Thursday, February 25, 2016

Love and Hip Hop moves to NOLA

I'm not an avid watcher or love and hip hop. I will admit I tend to pay more attention to the Atlanta version over the NYC and Hollywood version only because I feel like I can relate to the ATL cast and that region a little bit more.










Hearing about Love and Hip Hop starting up filming in New Orleans, Louisiana aka NOLA has me super excited. I love New Orleans, it reminds me a lot of my hometown Mobile, Alabama which were both founded by the French. I think having a Love and Hip Hop in the Big Easy makes it more relatable to southern folks, especially a bama girl like myself. So far it's been reporting the cast will consist of rapper Mystikal, Supa Cent, 10thWardBuck, and social media celeb TokyoxVanity ( you might remember her as the girl who brought us THE BEST FRIEND song last summer). I'll definitely check out the first few episodes of this particular season, this will definitely be some drama that's close to home for me so I'm sure I'll definitely get in a good laugh or two.






Remember To Always Be
Fierce and Fabulous
xoxo Lela Victoria

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

RACE (Jesse Owens) "movie review"

When many people think of Track and Field greats many big names come to mind such as FLO JO, Wilma Rudolph, and the amazing Jesse Owens. The movie RACE was absolutely great. Going into seeing this movie, I forgot to get my mind right. By this I mean I forgot to take into consideration that the setting of this movie was in the 1930s which also meant that no matter how fast Jesse Owens was he was still subjected to being treated like a second class citizen and dealing with racism.








For those of you who do not know Jesse Owens is not the legal name of our great Track Star. He was named James Cleveland and was nicknamed J.C. When in school after his family moved from Alabama to Ohio he introduced himself as JC and the teacher thought he said JayyyyySee. Southern people have some of the thickest accents. The teacher recorded Jesse and that name stuck with him for life. 





The movie opens with Jesse and his family in Ohio and I immediately gave the side eye, because it was at that moment I noted that they skipped over the fact that Jesse Owens was born in Alabama. I am more than sure that the audience would have been interested in knowing about his childhood and given a quick glimpse at his time spent in Alabama, it more than likely contributed to the man he would eventually become.  


Knowing of Jesse Owen's accomplishments and watching his  life as a black man in the movie was interesting to digest. He had to sit at the back of the bus, deal with racism while he was a student at Ohio State, and also dealt with the typical hard life of being a black man during that time. The part that got me the most was the fact that Jesse Owens made the USA Olympic Team and was force to stay/sleep in the Black ( Lower Class) quarters on the ship that took the American athletes to Germany. This man was good enough to represent his country but not good enough to receive the same fair and equal treatments as his American teammates all because he was born with additional melanin within his skin. 



 Jesse Owens was faced with the decision on whether or not he would go compete in a country where other humans were being mistreated, which was similar to what was going on in the United States towards blacks. Telling someone who loves running to not run is a painful stab in the back . No one can understand the joys that come from running and racing unless you yourself participates in these acts. When you run, you run for yourself and no one else( I mean your team is considered but it's still you out there on that track)  and those who wanted Jesse to not run at the 1936 Belin Olympics would not be able to understand the fundamentals of what it means to RACE. 




Jesse Owens went on to win 4 GOLD OLYMPIC Medals ( 100, 200, 4x100m relay and long jump). He set world records and brought honor to the great USA. Adolph Hitler refused to congratulate Jesse Owens, but chose to congratulate other Olympic Gold Medalist and this was simply because Jesse was Black. Upon returning back to the United States Jesse was a hero but there were no endorsements waiting for him upon return and he became a working class citizen who focus was on uplifting the youth. 




On of the things that bothered me the most about Jesse's story is the fact that the President of the United States, during the time that he became an Olympic Champion, refused to invite him to the White House. Jesse was good enough to win for Team USA but not good enough to meet and shake hands with Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

Overall the movie was great. I would just say brace yourself for the racial bigotry that goes on during this time towards because if you're not ready it can catch you off guard. Jesse's story was told and his legacy has once again been embraced. 






Remember To Always Be 
Fierce and Fabulous 
xoxo Lela Victoria

Monday, February 22, 2016

Rihanna ( WORK ) new music video

Recently Rihanna released her single WORK and it's definitely been a new hit world wide. What I loved most about the song was that it reminded me of her original roots and I am immediately reminded that no matter how big of a superstar RIHANNA is, she will always be an island ( Barbados) woman.



 
This music video release was a bit different simply because Rihanna released 2 different music videos for the same song. Yes I said 2, Hmph I see you rih rih trying to step your game up girl. When I first clicked the video I was confused as too why the music video was 7 minutes long. I immediately thought we were going to have another "B*tch better have my money" movie seen but instead it was two separate music videos placed into one. 


The first music video was put together by Director X and is set in a Caribbean  theme club and Rihanna is rocking a sophisticated bob looking like a mature woman 



 

I love this video simply because it familiarizes us with the sounds of the Caribbens, it allows us to understand the language and dialect that Rihanna is singing in and allows us to get a feel of the people and it's culture. 

The second music video is a bit more intimate and only features Rihanna and Drake. It was directed by Tim Erem







This particular music video allows us to see the intimacy between and Rihanna and Drake and I swear y'all they do look well together. They really would make a bomb couple. 







Check out the video to work below.



















Remember To Always Be
Fierce and Fabulous
xoxo Lela Victoria

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Beyonce *New Song Alert* FORMATION

One day before Beyonce Giselle Knowles Carter is set to perform at the 50th Super Bowl she releases a new song entitled "Formation" along with a new music video. I knew something was coming ... The BeyHive 🐝 was buzzing to much for it not to be new music in the air. 

In this song Beyonce addresses any and everyone who's ever talked ish about her and I love that with one epic song she can silence all the haters.

One reason why I love Beyonce is because she's just like me, she loves her blackness and reps it to the core she's just strategic about how she does it. 

I love that Beyonce's is rocking braids, she always kills that style. Additionally I'm digging this old schism thugged out version of Bey and I have a feeling her bad azz take no ish sister Solange was her muse and inspiration. 

Now onto a more serious note, this video is sending a message and it can be related back to The Black Lives Matter movement. I was dancing to the video and watching in amazement as I started to notice a view things like the boy dancing in a hoodie, along with that New Orleans Police Department car submerged in water looking as if it is sinking. Y'all know how the Black community feels about the police right now. I also noticed the newspaper with Dr King on it that said more than a dreamer. Beyonce is so WOKE and unapologetically BLACK in this video and it makes me adore, admire, and Stan for her even more 

Check out the music video and pics from the music video as well 






I'm pretty sure Beyonce will be performing this song tomorrow night at the SuperBowl 50 and wanted to make sure we were all familiar with the song. She has slayyyyyyyyyyyyyed me once again, I'm so amazed right now, she never cease to amaze me. This new music is long overdue, the last time Bey gave us new music was November 2014 with 7/11 and the platinum version of her 5th album Beyonce. 




Remember To Always Be 
Fierce and Fabulous 
xoxo Lela Victoria