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Diddy has come a long way from his early days in the music industry, transitioning from a record executive at Bad Boy Records to becoming one of the leading voices in Hip-Hop, the entire entertainment industry, and Black American culture. While Diddy is known for spreading love to Hip-Hop and R&B artists and giving them extravagant gifts, the mogul has recently decided to go in a more serious direction and write an open letter to Corporate America.

Published directly to his media and TV company REVOLT, “If You Love Us, Pay Us: A letter from Sean Combs to Corporate America” finds Diddy calling out shady Corporate America practices that negatively affect America’s Black community as well as advocating for meaningful change moving forward.

Teasing his open letter on Instagram with an archival clip of James Baldwin, Diddy directs his followers to REVOLT to read his approximately 450-word manifesto. The Bad Boy mogul opens the letter with a quote from Desmond Tutu, which states, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” Immediately following that insightful quote, Diddy unleashes a statement that is just as powerful: “The same feet these companies use to stand with us in solidarity are the same feet they use to stand on our necks.”

Throughout his open letter, he discusses how corporations like General Motors have long exploited Black media companies like REVOLT as well as Black culture in general before giving Corporate America an ultimatum: “You’re either with us or you are on the other side.”

In order to do that, Diddy suggests that Corporate America gives “an equitable percentage” of what has been exploited and stolen from the Black Community and reinvests those resources back into it. “If the Black community represents 15% of your revenue,” Diddy writes, “Black-owned media should receive at least 15% of the advertising spend. If you love us, pay us! Not a token investment. Not a charity check or donation.”

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Do you agree with the stance that Diddy takes in his open letter to Corporate America?

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When Francis Ngannou defeated Stipe Miocic for the UFC Heavyweight title just a couple of weekends ago, many in the MMA world were immediately calling for Ngannou to defend his title against Jon Jones. Jones is considered to be one of the greatest fighters of all time and now that he is fighting in the Heavyweight division, a bout against the likes of Ngannou would only make sense.

While Jones has had issues with the UFC when it comes to contract negotiations, he recently did an interview with Fight Hype where he claimed that he is fully ready to up against Ngannou. Simply put, he just wants the UFC to get their business right and if that happens, the fight will go down.

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“Hopefully the fight happens. We just gotta stay focused and stay training and see what the UFC is going to do on their part,” Jones said. “I think it’s gonna happen … I think the UFC will eventually do the right thing. I think this is one of the greatest fights of our generation and it would be really sad if it weren’t gonna happen. And I believe that it will. It’ll happen, all in good time.”

This should come as good news to all of the UFC fans out there who have wanted to see Jones get right back into the Octagon. Ngannou has proven to be a massively tough fighter, and Jones would be his greatest test yet.

Let us know who you think would win that match, in the comments below.

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When Blake Griffin signed with the Brooklyn Nets, many around the league saw this as a huge sign that the Nets were going to be almost impossible to take down. With James Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving on the same roster, the Nets were already a powerhouse, and adding a motivated Griffin only cemented that fact. Last night, Griffin got to play his very first game with Durant in the lineup, and as expected, they both had solid games all while beating the New Orleans Pelicans by a modest 28 points.

Following the match, Griffin was asked about playing with Durant for the first time and as one can imagine, the newest Nets star was quite complimentary of KD. He noted that despite his injury, Durant has yet to lose an edge and it’s going to be a scary sight for the rest of the NBA.

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“After missing two months and then coming back and looking that comfortable, it’s just crazy,” Griffin said.  “But in terms of playing with him, players like that, some of the guys we have, they just make the game easy.”

The Nets continue to dominate the Eastern Conference and come playoff time, it’s going to be almost impossible to take these guys down. This spells trouble for the rest of the league, but if you’re a basketball fan in Brooklyn, you have to be loving this.

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Kehlani hasn’t had to fight as hard as others in the LGBTQIA+ community to be accepted as a serious artist. Recently coming out as lesbian, Kehlani is aware that she is privileged to a certain extent as a cisgender-presenting straight-presenting woman. The singer has specified her preferred “they/she” pronouns, asking fans to respect them as she encourages others to be their true selves. 

Following her low-key coming-out moment on Instagram Live, Kehlani spoke with The Advocate about her gender and sexual identity, unpacking her privilege and showing love to artists that have struggled to be accepted in music because of who they are. 

“I have a lot of privilege,” says the artist about how she passes as both cisgender and straight. “I think a lot of artists who we talk about and say, ‘Oh, they had to come out or they had to do this,’ a lot of them can’t hide it. A lot of it is very [much] in how they present. It’s tougher for them. It’s tougher for trans artists. It’s tougher for Black gay men. It’s tougher for Black masculine gay women.”

Kehlani previously came out as queer before realizing that they were actually lesbian. 

“I didn’t even really have to come out in my private life,” they explain. “I don’t walk down the street and people look at me and go, ‘Oh, I bet she’s queer. Or I bet that she’s into women‘ or anything like that because of the way I present. That’s all privilege and I think that there are quite a few artists who were truly at the forefront but weren’t able to make the strides that I was able to make being 100 percent myself because of the way they present and the biases and the phobias of the American public and the world… I’ve been lucky, super lucky.”

Kehlani thinks that, while their generation is one that can openly have conversations about gender and sexual identity, people need to be more open about having educational moments to better understand the spectrum. 

Read the full interview at the link below.

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There has been a plethora of dope iconic Nike LeBron shoes that have been released so far in 2021 and with 75 percent of the year still left to go, it seems like even more great models will be making their way to the market, very soon. One of them is the Nike LeBron 8 “Hardwood Classic” which is a PE from around 10 years ago. The shoe is meant to pay homage to the classic blue and orange Cleveland Cavaliers jerseys that fans remember so well at this point.

In the official images below, you can see how the model has a mostly blue upper, while orange highlights are found all the way throughout. It’s hard not to be a fan of these, especially when you consider their history and the fact that they never released to the public, originally. Now, that is all about to change as this month, fans will finally have an opportunity to cop them and add a significant shoe from LeBron’s history to their collection.

The release date has been officially set for April 14th, which is in just six days from now. The cost will be $200 USD, and they will be available at your local retailer, and of course, the Nike SNKRS App. Let us know if you plan on grabbing a pair, in the comments below.