And All That Jaz - Podcast

We said we were protecting Black women, right? 

I know you can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed. But can you just be whelmed?

Here's the IG post I was referencing: https://bit.ly/35VBUCc

I'm Black 365, so keep that performative allyship away from me.

…oh, and why didn't anyone warn me about how addictive Wordle is?

Dealing with the adjustments of life, one day at a time.

The girls that get it, get it. And the girls that don't, don’t.

Full disclosure: This episode was recorded at 5 AM in my bed and on my phone so please excuse any audio issues that you don't normally hear. What started off as just a run of show notes turned into a full-blown episode so excuse my morning voice.

Now to the meat and potatoes of this episode! The 'Sex and the City' reboot debuted on HBOMax recently and I binged the first two episodes. I have so many thoughts and feelings about the new cast, the Big changes, and the way they're helping destigmatize the conversation around mental health already! I'll be sharing my thoughts on those first two episodes as well as some Insecure episodes that helped make me comfortable enough to not only share my recent struggles with depression with loved ones but with y'all. But don't worry, we'll be ending the episode on a high note with some info for an upcoming trip I have planned to DC for Issa Rae's #HooraeTakesKC event! If you're thinking about going make sure you grab your tickets when they go on sale on Dec 14!

This week I'm honoring greats, making recommendations and encouraging you to protect your peace.

Sad Girl Fall has me two-steppin in my feelings

Nashville is the equivalent of TI's line from 'Motivation', "5'9" with the spirit of a 6'4" (city).

Check out 'Pose' and 'High on the Hog' if you haven't already!

I know it's been a minute, but so much has happened over the past month!! 

On this episode I'll be sharing my BIG NEWS, talking about Bow Wow vs Soulja and how Bow Wow helped me check my lung capacity last year, as well as sharing tips to help you with your mental health journey! May might be Mental Health Awareness Month, but these tips will help y'all year-round! So grab your coffee and tune in! 

Hello…how are you? This week's episode is full of musical references. From Adele to John Mayer to the late great DMX. May he rest in honor.

So much has happened in the last month and I wanted to share a bit with y'all on this week's episode as well as talk a little bit about boundaries…or the lack thereof. You know the drill; grab a mug of coffee and tune in!

Reminding folks that allyship is a verb, that sometimes the little guys do win and sharing an obscure Black History Month fact! 

Stop hijacking his words and find out which Tik Tok trend has my attention.

We can't even get all the way into the new year without some mess…damn!

Wi-Fi, wireless bras, and wildin' out on Zoom happy hours....

Happy December y'all!! I said that I would be sharing more holiday music with y'all, and that's exactly what I'm doing this week. This week's tracks are newer ones (even though one is a holiday cover), so you might not have them on your holiday playlists yet but I think that'll change once you hear them. 

This week's songs:

Mary, did you know? - Stevie Mackey & Shelea

Cider & Hennessy - Jordin Sparks

25th - Tori Kelly

Gobble me, swallow me. Drip gravy down the side of me. 

This one was INCREDIBLY hard to narrow down. I initially wanted to pick 3 Christmas songs by any artist, but I have too many favorites to choose from. Plus if you've been around here for a while you know that I'm a HUGE fan of *NSYNC so this week's theme shouldn't be too much of a shock. I'm fact, it's timed perfectly with the arrival of my new Justin Timberlake pin and NSA monogrammed keychain! Take a listen below to check out my favorites and feel free to add them to your holiday playlists.

This week's songs:

I Don't Wanna Spend One More Christmas Without You

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

O, Holy NIght

Last month I found out that you can now share full songs from Spotify in your Anchor podcasts and I wanted to take advantage of that with a new format of Tuneage Tuesday! Instead of sharing a full playlist with y'all I'll be sharing 3 songs that I currently have on repeat along with why I have them in constant rotation. Since this is a Spotify exclusive perk you can only listen to these episodes on Spotify, which is fine with me since I’m usually sharing content from the platform on Tuneage Tuesday anyway! Take a listen and let me know if this is a format y'all like and want me to continue.

This week's songs are:

"Kiss Me" - Lee-Lon

"off the table" - Ariana Grande, The Weeknd

"Untouchable [Live Version]" - Terrell Grice, Brooke Simpson, Lex Cole

So Hogwarts was a HBCU that night…

Last week I found out that you can now share full songs from Spotify in your Anchor podcasts and I wanted to take advantage of that with a new format of Tuneage Tuesday! Instead of sharing a full playlist with y'all I'll be sharing 3 songs that I currently have on repeat along with why I have them in constant rotation. Since this is a Spotify exclusive perk you can only listen to these episodes on Spotify, which is fine with me since I’m usually sharing content from the platform on Tuneage Tuesday anyway! Take a listen and let me know if this is a format y'all like and want me to continue.

