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Former President Obama has blessed us with the music playlist that he and Michelle have been grooving to all summer.

The eclectic list of 44 songs includes “some new, some old, some fast, some slow,” Obama said in a tweet announcing the list.

The playlist release has become somewhat of an annual tradition from the former president.

The list included the likes of John Legend, Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, Maggie Rogers, H.E.R, Daniel Caeser, Beyonce, Childish Gambino and many more.

And it was the response of some of the artists on the list that had us rolling. Many couldn’t believe they were even in the purview of the former first couple.

I’M NOT OKAY,” Lizzo responded to news that her song “Juice” had made the list.

“Wow!!! Gratitude really is a must,” Jamaican star Koffee said in response to her hit “Toast”.

Have you had a listen to the playlist?

The post Artists Respond To Appearing On Obama’s Summer Playlist! appeared first on Essence.

There’s no shortage of news coming out of the D23 Expo, but we’re pretty excited about the first image from Disney’s upcoming Cruella. Emma Stone will play a young version of the villainous fur enthusiast from 101 Dalmatians in the upcoming origin story. Stone takes over for Glenn Close, who previously played the role in the 1996 live action film.

Here’s your first look at Emma Stone as Cruella de Vil in Disney's Cruella. The film, also starring Emma Thompson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Joel Fry, comes to theaters May 28, 2021. #D23Expo pic.twitter.com/KqxJ0yMYQ3

— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) August 24, 2019

The film follows young Cruella as she makes her way through London during the punk scene of the 1970s. The film also stars Emma Thompson, Paul Walter Hauser and Joel Fry, and is directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya). A shameless cash grab from Disney? Surely. But Stone is rocking that wig.

(via Variety, image: Disney)

• Dwayne Johnon and Emily Blunt set sail on Disney’s Jungle Cruise movie. (via Hero Complex)
• Tom Holland and Kevin Feige weigh in on the Spideypocalypse. (via io9)
• John Carpenter talks the future of the Halloween franchise. (via Syfy Wire)
• Disney’s Lady and the Tramp gets its first trailer, and man are those rescue doggos cute:

Every day could be an adventure. Watch the new trailer for Lady and the Tramp, a reimagining of a timeless classic. Start streaming November 12, only on #DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/YW3vtXzvJy

— Walt Disney Studios (@DisneyStudios) August 23, 2019

• Always be yourself … unless you can be Patrick Swayze in Road House. (via Pajiba)
• Shout out to one of the originals, Princess Peach in Super Mario Bros. 2. (via Kotaku)
• Rolling into the weekend like these tumbling air mattresses:

MOVIE NIGHT FAIL: A movie night under the stars took a turn in Denver, Colorado on Saturday. Air mattresses laid out for ticket holders blew away in a strong wind. According to Robb Manes, who shot the video, the blow-up beds were on the loose for about 30 minutes. 😂 pic.twitter.com/MpQKa7yob6

— Nate Larsen (@NateLarsenKBOI) August 20, 2019

How are you spending this Saturday, Mary Suevians?

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Wendy Williams has always been a lightning rod for strong opinions—some good, some full-on foul. But when it comes to measuring her success, even her staunchest critics have to give Williams her due. After leveraging 20 years on the rise as a shameless radio shock-jock into an odds-defying decade as host of her eponymous hit talk show, Williams is an undisputed mogul.

With a net worth of at least $40 million (including an annual TV show salary of $10 million), according to Celebrity Net Worth, Williams’ mega-brand is built on a big personality that’s unafraid to express what she thinks and expose who she wants, while making no excuses along the way. Love her or hate her, there’s no one else like her, and her unapologetic authenticity has won her legions of rabid fans.

The Wendy Williams Show, now in its 11th season, averages more than 2.4 million daily viewers, making Williams rival Ellen DeGeneres as the No. 1 female host on daytime TV. Both the show and host have received multiple Emmy nominations and Williams was a 2009 inductee into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Her empire has included production deals with Lifetime TV; fashion, jewelry, and wig lines; a book publishing company; and a philanthropic arm created to assist those struggling with addiction, as Williams openly admits she has. She is also the author of several books including “Wendy’s Got the Heat,” a 2003 memoir that made the coveted New York Times best-seller list.

