Welp! The 2016 Grammy Awards ceremony was mostly underwhelming. Perhaps because a lot of big named artists were visibly missing from the red carpet.
Nicki Minaj reportedly pulled out of her Grammy performance this weekend. Rihanna cancelled her performance, and Drake was noticeably missing. Lauryn Hill was going to do a surprise performance with The Weeknd, but because of her performance schedule, she wasn't able to attend.
All of this is interesting, because earlier this month, Snoop Dog said that he was not attending after saying that the Grammy's was just as whitewashed as the Oscars.
I'm not saying that the Grammy's appeared to have a silent boycott, but it is odd to me that a lot of TIDAL artists were missing from the biggest awards show at the same time. Even Twitter noticed it.
Either way, the party continued, and there were some great moments, starting with the red carpet. There were several people who stood out among the rest.
For instance, Jazmine Sullivan had more curves than a bottle of coke in her black, floor-length Michael Costello gown.
Also, Big Sean set off smoke alarms on Twitter in a black and white tuxedo blazer and slacks. Heeey Almond!
You can't tell me that their #RelationshipGoals isn't giving you all the feels with this photo. Hands down, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen were the cutest couple on the red carpet.
But that's about it. There wasn't much to the red carpet this year. Again, a lot of people were visibly missing.
KENDRICK LAMAR'S BIG WIN
I have to admit that I thought the awards show was going to really bad after the skinny red carpet. However, Kendrick's win for "Rap Performance of the Year" helped to make the night a little more promising.
O'Shea Jackson Jr. and his dad Ice Cube presented Kendrick with the first award of the night. When he gave his speech, what stood out was him thanking his fiancee Whitney Alford for holding him down. It was such a sweet gesture, and when he said it, he meant it. These two love birds have been together since high school.
How sweet!
ANDRA AND ELLIE SANG, CHILD!
THAT PENTATONIX AND STEVIE WONDER COLLAB THOUGH!
Pentatonix and Stevie Wonder took to the stage to present the award for Song of the Year, which went to Ed Sheeran for "Thinking Out Loud." But before Sheeran accepted his award, they performed an emotional tribute to Maurice White, founding member of the legendary band Earth Wind and Fire while doing their signature beatboxing, along with Stevie singing lead on "That's the Way of the World."
This is one of those songs that always brings back a good memory, so if you watch it, get ready to get all of the feels.
THE CAST OF HAMILTON HAD BARS AND THEY WON
The amazing Broadway cast of Hamilton came on stage, and for some reason I thought that I had heard Twitter collectively sigh of boredom.
That is until the cast opened their mouths. They not only blew everyone away, they also brought those bars.
The mega famous bio-musical about the life of Alexander Hamilton and the country's founding fathers has been met with tons of accolades. But when their performance hit Twitter, everyone was trying to beg, borrow, and steal their way to the next Hamilton performance.
They also won for best acceptance speech when they received their award for Best Musical Theater Album, because the mastermind behind the critically acclaimed show, Lin-Manuel Miranda, rapped his whole acceptance speech, and it was lit. Watch how he did it below.
KENDRICK LAMAR'S VERY POLITICALLY CHARGED PERFORMANCE
But if no one in the audience felt him, there were plenty of people at home who did. Twitter went wild with Kendrick during his performance, and they loved every bit of his message. Even celebrities were awed by his raw set.
Kendrick walked out of the building with five awards, and one hell of an impression on the audience. Watch his full performance below.
QUEEN BEYONCE FINALLY EMERGED TO PRESENT RECORD OF THE YEAR
By this time, everyone was wondering if Beyonce was really going to come on stage, because she was visibly missing from her seat. But she finally emerged on stage looking like a dream in a sheer white gown.
What was even better about her appearance was the words that she had to say before presenting the award, where she made a strong statement of the powerful impact of music. Everyone was moved.
She went on to present Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson for their immensely contagious his "Uptown Funk," which was a hard category to predict against nominees Ed Sheeran for "Thinking Out Loud," The Weeknd's "Can't Feel my Face," Taylor Swift's "Blank Space," and D'angelo's "Really Love."
TAYLOR SWIFT'S KANYE SHADE
Well it looks like Taylor Swift let it be known how she was feeling about Kanye's diss on his latest album, where he rapped that he made that "b*tch famous." She didn't keep her feelings cute at all when she said,
“As the first woman to win Album of the Year at the Grammys twice...I want to say to all the young woman out there: There will be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomphlishments, or your fame. But if you just focus on the work, and you don't let those people sidetrack you, someday when you get where you're going, you will look around and you will know that it you and the people that love you who put you there, and that will be the greatest feeling in the world. ”
And then she walked off stage with the biggest award of the night. #MicDrop.
What were your favorite moments from tonight's Grammy Awards ceremony? Sound off in the comments.
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The seeds for these entrepreneurs were planted during their time as students at schools like Spelman, North Carolina A&T, and more, which is why xoNecole caught up with Look Good Live Well’s Ariane Turner, HBCU Buzz’s Luke Lawal and Morehouse Senior Director of Marketing and Comms and Press Secretary Jasmine Gurley to highlight the role their HBCU roots play in their work as entrepreneurs, the legacy they aim to leave behind through the work that they do, and more as a part of Hyundai’s Best In Class initiative.
On Honoring HBCU Roots To Create Something That Is For Us, By Us
Ariane Turner
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When Ariane Turner launched Look Good, Live Well, she created it with Black and brown people in mind, especially those with sensitive skin more prone to dryness and skin conditions like acne and eczema.
