John Legend looks to reach stadium heights with CD
A platinum CD is hardly a disappointment, especially in these rocky times, when even veteran acts find it hard to crack the one-million mark. But John Legend admits to being slightly disappointed to the response to his last album, “Once Again.” It’s not that it was flop compared to his debut, “Get Lifted,” which also went platinum. And it’s not like he didn’t win accolades off of his sophomore CD: He earned a Grammy, and now has five to put on his mantle. But the retro-soul CD, while a critical and commercial success, didn’t have any true breakout hits, and didn’t grow his audience like he had hoped. (Continue Reading…)

Jennifer Hudson “Still in Shock” at Chicago Hotel
Jennifer Hudson has been holed up in a downtown Chicago hotel with loved ones and friends as she prepares to bury three family members. “She is still in shock,” a source tells E! News. “She hasn’t gone out much at all and has a lot of security around her.” Insiders say that Hudson checked into the Trump International Hotel & Tower on Oct. 24, the day her mother, Darnell Donerson, and brother, Jason Hudson, were shot and killed in Donerson’s home and nephew Julian King was reported missing. Hudson had been in Florida when she received the news and immediately boarded a flight north. (Continue Reading…)

Cosby: Black Colleges Should Demand More from Alumni
Noted author and humorist Bill Cosby recently took historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to task for not making their alumni give back. Cosby was the keynote speaker during the Oct. 7th dinner session of the three-day, ”Straight Talk Symposium Securing the Financial Future of North Carolina HBCUs and Their Communities, sponsored by several foundations, including the North Carolina Institute of Minority Economic Development, the Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity & Inclusion Institute, and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Cosby chided Black university officials for begging their alumni to contribute to their institutions, saying instead that administrators should make them feel bad,and demand better support from past graduates to insure a good education for coming generations of students, The Wilmington Journal reported this week. Do things with pride, and a sense of history, Cosby told college presidents and administrators in attendance. How dare you, dare you, think that you’re not worthy to raise money for your school. (Continue Reading…)

On ‘Oprah,’ Jones Admits to Mistake
Marion Jones gave her first interview since being released from prison for lying to federal investigators, saying on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” on Wednesday that she believes she could have won her medals at the 2000 Olympics without performance-enhancing drugs. Jones also tearfully read a letter she said she wrote to her two children during her six-month prison term. “I truly believe that the reason I made the awful mistake and a few thereafter was because I didn’t love myself enough to tell the truth,” Jones said. Jones was sentenced for two counts of lying to federal officials in the Balco investigation and in a check-fraud case that also snared Tim Montgomery, Jones’s former boyfriend. She pleaded guilty last October in United States District Court in White Plains, and Judge Kenneth M. Karas announced her six-month sentence in January. She was released from a federal detention center in Fort Worth on Sept. 5. (Continue Reading…)

McCain Says Racism Will Barely Affect Election
Republican presidential candidate John McCain says racism exists in America, but will be trumped by the nation’s economic problems and play virtually no role when voters head to the polls next Tuesday. In a transcript of an interview taped for broadcast Wednesday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live,” McCain said people will vote “for the best of reasons, not the worst of reasons.” He said most people will vote based on who they want to lead the country. Referring to people who might vote against Obama because he is black, McCain added: “It would be a tiny, tiny, minority. Because people are hurting too much now. I mean, they’re worried about staying in their homes, keeping their jobs. I don’t have to tell you all these things.” (Continue Reading…)

Cops Find Possible Hudson Murder Weapon
A piece of Jennifer Hudson’s tragic puzzle may be in place. Chicago police have recovered a gun that they believe was the one used in the shooting deaths of the Oscar winner’s mother, brother and nephew. Darnell Donerson, 57, Jason Hudson, 29, and Julian King, 7, are believed to have been killed with a .45-caliber weapon. Technicians from the Illinois State Police crime lab will test the gun they found today against shell casings recovered at the crime scenes. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the gun and other as-yet-undisclosed evidence was discovered by a police recruit, who was conducting a routine search in connection with the investigation, at 1:30 p.m. in an empty trash-strewn lot on 14th Street between Kildare and Kolin Avenues on the city’s West Side. (Continue Reading…)

The tragic homicides of Darnell Donerson and Jason Hudson, safe to say, caught a few people’s attention around my parts. The question of whether fame is the bait that attracts senseless acts of violence was the main topic of conversation. In a conversation about said Hudson family tragedy, it was Mama Clay who dropped the puzzle:

“I don’t know why people would do something like that. It’s the music and TV that causes people do this mess.”