Despite her notoriously strong personality, dogged work ethic, and unbridled ambition, toward the end of her autobiography, Williams pointedly advised women readers to “Know Your Place.” Summarizing her relationship with her then husband/manager Kevin Hunter, she wrote: “…my job is to make the house run smoothly. His job ultimately is to make me feel safe and protected. He is the man and that’s his primary job. I am the little woman.”

Williams has been called lots of things through the years but “little woman” has never been one of them.

After news of their marital split broke in April, it became clear that Williams had ceded decades of control to her man. Now 54, she’s facing a major transition—not just from wife to divorcee after 21 years, but from “show pony,” as she called herself in a June interview with TMZ, to power broker or—as her next memoir might couch it—from “little woman” to bad ass boss.

Fans to Williams: How You Doin’?

Used to spilling the tea surrounding other celebrities’ lives for her own professional gain, Williams hasn’t shied away from owning her own mess in the press. The news that Hunter was not only unfaithful but had possibly fathered a child with a mistress caused Williams to move from the couple’s New Jersey home to a sober house and triggered daily headlines that made her life and career look as if they were careening out of control. Emotional appearances on TMZ didn’t help. Nor did the fact that, with her TV show on hiatus, Williams didn’t have a chance to set the record straight daily and directly for her concerned fans.

Those fans were soon wondering if she could keep her business life thriving when her personal life was in shreds. Especially since Hunter was not just her primary and most trusted adviser, he was executive producer of “The Wendy Williams Show.”

No sooner did Williams file for divorce than Hunter was fired by Debmar-Mercury, the majority stakeholder of the show in which, Williams is quick to point out, she also owns a stake—and now executive produces. The decision was then made to close Hunter Publishing Co. as well as the Hunter Foundation.

Her new manager, Bernie Young, is unfazed by the closures, calling them necessary steps on the road to stabilizing Williams’ brand so it can grow from a stronger base.

Williams moved quickly to personally hire Young, a seasoned pro with a stellar track record. A former New York City detective, he launched a second career managing comics and wound up executive producing Rosie O’Donnell’s and Martha Stewart’s TV shows at their height. He had a candid two-hour phone interview with Williams before which, Young admits, he knew little beyond who she was.

“She surprised me,” Young says. “The conversation was all about her life and what she wanted to do, the things that started and failed, the dreams that came true and didn’t. She’s very smart, she understands where she is, and she has very definite ideas about where she wants to go.”

While they are in the midst of forging a very different type of manager-client relationship, the transition was clearly needed and Young says it’s going well. “We check in every day to make sure, are we speaking the same language? Can we look each other in the eye? Can we tell each other the truth and hear it? I always say, the truth can hurt but it doesn’t last,” Young says. “If we can survive that, there’s no limit to what she can do.”

Big Platform, New Partnerships, Untold Potential

Without criticizing her soon-to-be ex, Williams was as defiant as ever when she addressed an audience of entrepreneurs at Black Enterprise’s FWD conference in Charlotte in June.

“We had to clean the slate and start over,” Williams said of Hunter’s ouster. She proudly added that, at age 29, when she met Hunter, “I was already a property owner, I was already a radio star, I was already the boss of my own life … so, it’s not new. I’m just returning to that life but with a bigger platform—and I love it.”

Despite some personal fits and starts, within six weeks of hiring Young, Williams had already cut a new deal with Lifetime TV. While the specifics of the partnership are still being finalized, she and Young confirmed that she will executive produce a series of projects for the women’s network.

On July 27, Williams begins an eight-city tour called, “Wendy Williams and Friends Presents For the Record.” The show, which launches in Oakland, California, and ends in Atlanta in September, will feature several up-and-coming comedians. Williams will host and, between their sets, will take the stage to set the record straight about her year in the headlines, says Young.

“She’s got a story to tell and this tour allows her to tell her story, her way. I want the public to see this person for who she is. She’s funny, she’s real—sometimes a little too real—but she’ll tell hers as good as she’ll tell yours, and that’s what makes people relate to her and want to bring her into their homes every day” via their TVs.

Young hopes to get the comedy tour picked up by a network to air as a special, or kick off a new series.

“The goal is not to dwell on what she’s losing but on what she wants to build,” Young says. “She has a lot of talent and a lot of vision. My job is to listen and bring structure and organization to that vision so she can achieve what she sees.

