From
The St Louis Rams moving to Los Angeles to rapper Tupac Shakur and
musician Nile Rodgers being inducted into the 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame, to the sudden quitting stunt from Tom Joyner Morning Show co-host
J Anthony Brown to the death of actor Alan Thicke, and of course the
rise of Apprentice star Donald Trump becoming the President elect of the
United States, 2016 has been a topsy turvy year in the arts and
entertainment field namely rooted in politics and making history. Below
are the ten entertainment stories that made an impact this year.
10.JESSE WILLIAMS ACCEPTANCE SPEECH AT BET AWARDS
Actor
Jesse Williams broke the Internet with his Humanitarian Award speech at
this year's BET Awards.His four minute speech talked about the indictment of systemic racism, cultural
appropriation, white supremacy and privilege, blacks focusing on commercialism
over activism was well received by the audience giving him a standing ovation. Many have
heralded him as the next Harry Belafonte with Ebony Magazine recently featuring
a cover and photo spread of Belafonte passing an actual baton to Williams in a
mock racial progress relay race.
9.#OSCARSOWHITE
The
big talk this year was the backlash that The
Academy Awards received when the nominations were announced and all of
the
nominees in the Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting
Actor
and Actress were of Caucasian descent. (#OSCARSOWHITE) for a second year
in a
row. There also was debate on whether its host Chris Rock should step
down as the host to protest and celebrities complaining of specific
actor snot being nominated (e.g Jada Pinkett Smith on her husband Will
smith not being nominated) . He eventually decided to go ahead and host
and revise his opening monologue. Although his topical monologue was
mixed and was the highlight of the show (and the ballyhooed appearance
of Stacey Dash) the Oscars drew the lowest viewers in eight years.
8.SUMMER OLYMPIC STARS
The
Summer Olympics in Rio De Janeiro had its challenged even before the
festivities started with the huge Zika Virus scare. Nevertheless, the
show went on for two weeks many of the success stemmed from various
athletes making history. The stars like
Michael Phelps who added No. 22 Gold medal to his collection by winning
the
200-meter individual medley; Simone
Biles took the gold in the women's
gymnastics all-around competition becoming the first woman in 20 years
to win
back-to-back world and Olympic all around titles; and, Simone Manuel
won the gold becoming the first individual swimming medal for an
African-American
woman ever. Despite the historical moments, The games end as the
lowest-rated and least-watched Summer Olympics since 2000.
7.BEYONCE'S FORMATION VIDEO CREATES CONTROVERSY
It
was a great year for singer Beyonce with the release of her sixth No. 1
"Lemonade" and receiving nine Grammy nods for it but the year started
off a bit rocky when she released the video for the song, "Formation."
The video gave images of New Orleans culture
focuses on the Black Lives Matter motif and the Hurricane Katrina
disaster. Along with the visual social messages, Bey added her now
Queen Ratchetness with the song itself involving hot sauce
in purses, taking her boo to Red Lobster after
good sex and
creating bamas from mixing Negro and Creole. And what you
have is a gumbo of But of course, involving all these components,
controversy followed led by former Mayor Rudy Guiliani who went on air
to
say that the video was anti-police.
6.BIRTH OF A NATION'S BIG DISTRIBUTION FAILS AT BOX OFFICE
This
film made news and controversy at the same time. The fictional story of
the rebellion of Nat Turner was the highlight of this year's Sundance
Film festival that was financed, directed and acted by Nate Parker. It received rave reviews from critics and made news for it making history of being bought by Fox
Searchlight for distribution
rights for 17 million. However, the film's director's shady past came to
revisit him when the alleged and closed rape case of the woman who was
allegedly raped by Parker committed suicide. Parker refused to apologize
and was blackballed from his attitude. When the film was eventually
released, it did not meet expectations
at the Box Office raking in only 7 million its first weekend.
