Music:

Fashawn

I think that if you are talking about guns, their still needs to be some level of effort or talent. I am not saying that Fashawn is a gangster rapper, but his content is geared towards that audience.

Good Listen: Our Way ft. Evidence

Dom Kennedy

Dom Kennedy adorned the streets of Los Angeles in 2008 with the release of his debut project entitled “25th Hour”. The Leimert Park native made a name for himself by performing at numerous events and venues, including the popular Sneaker Pimps Tour and the world famous House of Blues. The response from his live performances ignited his ambition to produce and distribute the “25th Hour” mixtape. With his witty yet ingenious lyrics, Dom Kennedy has shown that he is not your average West Coast MC.

Good Listen: Watermelon Sundae

Jay Electronica

He is definitely one of my favorite new artists. If you are not a fan yet, you must have heard is name fly around. His lyrics are unlike anything I have heard in a long time.

Good Listen: Exhibit A: Transformations

Schoolboy Q

ScHoolboy Q spent three years releasing mixtapes before receiving any hype. His first mixtape, “Schoolboy Turned Hustla,” released in 2008 and quickly caught the attention of Kendrick Lamar and Top Dawg Entertainment. Alongside Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul, and Jay Rock, the four artists joined forces to create the group, “Black Hippy”.

Good Listen: Hands on the Wheel ft. A$AP Rocky

Ab-Soul

Ab-Soul is a member of Top Dawg Entertainment. He has a very unique flow and his lyrics are alays thought provoking. Ab–Soul is dropping “LongTerm 2” on June 28th.

Good Listen: Moscato ft. Kendrick Lamar

Movies:

Texas Chainsaw 3D –Jan 4

Texas Chainsaw 3D continues the legendary story of the homicidal Sawyer family, picking up where Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror classic left off. In Newt, Texas, for decades, citizens went missing without a trace. The townspeople long suspected the Sawyer family, owners of a local barbeque pit, were somehow responsible. Their suspicions were finally confirmed one hot summer day when a young woman escaped the Sawyer house following the brutal murders of her four friends. Word around town quickly spread, and a vigilante mob of enraged locals surrounded the Sawyer stronghold, burning it to the ground and killing every last member of the family – or so they thought.

Gangster Squad- Jan 11

Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from drugs, guns, prostitutes and if he has his way every wire bet placed west of Chicago. He does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and politicians. It is enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.

Luv- Jan 18

Over the course of one day, a shy 11-year-old forms a bond with his troubled uncle. With his mother in rehab and his father out of the picture, young Woody Watson (Michael Rainey Jr.) lives with his grandmother (Lonette McKee) in suburban Baltimore and longs for his family to be reunited. His charismatic Uncle Vincent (Common) has recently returned home after eight years in prison. Uncle Vincent is determined to straighten out his life by opening a high-end crab shack that will establish him as a solid citizen with a legitimate future. One day, instead of dropping Woody off at school, Vincent decides to give the boy a tutorial on how a man gets things done. After a trip to a tailor to get Woody a custom-fitted suit, the pair heads to the bank to sign off on the loan Vincent needs to fulfill his dreams. When his meeting with the bank officer puts the brakes on his plans, Vincent has no one to turn to for help but his former associates, including Baltimore crime boss Mr. Fish (Dennis Haysbert) and his brother Arthur (Danny Glover). A day that begins with a parking-lot driving lesson and Woody’s first oyster takes a desperate turn when Fish insists Vincent run one more drug deal to demonstrate his loyalty. Soon Vincent finds himself pulled back into the violent world he is trying to escape—and Woody has to decide whether to follow his hero, or become his own man.

Bullet to the Head- Feb 1

An unlikely alliance between a cop and a hitman takes place after each watches his partner die. The new partners seek revenge and discover they have a shared enemy and much in common despite being on opposite sides of the law.

Snitch- Feb 22

A suburban father is hit hard when his teenage son is sentenced to 30 years in prison. In order to reduce his son’s sentence, the father goes undercover to serve up a senior drug dealer.

TV Shows:

NBC – “Celebrity Apprentice” – March 3

“Deception”- Logline: An opulent soap opera in which a female detective returns undercover to the wealthy family she grew up in as the maid’s daughter to solve the murder of the notorious heiress who was once her closest friend.

Cast: Meagan Good, Tate Donovan, Victor Garber, Neil Jackson, Katherine LaNasa, Laz Alonso, Ella Rae Peck

January 7

ABC – “Mistresses” -Logline: Drama series adapted from the UK, which follows the lives of four female friends and their involvement in an array of illicit and complex relationships

Cast: Alyssa Milano, Yunjin Kim, Brett Tucker

February 2013

Fox- “The Following”- Logline: A new thriller about an ex-FBI agent, Ryan Hardy who leads the search to catch a diabolical serial killer, Joe Carroll, who has created a cult of serial killers.

Cast: Kevin Bacon, James Purefoy, Shawn Ashmore, Natalie Zea, Valorie Curry, Jeananne Goossen, Nico Tortorella, Adan Canto, Billy Brown, Kyle Catlett

January 21

NBC- “Revolution”- Logline: In this adventure thriller, a family struggles to reunite in a post-apocalyptic American landscape: a world of empty cities, local militias and heroic freedom fighters, where every single piece of technology computers, planes, cars, phones, even lights has mysteriously blacked out forever.

Cast: Billy Burke, David Lyons, Giancarlo Esposito, Tracy Spiradakos, Graham Rogers, Anna Lise Phillips, Tim Guinee, Andrea Roth, JD Pardo, Zak Orth

VH1- “Black Ink” (Working Title)

Premieres Early 2013

Located in the middle of Harlem on 113th and Lennox Avenue, Black Ink is one of the few black-owned and operated tattoo parlors in New York City. It is a magnet for hip hop stars both old school and new (Cam’ron, Jadakiss, Jim Jones, Asap Rocky, Corey Gunz) as well as pro athletes (Amare Stoudamire, C.C. Sabathia, Stephon Marbury, Brandon Spikes), video vixens and a who is who of urban elite (Tyson Beckford, Keri Hilson). The employees are a tight yet totally dysfunctional “family.” For many of them, this shop is the key to turning around their lives, and for others it is their first legitimate job off the streets. Can they survive all of the drama that is part of everyday life at the shop?

“Black Ink” is executive produced by Dan Cesareo and Doug DePriest of Big Fish Entertainment. Executive producers for VH1 are Shelly Tatro, Kari Mcfarland, Rick Hankey and Jeff Olde.

• By: Brie-anne Robinson, Contributor