This week's songs are:

"Walking on the Ceiling" - Jordan Fisher

"So Done" - Alicia Keys feat. Khalid

"Shoulda" - Lucky Daye feat. Babyface

More rebranding, reclaiming time and 'rona travels

Fall fashions, farewell to a giant and fictitious drama on Netflix....

Another week, another podcast episode with Tavaria! She's becoming a regular on here and I'm not mad at that! As you can tell from the title of this episode we're talking about what's going on with the USPS along with a few other things. A certain family decided to co-opt something that wasn't theirs and completely butchered it, and we had thoughts about that as well as Cardi and Meg's new single. And it wouldn't be a quarantine episode from us if we didn't give y'all TV show or movie recommendations; so grab your coffee or tea and tune in below!

We're a day late and like this nation, a few coins short but we're here! Tavaria's back on the mic with me and we had to talk about the recklessness we've been seeing folks do in these COVID streets. From pools in clubs to prematurely sending kids back to school in person we have opinions on it all. We even laid into Kanye and the president and CEO of Goya foods for their foolishness before discussing Jada and Auggie's entanglement. We couldn't end things on a petty note (I mean, we could but didn't want to) so we decided to share some of the music and podcasts that we've been listening to as well as our ideal Verzuz battles.

You already know the drill, grab that mug of coffee and tune in below!

I saw that phrase on a social media post recently and it stuck out to me because it's the truth. My joy and even my existence is a form of resistance, so that's what I'm going to talk about on this week's episode. I'm sharing some history about the city I claim and love, talking about some of the Black-owned businesses I've been patronizing, discussing some shows I've been binging, and more! And to be 100% transparent, I end the episode talking about something else that's life-giving for me, my IUD! I'm coming up at the end of year 5 with it and it's almost time for a replacement so I'm talking about my experience with it on this week's episode. You know the drill, grab a mug of tea or coffee and tune into this shorter episode! 

So much has happened these past few weeks and it seems like the phrase 'Black Lives Matter' is no longer seen as taboo. Companies and corporations everywhere are saying in and donating to the cause and Tavaria and I have so many thoughts and feelings about the sudden surge in participation in the movement. We also dive into the history of the upcoming holiday, Juneteenth and why it's so important to Black people in the South. I've also been binging documentaries and noticed a keen difference between the R. Kelly and Jeff Epstein one that I had to share with y'all this week.

Finally, we wanted to end things on a lighter note because one of the ways we can keep sane during times of crisis is to laugh so we talked about the scam goddess that is B. Simone and we finished off the episode talking about 'Insecure'. I want to preface this and say that we recorded this episode on Sunday prior to the season finale of 'Insecure'. I watched it in shock with the rest of y'all and then had a full hour-long Facetime chat with 3 of my girls about not only the episode, but the entire season so please believe that a mini AAtJ episode about the show is coming soon!

Y'all know the drill, grab a cup of coffee and tune in!

This week was heavy, like really heavy. Working from home made it easier because I was able to cry when I needed to and I didn't have to deal with people directly. Between the tears and the physical manifestation of dealing with all of this I'm tired.

I'm tired of my brothers and sisters being MURDERED and their MURDERERS not being held accountable. I'm tired of the "allies" who channel Helen Keller when it's time to speak up and march along with us. I'm tired of the respectability politics and the "not all people" folks. I'm tired of breaking our backs doing the work we shouldn't be doing alone. WE CANNOT FIX A SYSTEM THAT WASN'T MADE FOR US.

In case you couldn't tell I'll be speaking about Christian Cooper and George Floyd on today's episode. I'll be talking about the language of the unheard and how folks need to stop slicing and dicing MLK Jr and the bible to fit whatever BS docile narrative they want to shove down the throat of BIPOC today. So take a listen, get uncomfortable, do the research, and do your part by putting your money and actions where your mouth is and having that uncomfortable conversation with others in your life.

And just like that, I'm back with another podcast episode! Your eyes and ears don't deceive you, I've recently rebranded! On this week's episode we're talking about the last few Verzuz battles, especially when Nelly lost to Ludacris and became a piece of modern artwork. We're also talking about romance during this quarantine period and how it's still possible to not only meet new people but to go on dates with them as well! This is a short episode so grab a mug of tea or coffee and dive right in!

