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You Love Them… Even If You Don’t Play Them Every Day
You didn’t just listen —you studied. The way they stood together in every music video like a wall of unbothered confidence. The layered harmonies that felt like church and heartbreak and late-night phone calls all at once. You memorized their outfits, their hair flips, their eye rolls at no-good men who weren’t worth the…
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When T-Boz Stole Mr. Dalvin From Me (At Least In My Head)
Breaking down the drama and betrayal of Jodeci’s “Love U 4 Life” video, through the eyes of a smitten 13-year-old. There’s heartbreak… and then there’s 1995 music video heartbreak. Specifically, the kind that comes when you’re 13, deeply in love with a celebrity who has no idea you exist, and suddenly forced to watch…
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Did We All Imagine That Sinbad Genie Movie… Or Nah?
The Shazam/Kazaam Mandela Effect and my personal confusion about reality. There are a lot of things I’ve misremembered in life—like thinking a crush liked me back or believing that spritz and hot curlers would give me Toni Braxton waves overnight. But there’s one collective memory that still has me questioning reality: The Sinbad genie…
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Big Jeans, Big Energy: Why I’m Thrilled About the Return of ‘90s Fashion
Skinny jeans had their little moment… but the baggy era is back, and my thighs have never been happier. I survived the skinny jean era. Barely. Years of squeezing, shimmying, and full-body contorting just to pull denim past my calves like I was auditioning for a Cirque du Soleil act. For what? To look…
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Mary J. & K-Ci: The Sleeper Hit That Deserved More
One iconic collab, zero music videos, and all the feels. Some songs deserve billboards, full-length documentaries, music videos with big-budget rain scenes, and a live tour just for that one track. And then… there’s “I Don’t Want to Do Anything Else” by Mary J. Blige and K-Ci Hailey—the kind of slow-burning, gut-punch ballad that…
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Bay Area Nights and Vanessa Williams: The Song That Felt Like a Breeze Off the Bay
A memory of Big O Pizza, Vanessa Williams, and why “Dreamin’” still hits. Some songs don’t just play—they stay with you. They settle in your memory like the breeze off the Bay. For me, that song is “Dreamin’” by Vanessa Williams. I was about seven years old when it came out. Too young to…
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From The Box to TRL: My Life in Music Countdowns
Bay Area rap, Selena love, and why Donnie Simpson and Carson Daly had my dream jobs. Before there was YouTube. Before streaming. Before TikTok algorithms decided what music video you were gonna see next… there was The Box. If you know, you know. If you don’t? Let me explain—The Box was basically chaos in…
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Stop Rebooting My Childhood: A Rant
Dear Hollywood: Create something new. Signed, Every Kid Who Grew Up in the ’90s. Look… I’m tired. I’m exhausted. Actually, scratch that—I’m offended. Every time I open a streaming app or scroll past an entertainment headline, there it is: another reboot announcement. Another “revival.” Another lazy attempt to dig up my childhood, slap a…
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A Grumpy 80s Baby Rant: Why R&B Lost Its Fight (And Its Feelings)
From studio struggle to streaming ease—how the hustle for perfection shaped the music we loved… and why today’s tracks sometimes feel like fast food. Let me just say this upfront: R&B didn’t die… but it definitely stopped fighting for its life. Somewhere between the last note of a Boyz II Men bridge and the…
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Forever My Lady, Forever My Memory: My First Time Hearing Jodeci
Richmond, California. 4th grade. The back of a bus. And one slow jam that locked itself into my heart permanently. Some moments don’t just live in your memory—they take out a long-term lease, hang curtains, and refuse to leave. For me, hearing Jodeci’s “Forever My Lady” for the first time was exactly that. It…