“She surprises me every day,” says Young. “I think other people are going to be surprised too.”

-Editors’ note: This article originally appeared in the Summer 2019 edition of Black Enterprise Magazine. Order the magazine today. 

If you follow Donald Trump’s Twitter feed, you may have noticed several prominent accounts that appear to be profiles belonging to black people–high up on his Twitter feed of responses. Some of these accounts have thousands and thousands of followers. Others even have the blue Twitter check mark next to their account names. Yet, exactly who is behind these accounts is ambiguous. The rise of bots in the guise of black people on social media remains a worrisome issue heading into the 2020 elections.

Take for instance, the Twitter account @RyanHillMI, aka Ryan Hill. This account has a blue check mark which, supposedly, means it was vetted by Twitter and confirmed to be an actual person. Yet, a Google (or Bing) search on ‘Ryan Hill Michigan’ only yields results of a white, male lawyer in Michigan, and nothing about a young, black man in the Michigan area—which the @RyanHillMI’s avatar depicts.

I reached out to the Ryan Hill account on Twitter. I asked him (it?) about doing an interview and providing some background information. The conversation turned bizarre as you can see from the below screenshot (these are his remarks to my inquiries):

I also contacted Twitter and asked the company about assigning a blue check to an account a journalist could not find much information about. I was told I would receive an answer. I am still waiting.

Needless to say, the account raises some suspicion about authenticity. If it is indeed some sockpuppet account posing as a black person to influence politics—it wouldn’t be the first time some vested interest engaged in ‘bot blackface.’

Perceptive social media users have even unearthed fake black accounts using Google’s reverse image search feature. One such Twitter account, @Mike47441781, was proven to use a stock image as the account’s avatar.

Shireen Mitchell is the founder of Digital Sisters and Stop Online Violence Against Women. She’s done in-depth research about the use of impostor black accounts pushing political agendas across social media.

Mitchell says the activity behind these fake accounts boils down to “getting people not to vote for Democrats.” She points out that social media is the ultimate affordable platform for white supremacists.

As one of the authors of Stop Online Violence Against Women’s report on targeted black voter suppression on social media, Mitchell and her team reported on the Russian Internet Research Agency’s purposeful political ad targeting to black Americans.

“The 3,500 ads on Facebook by the Russian Internet Research agency were centered largely on Black American Culture over all other identity and race-based narratives. While the race-based focus of the Russian-purchased ads has been acknowledged in some reporting and previous studies, it has not been pointed out in the media that the themes of Black Identity and culture were the focus of the majority of the ads with the intent to engage in voter suppression of Black voters,” stated Mitchell and the other report authors in a press release.

“The sobering analysis in this report documents that Russian ads were overwhelming focused on Black American Culture, and often specifically on Black women with the goal of voter suppression,” says Jessie Daniels, Professor of Sociology at The City University of New York, and a Fellow at The Data & Society Research Institute. “This report is an urgently needed reminder that we ignore the way racism is woven into technology at our own peril.”

The report found that Russian actors specifically manipulated topics such as Hillary Clinton’s “super predator” comment from 1996; and issues related to race and policing, immigration, and guns. You can read the entire report here.

Much of the controversy over fake black social media accounts also surrounds the American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) movement. ADOS activists claim that African American voters should vote for politicians that support policies beneficial and exclusive to the African American community, such as reparations.

Buzzfeed reported that social media ADOS activist accounts are often accused of being bots and “Russian trolls”:

Some Twitter users still doubt the authenticity of some of the accounts tweeting about the movement. One user account questioned if she’d have to mute #ADOS and posted a screenshot of an account created in 2009. “This might be important,” the user said. “I saw a warning the other day that the new bot movement is old accounts that have been dormant. This account was created in 09 but just started tweeting literally 15 mins ago.”

Clearly, there are concerted efforts to splinter the powerful black voting bloc and to keep black people from voting. It’s important that black people stay vigilant over whose information to trust on social media.

One professor offered a few tips to NPR on how to pinpoint possibly fake black profiles:

–Beware of accounts that regularly use stereotypical quote-unquote black language. These accounts typically use language they think black people use.

–Check the number of tweets and followers on an account.

–Check how long ago an account was created.

–Check the type of tweets or posts the account has on its timeline.