At first, I thought she was referring to Jennifer Hudson’s fame in the music and television industries that brought on the crime. You know, the whole “mo money, mo problems” thing. Then I realized she was blaming the entertainment industry for its message of violence. It’s donkey-kong on now. Nobody attacks my beloved hip-hop to my face without a prolix reminder that society created hip hop, not the other way around. But then something stopped me.

I thought about it for a second. And realized her point.

The eternal question of “Does art imitate life or does life imitate art” initiates much debate because there are many who charge arts with distorting human reality and giving people ideas to act in a particular way. Filmmakers and musicians cite the First Amendment as their exercise to enact free speech. Besides, they say, from where do you think we draw our inspiration? Fix societal problems and you will fix the “distorted” art that we put out.

If inner-city ills are a reality of many rappers, then those rappers will talk about what they know. Reality is like a mirror: when you look into it, it reflects back to you. However, if you change that reality, that mirror, then you will see something totally different. But there are some people whose realities are shaped by what they see or hear. How can you tell the difference and how can you prevent this from happening? At what point does life imitate art?

When I first read about the Hudson tragedy, I thought about the movie Paid in Full. There was a sequence towards the conclusion of the movie when the resident drug lord and his family were robbed. The drug lord, played by Avon Barksdale, I meant Wood Harris, resisted and was subsequently shot. He survived, and when he regained consciousness he found two members of his family dead. His best friend’s little brother was later abducted. To sum things up, his best friend’s little brother was later found to be kidnapped by his own uncle. All this because of money and jealousy.

I am in no way insinuating that the Hudson family was involved in drug trafficking. I am merely pointing out the commonalities in the murders and the motives for each.

I’m no detective and I am not privy to the details of the situation, but what happened in that double homicide in Chicago that day reeks heavily of killings spurred by a desire for resources (namely, cash). Is this an instance of life being created by art as Obama stated? Or is this a separate incident, a total coincidence independent of the violence being portrayed in art?

It seems to me that black men have been the victims of poor realities. This is for many reasons of course, but it comes a time when an active role in distinguishing between the whims of art and the reality it attempts to purvey has to happen. In order to cure an illness, you must diagnose the problem. And black people, we do have a problem in this area.

Time to stop letting art determine our realities.

Common Misses Fatal Shooting by Hours
Chicago rapper Common just missed a fatal shooting in Brooklyn, New York on Monday (October 27), that left one man dead and four others injured. According to a report from AllHipHop.com, the rapper had received a hair cut just hours before the murder, a place he is a regularly frequents when in need of a cut. During Monday afternoon, two gunmen reportedly opened fire on a 19-year-old male near the intersection of 704 Fulton Street and South Oxford Street in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. The man fled into a nearby hair salon, was cornered and killed by the suspects. In a barrage of nearly 30 shots, four innocent bystanders in the shop were hit including an off duty police officer. (Continue Reading…)

Hudson Suspect Could Have Had Parole Revoked
Busted for what police said was a rock of cocaine on the driver’s seat of his car, William Balfour could have been spending the past few months behind bars for a parole violation. The 27-year-old felon was instead allowed to remain free and is now considered a suspect in the deaths of Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson’s mother, brother and 7-year-old nephew. On the day the victims were fatally shot and the young boy went missing, Balfour told his parole agent he had missed a meeting because he was baby-sitting, records show. By midnight, investigators involved in a frantic search for 7-year-old Julian King had contacted parole officials and requested emergency addresses, visitor lists, telephone numbers and “anything further” connected to Balfour, according to documents obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. (Continue Reading…)

