Springhill Company, the television and movie production company, helped make James the first active player to be listed on Forbes Billionaire list. James has topped this list for the past 10 years, and no athlete makes more in endorsements than King James.
Second on the list is Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry who (almost) evenly splits his income of $101.9 million between $51.9 million on-court and $50 million off-court. Curry is the first NBA player to cross the $50 million marker in on-court earnings. Curry is another NBA athlete with a sizable investment portfolio. Curry’s investments, including his UnderArmour shoe deal which came with a $75 million stock option, set him up to have a lucrative post-NBA career. He may have had even more off-court earnings were it not for his investment into the fraudulent FTX cryptocurrency company headed by Sam Bankman-Fried.
Third on the list is Kevin Durant, who similar to Curry, splits his income between his on-court and off-court earnings. Durant makes $46.4 million for the Phoenix Suns and earns $45 million off-court due in large part to his Boardroom media company. Also, Durant is the principal owner of the Brooklyn Aces, a team in Major League Pickleball as well as a lifetime deal with Nike and an appearance in the Call Of Duty video game series.
Among all professional sports players, the NBA has three of the top 10 spots, which these three players occupy. However, the presence of Saudi Arabian money is felt on this list as both Saudi football money and the upstart LIV Golf, which essentially is subsidizing the PGA Tour, has brought their influence to bear on the list. Cristiano Ronaldo made it back to the pole position after his move from Manchester United to Saudi Arabian outfit Al-Nassr FC, which netted him a total of $136 million across his two clubs contracts.
The list could undergo a seismic shift, however, if French football prodigy Kylian Mbappé gets the $1.1 billion lifetime contract he is rumored to be offered by his current club Paris Saint-Germain. Soccer is truly an international sport and even though Lionel Messi hadn’t yet signed his deal with Inter Miami CF of the MLS when this list came out, he was at number two, while Mbappé, his ex-teammate, occupied the third position. European football players, in stark contrast to NBA players, make the majority of their money on the pitch. Mbappé’s $100 million salary almost eclipses the total salaries of the NBA players’ total income.
Tyler, The Creator Opens Golf Wang Store In London
Tyler, The Creator opened a third Golf Wang Clothing store, and made a surprise appearance, Oct. 21 in London. Tyler’s clothing brand recently released its fall/winter collection for 2023, according to Complex.
Golf Wang is a take on part of the official name of the Odd Future collective that Tyler is most closely associated with. It swaps the first letters in Wolf Gang for each other, and the fashion has regularly reinvented itself alongside the forward-thinking creator.
Following his collaboration with Lacoste using the luxury arm of his brand, Le Fleur, Tyler has expanded his reach in the fashion world. His two other stores are based in New York and Los Angeles,.
Tyler’s aesthetic, according to Hypebeast, features bright colors, such as yellow, which is centrally featured in the London store. The brand’s trademark is eye-popping pattern combinations and a fusion of high fashion and skate culture, which Tyler has been pushing nearly as long as he’s been in the public eye.
In 2016, Tyler had his first fashion show, which fittingly featured runway models skating and biking to Tyler’s music. According to Culted, the show featured the first appearance of Tyler’s Le Fleur upscale collection, which was featured in a Converse collaboration.
Tyler’s fashion has evolved virtually in step with his music career, which has matured beyond his shock-and-awe style lyrics from his Odd Future beginnings to exploring themes like what fragile notions of masculinity do to men.
Tyler’s clothing line is co-designed by Phil Toselli, who described the rapper’s creative process to The Hollywood Reporter in 2016. “Tyler kind of draws like an 8-year-old, but awesome,” Toselli said. “He has a really distinct and crude style. It’s funny to watch him, because he’s not trained in any way. He just has wild ideas that he taught himself to make into reality. He’s very rapid-fire, bouncing off walls and hyper as sh*t. It just works.”
Michael Irvin Calls Out Son For Faking His Raps: ‘You Grew Up In A Gated Community’
Serial yeller Michael Irvin described his son’s rap career during a discussion about NBA superstar Ja Morant on the Oct. 20 episode of the Shannon Sharpe-free version of Undisputed.
“I got a son,” Irvin said. “He raps. His rap name is Tut Tarantino. If you ever listen to some of his raps. I’m like, ‘Oh my god.’ Where does this come from, son? You grew up in a gated community your whole life. But he’s rapping my life. Because we romanticize and fantasize about that old thug life, ghetto life, and all of that stuff. When…we used to work to get away from. Now, we’ve gotten to a place somehow where we’re running back towards it. In the music, in everything.”