5.CELEBRITY DEATHS
This
year was a whirlwind of shocking deaths from several prominent
celebrities which started Jan 1 when we found out that singer Natalie
Cole died of health complications, then a succession of entertainers
died including David Bowie, Glenn Frey and Maurice White. But the two
that really received huge press was the passing of uber music star
Prince in April and boxing legend Muhammad Ali in May (SEE RIP BITZ
BELOW).
4.THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WIN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP
Although the Golden State Warriors eclipsed Michael
Jordan and the Chicago Bulls 72 game streak win by winning its
73rd game winning over the Memphis
Grizzlies, that record was shadowed when they played against the
Cleveland Cavaliers at the NBA Finals. The Cavs came back from a three
game deficit and won the NBA Finals upsetting the defending champion
Golden State Warriors at
Oracle Arena in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. As far as the ratings,
ticketing, and betting during Game 7,
the Cleveland Cavaliers clincher scored 30.8 million total viewers — the
biggest tune-in for championship series since Michael Jordan last won a
ring in
1998. The championship was the first major professional win for the city
since 1964. Cleveland held a rally and parade for LeBron James and the
Cavs with a crowd of approximately 1.3 million attended.
3.CHICAGO CUBS WIN WORLD SERIES
The curse was over for The Chicago Cubs when they won the World Series against the Cleveland Indians winning their
third trophy within a span of 108 years since the second one. The Chicago Cubs dramatic, 10-inning, 8-7
victory over the Cleveland Indians was
the most watched game World Series Game 7 in 25 years raking in 40 million
viewers. It was the best any
baseball game has done since 1991. The parade had taken place at Grant
Park where 5 million people attended as well as its biggest fan,
comedian Bill Murray. The love was also given the Cubs when three of his
players outfielder Dexter Fowler, first
baseman Anthony Rizzo, and now-retired catcher David Ross made an
appearance on Saturday Night Live on several sketches.
2.COLIN KAPERNICK CAUSE CONTROVERSY TAKING A KNEE DURING NATIONAL ANTHEM
If
San Fransico 49ers' Colin Kaepernick wasnt known to those who don;t
follow sports, knew exactly who he was outside of sports. During one of
his team's preliminary games in August, he refused to stand during the
singing of the National anthem by sitting down on the bench to protest
the injustices of black people.. The sitting then changed to taking a
knee after much negative hoopla about it. His gesture caused waves with
some of his teammates joining him and even local sporting arenas where
players took knees to protest.
“At this point, I think I will continue to be taking a
knee,” Kaepernick said. “As far as how long this goes, I’m not sure. I
want to be able to effect change and I think there are a lot of others
that want to as well.”
Kaepernick
pledged to donate $1 million to communities for this cause. He is
guaranteed $11.9 million this season. His gesture also was good business
when his No. 7 jersey became the top selling jersey from No. 20 up to
No. 1 at $99 a jersey.Later in the year he made the cover of Time
Magazine who could have easily been Person of Year if it wasn't for the
President-elect)/
AND THE NO. 1 STORY WAS:
1.SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE PARODYING THE HILARY V TRUMP DEBATES
The
Presidential debates between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton was must
see TV and was social media bait for the antics of Trump and Hillary's
stone face responses to them. It was also parody fair for Saturday Night
Live when it returned for its 42nd season with the debut of Alec
Baldwin’s Donald Trump and the very welcome
return of Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton. Saturday Night Live opened
its 42nd season on Saturday with a bang and propelled the SNL Premiere
to its
highest ratings in 8 years. The cold opening of SNL continued the next
two weeks as the ratings continued to rise to see how the show would
interpret the parody within the parody of the real debates. Things came
to a halt when Trump eventually won the election on Election Night and
the following Saturday, McKinnon opened SNL with a somber performance
of her singing "Hallelujah and playing piano giving the most stirring TV
moment of the year. It was also the same episode that was hosted by the
comeback of comedian Dave Chappelle whose colorful monologue and skits
gave the show's biggest ratings since 2013.