Detroit’s Ex-Mayor Kilpatrick Jailed for 4 Months
A judge sentenced former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to four months in jail Tuesday for a sex-and-text scandal, calling him “arrogant and defiant” and questioning the sincerity of a guilty plea that ended his career at City Hall. Kilpatrick declined to speak in court, but his lawyers urged the judge to look at his entire career, not just the crimes that threw local government into disarray for months. The punishment was part of a plea agreement worked out last month. Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner followed that deal but said Kilpatrick would not get time off for good behavior, potentially up to 20 days in this case. “When someone gets 120 days in jail, they should get 120 days in jail,” Groner said. (Continue Reading…)

Sometimes a good book really is all you need. They have the power to transform, take your mind off of troubles, whisk you to fantasy lands, and even if for a mere hour, allow you peek into the intimate details of someone else’s life. So we’re saluting the authors who keep us on the edge of our seats and leave us wanting more–sharing with you our favorite scribes who put pen to paper and uplift voices for the unheard.

Triple tragedy leaves Hudson career at crossroads
Just a month ago, a bubbly Jennifer Hudson — who had been striking gold with just about everything she touched — was running down the list of all the projects that she expected would soon dominate her life. Already an Oscar-winning actress, the 27-year-old was about to release her first album, which would become an instant best-seller, and a new movie, “The Secret Life of Bees.” But the entertainer saw so much more in her future. “I am planning on touring,” she said, rattling off a list of her upcoming priorities. “There’s more films and more music and stuff like that … I want to start a fashion line as well, start writing music.” There were also plans of a big wedding to new fiance David Otunga. “It’s gonna be a production,” she gushed. “I have so many visions for it right now — I get to put that together.” (Continue Reading…)

Obama to Voters: Our Future Depends on This Week
Sen. Barack Obama told voters on Monday that “we are one week away from changing America.” Delivering what his campaign billed as his “closing argument,” Obama told a crowd in Canton, Ohio, that “there’s so much at stake” in the week ahead. “We cannot let up for one day, one minute, or one second in this last week. Not now,” he said. The Democratic candidate, who has a sizeable lead in national polls, warned against acting as if the election is already over. “Don’t think for a minute that power concedes. We have a lot of work to do. We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does depend on it this week,” he said. Obama told voters it was up to them to “give this country the change we need,” as he tried to make the case that Sen. John McCain is too similar to President Bush to bring about that change. (Continue Reading…)

NAACP Sues Virginia Governor Over Election Day Preparations
The Virginia branch of the NAACP sued Gov. Tim Kaine and state election officials on Monday, claiming that the state is “inadequately prepared” for the record number of voters expected to turn out in next week’s presidential election. The complaint, filed Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Richmond, says state officials have not set up enough polling sites to keep up with the turnout. “The allocation of polling place resources is plainly irrational, non-uniform and likely discriminatory,” the suit states. It cites the 2004 presidential election, arguing that too few polling places in Virginia at the time led to long lines and forced some voters to turn away. (Continue Reading…)

CNN’s New Hughley Show Reinforces Black Stereotypes
In just eight days, America may well elect its first black president. Throughout the long campaign, race has been an omnipresent issue with many asking whether whites and some blacks would reject Senator Obama because of his race. Most news outlets and commentators have discussed race in a vacuous way for fear of being called racists. In fact, if this election taught us anything about the media and race, it is that most journalists — including white liberals — simply lack the vocabulary to discuss and analyze race, choosing instead to engage in a cacophonous politically correct gab fest. As the election draws to a close, one major cable news network decided to discuss race in a mephitic way, reminiscent of Amos and Andy, a situation comedy based on reinforcing stereotypes about blacks and widely popular in the United States from the 1920s through the 1950s. (Continue Reading…)

Howard sued for alleged Broadway attack
U.S. actor Terrence Howard physically attacked composer Tex Allen during a Broadway production in New York, a lawsuit filed by Allen alleges. Allen alleges in his $5 million lawsuit that the “Iron Man” actor repeatedly punched him in the face during a dispute while the pair were working on “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” early this year, the New York Post reported Sunday. The Jan. 24 incident at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York began when Howard confronted Allen for unreported reasons backstage, the suit alleges. (Continue Reading…)

Some voters ‘purged’ from voter rolls
College senior Kyla Berry was looking forward to voting in her first presidential election, even carrying her voter registration card in her wallet. But about two weeks ago, Berry got disturbing news from local election officials. “This office has received notification from the state of Georgia indicating that you are not a citizen of the United States and therefore, not eligible to vote,” a letter from the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections said. But Berry is a U.S. citizen, born in Boston, Massachusetts. She has a passport and a birth certificate to prove it. (Continue Reading…)

It seems like most people I know want to lose at least 5 pounds. Whether its 5 pounds to get back into your favorite jeans or 10 pounds to help you get into a bikini. Most of us are not completely happy with our weight and would go to pretty great lengths to find out the secret on how to do it and keep it off.