Shout out to Tyrese and Teddy Riley for this week's episode. Whew chile! Saturday's show was a mess, and Monday's was slightly better. We're (yes, you read that correctly I have a co-host this week) talking about that, stimulating the economy, vetting quarantine baes and more this week. You know the drill, grab a mug of coffee or tea and tune in!

I was feeling a little inspired by Sunday's episode of 'Insecure' and a conversation that was had on a virtual happy hour this past weekend. I can't guarantee that I'll be dropping weekly episodes during this quarantine (that's now been extended to May 13 in Texas), so don't get used to them but I might have a little something special for y'all next week! 

I've lost track of what quarantine day this is, but I will say that I actually put on real clothes today. And by real clothes I mean a jumpsuit instead of leggings and a pullover. Today's episode is about our new Rona normal. I'm sharing my binge watch suggestions (and I just realized that I forgot to mention 'All American' on Netflix, go watch both seasons of that), my new obsession on Instagram, how Patreon accounts and Only Fan pages are essentially the same thing, and reminding folks to give themselves grace. I know I usually say grab a mug of coffee or tea, but times are rough so feel free to grab a real drink or a pint of ice cream and check out this episode!

What?! We made it to 50 episodes!!! Thank y'all so much for listening in these past few years, for all of the emails, comments, shares, DMs, everything. I truly appreciate it. Y'all have been super flexible with the hosting changes and rebranding and I hope you continue to stick around because I plan on putting out content for a while!

February is typically seen as the month of love, so both episodes this month will be centered around that theme. You can probably tell by the title of today's episode that I'll be talking about struggle love again and how It's absolute BASURA! I have a few hot topics but I promise they will all tie together; and I want to preface this episode by saying I love Black men. I was raised by one, related to a bunch of them, I've loved a few over the years and my siblings are raising some exquisite Black boys. So keep that in mind while you listen to this episode and hear my opinions on this Gayle King interview, Gervontae Davis' assault and Bobby Love's trash love story from Humans of New York.

You know the drill, grab a mug of tea and check out today's episode!

*I want to apologize now because we totally gave the wrong rapper credit about halfway through this episode. When you get there you'll understand. Apologies Lil Keke!*

If you're from Texas or even a DJ Screw fan then I hope you read that to the tune of "Pimp the Pen". If not, do yourselves a favor and check out that song.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, Y'ALL!

We're in the middle of Hannukah, Christmas is tomorrow and Kwanzaa officially starts the next day. Stores are packed, airports too and we've got another episode of 'Le Haute Paire' for you. And yes, you read that correctly I said "we". Tavaria is back on the mic with me and I'm so happy that I'll be finishing out this year with my cousin on the show! She gave a brief rundown explaining her hiatus, we talked about Lizzo, our new favorite ice cream Peach Mint and even shared some of our upcoming holiday plans. You know the drill, grab a mug of coffee, tea or even eggnog if that's your jam and tune in to the final episode of 2019!

Y'all!! I cannot tell you how much I've missed being on the mic. Not recording last week was utter torture and I'm so happy to be back today. This episode's been brewing for about 2 weeks, so some of it is new news and some of it's older but either way, I'm discussing it.

We've officially kicked off the holiday season and while some folks are hitting the streets and going shopping, I'm clicking "add to cart" in various online shops and watching all the holiday content! Lifetime. Hallmark. Disney+! You name it and I'll probably be watching it this holiday season.

I'm also discussing two controversial-ish topics this week: Clifford "Tip" Harris' inability to mind his own damn business and keep quiet about his daughter's sexual life, and Kanye's "ministry". And of course, I couldn't get on the mic sounding as "well" as I did without encouraging y'all to go to the doctor yourselves. So please, grab a mug of tea (because you probably need another one like me) and tuck into this week's episode. And I meant what I said in the episode. I know we typically cook the same things on Thanksgiving, but I still want to see your plates so feel free to tag me in them or send them my way!

Y'all, it's November and Fall TV is back! My DVR queue isn't that full since I've cut the cord-ish and have been streaming most things, but I wanted to share some new and old favorites with y'all today.

I also wanted to apologize for my voice on this episode, I'm on the tail end of an infection and then spent the day prior yelling and having fun. So my throat was a bit scratchy, but we're gonna make it. As usual, I want to thank each and every one of you for listening and I encourage you to comment below, DM or email me and let me know your favorite Fall shows, and what I should add to my list.