Irvin, a former star wide receiver with the Dallas Cowboys before, has talked about growing up in Miami as the 15th child of 17 children. Today, Irvin is worth an estimated $12 million and is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
On Tut Tarantino’s Apple Music page he has songs dating to 2018. Among the titles are “Bab Season,” “How the F**k,” and Poppin.” Hi YouTube page has just under 300 subscribers. The video with the most views is for a track called “Whip Work,” with just over 4,000.
According to Complex, Irvin has previously talked about his son, whose real name is Elijah, on other shows. During a 2019 appearance on the Dan Patrick Show, Irvin made similar comments, telling Patrick, “He raps about some of the hardest stuff in the world. I say to him, ‘Son, you grew up in a 20,000-square foot. gated community! Where does this stuff come from? I worked hard to get you out of this, and you’re rapping right back to it.'”
Brian McKnight Changes Name To Match Infant Son’s, Facing Criticism For Alleged Abandonment Of Older Children
Brian McKnight isn’t winning any dad points with his older children.
The famed singer is facing backlash for changing his name to match his newborn son’s amidst claims from his older children that he has abandoned his fatherly duties with them.
The “One Last Cry” artist shared to social media on Oct. 27 of his newest son being of his “legacy.” The 9-month-old’s name, Brian Kainoa Makoa Jr., was displayed alongside his face, as posted to the musician’s official accounts.
McKnight also announced that he has legally changed his own name to match his youngest son’s. And that wasn’t all.
“To the world with the release of my new album lovingly created for him. JR,” said the 54-year-old. “Because I am also proud to officially announce that I have legally changed my name to exactly match my legacy’s.”
The multi-Grammy nominee’s legal name is now Brian Kainoa Makoa McKnight Sr. However, McKnight already has a son named after him, thus the move signals that he is disassociating himself from his original legacy and family, his critics say, according to Page Six.
McKnight has reportedly been estranged for years from his older children and has been called out publicly before for prioritizing his step-kids lives’ over his biological children’s.
He married his current wife, Leilani Mendoza, in 2017. Mendoza has three children from a prior relationship. McKnight shares sons Brian Jr. and Niko with ex-wife Julie McKnight and daughter Briana McKnight from a past relationship. He was married to songwriter Julie McKnight between 1990 and 2003.
“I’m not ashamed of the name my ancestors had,” Brian Jr. replied to comment on Instagram. “I’ll never change the name my own son now has.” And, in a comment perhaps targeted at his father, he wrote, “We are witnessing an obscene level of self hate, that has reached mental illness status at this point.”
He added, “Legacy isn’t in the name. It’s in the character of the people. It will all be quite clear soon, just who’s on the right side of all this, because there’s no escaping what’s coming.”
Stanford University Approves Department Of African and African-American Studies
Stanford University, through its Board of Trustees, has officially approved the creation of a department of African and African American Studies. The department will open in January.
The department will take over the program already in place for the subjects within its School of Humanities and Sciences, according to Stanford Report.
The latest effort to transform the AAAS program into a department was sparked by the Black Lives Matter movement and murder of George Floyd in 2020. While the AAAS program has been a part of Stanford’s curriculum options for over half a century, its departmentalization was at a standstill before the outcry of social justice nationwide.
“Events since 2020 have made it increasingly apparent that the time has come for Stanford to put our work in AAAS on a permanent footing,” said R. Lanier Anderson, the J.E. Wallace Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Stanford.
A task force initiated by the university in 2021 also recommended the departmentalization of the program. Ato Quayson, a professor of English and interdisciplinary studies at the school, will be the department’s inaugural chair.
The university will allow tracks of African, African American, and Global Black Diaspora Studies to be available for interested students. The inclusion of courses associated with Black studies will also be provided, alongside a collaboration with the Institute for Diversity of the Arts, as students within the department will have the opportunity to connect their learning through creative means.
Quayson commenced the vote for the AAAS department with a reading from Toni Morrison’s classic novel, Beloved, which was met with much applause.
The news comes as Stanford has made additional changes to better the experiences of its student body, including an advancement to better accommodate disabled students’ needs and expansion within the arts.
Rihanna’s $2,900 Super Bowl Jumpsuit Sells Out Within 24 Hours Of Retail Debut
Rihanna can “Talk That Talk” about her impact. Within a day of her Super Bowl halftime show outfit hitting retail, the now-iconic red jumpsuit designed by Loewe had sold out.