Well the secret is that there isn’t any secret. That the way to lose weight is through diet and exercise. Now exercise is not always fun but it is necessary to lose and keep weight off. Your diet should be low in calories and fat and include a well-balanced menu. But, if you are doing all that and need an added boost? Try to add a Skinny Water instead of a high calorie drink into your diet. Skinny Water is the first, zero-calorie water that boosts energy, increases metabolism and suppresses appetite. ($1.49, available at Target –target.com or visit skinnywater.com).

Skinny Water not only is a perfect replacement for high calorie drinks in your diet but it actually works to suppresses appetite and improve your metabolism. Each bottle curbs appetite and each flavor is formulated with antioxidants multivitamins and clinically proven ingredients to boost metabolism and curb appetite. Skinny Water comes in five delicious flavors - Acai Grape Blueberry (Hi- Energy), Raspberry Pomegranates (Crave Control), Goji Fruit Punch (Shape), Passion Fruit Lemonade (Total-V) and Peach Mango Mandarin (XXX-Detox).

It certainly can’t hurt to try Skinny Water — this drink with zero calories and zero sugar. So you can drink this with zero guilt. So go ahead choose a flavor and get busy getting into those jeans you have been waiting to wear.

We are currently seeking detail-oriented, creative, and enthusiastic interns to join our team. The internship will be in our Marketing/PR department. Candidates should be well organized and self-motivated, with strong writing skills and a strong interest in digital media/marketing including a broad familiarity with media websites and blogs. If you are interested in becoming a part of Clutch, please send a resume and a short cover letter to internships@clutchmagazine.com.

{*All internships are unpaid. College credit is available. Internships are only available in the pr/marketing department}

SoulBounce, our favorite online destination for all things music has cooked up a delicious mix of tunes for you rock to. The SoulBounce Blended & Beat Vol. 1 is the first official SoulBounce podcast and after listening to this one we cannot wait for the next! So, bounce over to SoulBounce and get your download on. The track list is below. Download it here…

Police have also issued a missing child alert for a boy believed to be the nephew of the entertainer. Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said the deaths appeared to be the result of a domestic incident. Deputy Chief Joseph Patterson told reporters that a family member entered the home around 3pm today and found a woman fatally shot on the living room floor. That person left the house to notify police.

When Chicago police searched the house, they found a man fatally shot in the bedroom, Patterson said. There was no sign of forced entry. Authorities were looking for a 1994 white Chevrolet missing from the area around the home with seven-year-old Julian King inside, Bond said. The child was the grandson of the female victim, Patterson said, and Bond added the boy could also be a relative of Hudson. Public listings show a Jennifer Hudson and Darnell Donerson at the address. Hudson grew up in Chicago and her mother’s name is Darnell Donerson. A publicist for Hudson at her record label said she was not aware of any incident involving Hudson’s mother. She did not immediately return subsequent calls and an email seeking additional information. (Continue Reading…)

Our sincere condolences go out to the entire Hudson family.

The life, love, and death of the late rap legend Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. the Notorious B.I.G., is coming to the big screen January 16, 2009 in a biopic titled Notorious. Born in Brooklyn, Biggie rose to fame with the release of his 1994 debut album Ready to Die. While in Los Angeles in 1997 promoting his second album, Life After Death, Biggie was brutally gunned down by an unknown person in a drive-by shooting. Surrounded by conspiracy, his murder still remains unsolved to this day. While at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York where concert scenes were being filmed earlier this year, rapper Lil’ Cease who was a member of the group Junior M.A.F.I.A., Biggie’s protégé group, stated,

“In this movie, you get to see Biggie’s background, it’s bigger than music, you see his personality, you get to see how he treated his kids, how he bonded with his moms, how he treated Junior M.A.F.I.A. It’s something special, something good.”