THE FIT BITZ PIC OF THE YEAR
This
year, actress Elise Neal broke the Internet when she posted this pic of
her during a swimsuit photo shoot. Her taut body was wowing on social
media and that she turned 50 years old made it even more jaw-dropping.
THE WHO GOT STYLE PIC OF THE YEAR
We had to give it to the late style icon Prince who died this year. Not only did he make a name for himself in music but he also was a fashion
icon. Starting off his career wearing trenchcoat , bikini underwear and
thigh boots to his iconic purple overcoat with ruffled shirt and Jheri curl to
his natted fro three eyes shades, His Royal Badness made a statement breaking, gender
roles and looking great doing it.
R.I.P.
JANUARY
Singer, Natalie Cole
Singer, William Guest (Gladys Knight and The Pips)
Singer, David Bowie
Singer, Glenn Frey
FEBRUARY
Singer/Producer, Maurice White
Singer-Cum-Evangelist, Vanity ( Denise Matthews)
STL radio personality Director Al Stevens
MARCH
Reality star, Andre Montgomery
Rapper, Phife Dawg
Actor, Ken Howard
Comedian, Gary Shandling
Sports announcer, Joe Garagiola
STL community leader, Ida
Woolfolk .
APRIL
Radio personality, Doug Banks
Singer/Producer, Prince
Singer, Billy Paul
MAY
Boxing legend, Muhammad Ali
Martial Arts/Wrestler, Kimbo Slice
JUNE
Singer, Christina Grimmie
News Anchor, Patrick Emory
Rapper, Attrell Cordes (of PM Dawn)
Musician, Bernie Worrell (Parliament/Funkadelic)
JULY
TV/Movie Producer, Gary Marshall
TV Personality, Youree Dell Harris (aka Miss Cleo)
Sports Announcer, John Saunders
SEPTEMBER
Actor, Gene Wilder
Music Producer, Jerry Heller
STL community activist,Darren Seals
Female Impersonator/Actor, Alexis Arquette
Female Impersonator.ActorLady Chablis
Singer/Producer, Kashif
Rapper, Shawty Lo
OCTOBER
Baseball player,Jose Fernandez
Actor, Bill
Nunn
Novelist, Gloria Naylor
Songwriter, Rod Temperton
Golf Legend, Arnold Palmer
Actor, Thomas Mikal Ford
Radio legend, Herb Kent
NOVEMBER
Poet/Songwriter, Leonard Cohen
News Personality, Gwenn Ifill
Singer, Sharon Jones (of the Dap Kings)
DECEMBER
TV Producer, Grant Tinker
Actress, Florence Henderson
Actor, Ron Glass
Singer, Colonel Abrams
STL Radio legend, Richard Onion Horton
Actor, Alan Thicke
Sports Announcer, Chris Sager
Hollywood Icon, Zsa Zsa Gabor
Singer, George Michael(ADD)
Comedian/actor, Ricky Harris (ADD)
Actress/writer Carrie Fisher (ADD)
Actress, Debbie Reynolds (ADD)
Well
that will do it for SPOT BITZ. After 11 years we have decided to
discontinue posting the weekly blog. Since the days of journal entries
without pics to reporting on the St Louis news scene along with going to
every club party, it was time to end it. With the outburst of bloggers,
vloggers, Instagram videos and hashtags, the blog scene has been a bit
crowded especially with so many posters reporting the same stories but
adding their spin to them. We think OUTTOWN/OUTSTAGN was one of the
stalwarts in the game and created a niche in the world of social media
driven journalism.
But, its not all over.
We
will still post on OUTSTAGN but not s often and we will focus on more
project promotion for Maatology Productions, attending events still but
more focused on fashion and theater and expanding the WORDZ TO THE WHYZ
focusing on trends in arts and entertainment. The posts wont be a
frequent, but they will be posted when there is is definite relevance.
So, fellow OUTTOWNERS and OUTSTAGRS, see you sometime in 2017.
Ma'at Atkins
Blog Editor.