The fashion house announced on Oct. 19 that they would sell a $2,900 “special edition release” of the red ensemble she wore in February.
“The cargo jumpsuit and trousers feature a range of utility details drawing upon flight gear and the halftime show’s dynamic scenography,” said Loewe. The outfit was available on their website in black and red color options.
While the red version was gone the day it dropped, the black was in limited quantity before the collection was swiped from the online shop. Loewe has a whole page dedicated to the outfit.
Rihanna made her a big return to performing at the halftime show, garnering five Emmy nominations. Not only is the outfit now forever recognized with her show-stopping act, but also with her second pregnancy announcement as Rihanna showcased her belly as she rocked the stage to over 121 million viewers.
“When you become a mom, there’s something that just happens where you feel like you can take on the world. You can do anything, and the Super Bowl is one of the biggest stages in the world,” she said, according to People. “So, as scary as that was… there’s something exhilarating about the challenge of it all, and it’s important for me to do this this year. It’s important for representation. It’s important for my son to see that.”
For many wanting to emulate the global pop star as a fashion muse or to win a Halloween contest in couture, the jumpsuits are still available in select Loewe stores worldwide.
Simone Ledward Boseman, Widow Of Chadwick Boseman, Releases Debut Album
Chadwick Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward, has released her debut album, the mornings, under the stage name sahn.
Ledward Boseman has been writing songs since childhood, but her entry into the music space is one she feels ready to share now. However, sahn is not Ledward Boseman’s alter ago, but a “version” of her being that she strives to uphold.
She spoke to Vibe about what her music under this persona means to her.
“Elevated. She’s Simone, elevated, ” she said. “Simone without the ego. I’m always striving to just respond in a space that is that higher version of yourself. She represents who I am when I am at my best. She’s always growing, always a point I can reach up to.”
The widowed artist is notoriously private, and has been since the beginning of her relationship with the late Black Panther star. According to Blavity, the two met at a James Brown tribute concert in 2014; the actor played the famed singer in the biopic Get On Up released that same year. They married in 2019 and were together until Boseman died of colon cancer in August 2020.
The first track on the 9-song project references her late husband, titled “chad’s prayer.”
“Any artist’s work is about the experiences that they have had, but myself as an artist is not encapsulated in grief,” she explained. “I have more to say, and I have more to contribute to more conversations than solely about the grieving process and loss.”
Ledward Boseman, though, is ready to forge ahead.
“I think that sahn is how I move forward, how I forge a path that is my own,” shared the California Polytechnic State University alumnus. “This is how I now take the influence of someone else’s legacy because I don’t think that I am his legacy…Taking everything that I learned and how I was influenced by his legacy is how I’m able to move forward and to continue to carry his spirit with me in my own work.”
The accompanying visual for her first single, “angelsxdemons,” is available to watch now, with the rest of the compilation on streaming as well.
Son Of Nashville Police Chief Wanted For Allegedly Shooting Two Nashville Area Cops
The estranged son of Nashville police chief John Christopher Drake is accused of shooting two officers outside of a Dollar General in a Nashville suburb.
According to KIRO 7 News, the incident occurred in La Vergne shortly after 2:20 p.m. on October 21. Police have asked residents to stay in place as Drake is at large and considered armed and dangerous.
“I am shocked and deeply saddened to learn that my estranged son, with whom I have had very minimal contact over many years, is the suspect in this afternoon’s shooting of the two La Vergne police officers,” the elder Drake said in a statement.
One officer was struck in the left shoulder. The other was shot in the right groin and right shoulder. At press time, both men were at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center where they were listed in stable condition.
“Despite my efforts and guidance in the early and teenage years, my son, John Drake Jr., now 38 years old, resorted to years of criminal activity and is a convicted felon,” Drake Sr. explained. “He has not been a part of my life for quite some time. He now needs to be found and held accountable for his actions today. I hope that anyone who sees him or has information about him will contact law enforcement immediately.”
Drake is 38 y/o. He’s 5’11”, weighs 195 lbs, with black hair and brown eyes.
He was last seen in LaVergne in the area of Stones River Road near Lake Forest Drive, wearing back t-shirt with hockey mask graphic.
— Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (@TBInvestigation) October 22, 2023
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigations issued a statement announcing a Blue Alert for Drake Jr. following the shooting.
“Drake is 38 y/o. He’s 5’11”, weighs 195 lbs, with black hair and brown eyes,” according to the statement. “He was last seen in LaVergne in the area of Stones River Road near Lake Forest Drive, wearing back t-shirt with hockey mask graphic.”