Beyonce to Be Known as “Sasha Fierce”
Just like the “Seinfeld” episode where George wanted everyone to call him “T-Bone,” Beyonce Knowles would like to be known by a bold new name. The R&B singer has christened herself “Sasha Fierce” for her new double album, “I Am … Sasha Fierce,” due in U.S. stores on November 18, and has released a lengthy justification for the comical moniker. “I have someone else that takes over when it’s time for me to work and when I’m on stage, this alter ego that I’ve created that kind of protects me and who I really am,” the former Destiny’s Child frontwoman said in a statement. “Sasha Fierce is the fun, more sensual, more aggressive, more outspoken side and more glamorous side that comes out when I’m working and when I’m on the stage.” Additionally, she has set up a cryptic MySpace page (www.myspace.com/sashafierce) that gives a “lucky person” the opportunity to receive a personal message and a gift bag valued at $500. (Continue Reading…)

Woman in Duke Lacrosse Case Renews Allegations
The woman who prosecutors determined falsely accused three Duke lacrosse players of rape maintains in a new memoir that she was attacked, a claim that provoked an angry lawsuit threat from one player’s family. Crystal Mangum, who appeared publicly Thursday for the first time since making the allegations more than two years ago, says in her book being made available online Friday that she is not “looking forward to opening old wounds” but that she had to defend herself. “Even as I try to move on with my life, I still find it necessary to take one more stand and fight,” she writes in an excerpt of the book, “The Last Dance for Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story.” (Continue Reading…)

Dr. Rice: ‘Children of Color’ are Worst Hit by Failing Schools
In a Wednesday afternoon appearance before an annual gathering of powerful women, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the failing American education system has become “the most pressing national security issue in this country right now.” Rice, the highest-ranking African-American in government and the first Black woman to hold the post, made the remarks at The Women’s Conference, a yearly event organized by California First Lady Maria Shriver. Taking the Long Beach Convention Center stage to resounding applause from the nearly 15,000 in attendance, the statement by Rice — who previously served as President Bush’s national security advisor and was once the chief academic and budget officer at Stanford University — was particularly striking in light of her deep involvement in a global conflict against terrorism and the central role she plays in helping to oversee lengthy wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan. (Continue Reading…)

A little less dining out, fewer trips to burger joints and a little bit of creativity will help to free-up extra time and money. Here are a few tips, tricks and strategies that work for my busy life and saves cash too.

1. When preparing a meal, cook a little extra so you can brown bag-it for work the next day instead of purchasing lunch from the cafeteria.

2. Plan your meals for the week. You’re more likely to stick to a plan if you devote time to thinking of ideas, listing them, and shopping for what is needed.

3. Lot’s of people wait to go out to eat on the weekend. Save money one of those weekends and host a potluck with a few friends. Talk, laugh and pop in a classic like the movie Love Jones. That’s friends, food and fun for less than what you would spend at a restaurant and the most you did was cook a dish.

4. Swap quick and easy recipes from multicultural friends and co-workers for different and delicious meal ideas.

5. When grocery shopping, look for the 2 for 1 deals. It may seem like spending more but you actually do save per item and that’s getting more for your money.

6. Invest in a crock-pot. Not only can you cook just about anything in them, but it saves you time and gives you a break by safely slow cooking whole meals while you’re at work, running errands or just out and about. It’s like having your very own personal cook.

7. Make a real meal of Ramen Noodles by adding lean beef, turkey, chicken, or shrimp if you’re a college student or just busy and on the go a lot.

8. Make it a rule not to go grocery shopping without a list and then stick to what’s on it.

9. Opt to shop at an off-brand grocery store for lower prices on food, household and personal items.

10. Stock up on staples when there’s a deal so you’re never caught cooking without all the essentials.

11. Load up on your spices at deep discount stores.

12. Get the Sunday newspaper and clip coupons. The secret to saving with coupons is to only clip and use those coupons for the things you regularly buy. To do otherwise is spending money you wouldn’t normally spend if there was no coupon available for it.