The Florida A&M University graduate launched her business to create something that addressed topical skin care needs and was intentional about its approach without negative terminology.
Turner shared that it is important to steer clear of language often adopted by more prominent brands, such as “banishing breakouts” or “correcting the skin,” because, in reality, Turner says there is nothing wrong with the way that our skin and bodies react to various life changes.
“I think what I have taken with me regarding my HBCU experience and translated to my entrepreneurial experience is the importance of not just networking,” Turner, the founder and CEO of Look Good, Live Well, tellls xoNecole.
“We hear that in business all the time, your network is your net worth, but family, there’s a thing at FAMU that we call FAMU-lee instead of family, and it’s very much a thing. What that taught me is the importance of not just making relationships and not just making that connection, but truly working on deepening them, and so being intentional about connecting with people initially, but staying connected and building and deepening those relationships, and that has served me tremendously in business, whether it’s being able to reach back to other classmates who I went to school with, or just networking in general.”
She adds, “I don’t come from a business background. As soon as I finished school, I continued with my entrepreneurial journey, and so there’s a lot of that traditional business act and the networking, those soft skills that I just don’t have, but I will say that just understanding how to leverage and network community and to build intentional relationships is something that has taken me far and I definitely got those roots while attending FAMU.”
On Solving A Very Specific Need For The Community
Luke Lawal Jr.
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When Luke Lawal Jr. launched HBCU Buzz, his main focus was to represent his community, using the platform to lift as they climbed by creating an outlet dedicated to celebrating the achievements and positive news affecting the 107 historically HBCUs nationwide.
By spotlighting the wonderful things that come from the HBCU community and coupling it with what he learned during his time at Bowie State University, Lawal used that knowledge to propel himself as an entrepreneur while also providing his people with accurate representation across the internet.
“The specific problem in 2011 when I started HBCU Buzz was more so around the fact that mainstream media always depict HBCUs as negative,” Lawal says. “You would only see HBCUs in the mainstream media when someone died, or the university president or someone was stepping down. It was always bad news, but they never shed light on all the wonderful things from our community."
So, I started HBCU Buzz to ensure the world saw the good things that come from our space. And they knew that HBCUs grew some of the brightest people in the world, and just trying to figure out ways to make sure our platform was a pedestal for all the students that come through our institutions.”
“The biggest goal is to continue to solve problems, continue to create brands that solve the problems of our communities, and make sure that our products, our brands, our companies, and institutions are of value and they’re helping our community,” he continues. “That they’re solving problems that propel our space forward.”
On How Being An HBCU Alum Impacts The Way One Shows Up In The World
Jasmine Gurley
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Jasmine Gurley is a proud North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University alum. She is even more delighted with her current role, which enables her to give back to current HBCU students as the Senior Director of Brand Marketing and Communications and official press secretary at Morehouse College.
“It was a formative experience where I really was able to come into my own and say yes to all the opportunities that were presented to me, and because of that, it’s been able to open the doors later in life too,” says Gurley of her experience at North Carolina A&T. “One thing I love about many HBCUs is that we are required to learn way more about African American history than you do in your typical K through 12 or even at the higher ed level."
She adds, “It allowed us to have a better understanding of where we came from, and so for me, because I’m a storyteller, I’m a history person, I’m very sensitive to life in general, being able to listen to the stories and the trials that our ancestors overcame, put the battery pack in my back to say, ‘Oh nothing can stop me. Absolutely nothing can stop me. I know where I came from, so I can overcome something and try anything. And I have an obligation to be my ancestors’ wildest dreams. Simultaneously, I also have a responsibility to help others realize that greatness.
Gurley does not take her position at an HBCU, now as a leader, lightly.
“People think I’m joking when I say I’m living the dream, but I really am,” she notes. “So I wake up every day and know that the work that I do matters, no matter how hard it might be, how frustrating it may be, and challenging it. I know the ripple effect of my work, my team, and what this institution does also matter. The trajectory of Black male experiences, community, history, and then just American advancement just in general.”
On the other hand, through her business, Sankofa Public Relations, Gurley is also on a mission to uplift brands in their quest to help their respective communities. Since its inception in 2017, Sankofa PR has been on a mission to “reach back and reclaim local, national, and global communities by helping those actively working to move” various areas of the world, focusing on pushing things forward for the better.
“Through Sankofa, we’ve worked with all different types of organizational brands and individuals in several different industries, but I would think of them as mission-based,” says Gurley.
“So with that, it’s an opportunity to help people who are trying to do good in the world, and they are passionate about what they’re doing. They just need help with marketing issues, storytelling, and branding, and that’s when my expertise can come into play. Help them get to that moment where they can tell their story through me or another platform, and that’s been super fulfilling.”
Join us in celebrating HBCU excellence! Check out our Best In Class hub for inspiring stories, empowering resources, and everything you need to embrace the HBCU experience.
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I, for a long time, thought that being girly was the equivalent to living luxuriously, which is still true in some cases. However, for years, I struggled to relate to that concept because I had a hard time connecting to my girly side. I was just too mentally drained from having to think about and fulfill my ‘daily’ responsibilities, solo. So, I had to redefine what luxury means to me, and what it means at this current point of my life is freeing my mind from clutter, allowing me to simply be.
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To get started on my journey, I started at the bottom and began to ask myself some honest questions like: What can I do to alleviate some of the day-to-day tasks? What areas in my life do I need additional assistance in? What should I start or stop doing that can help me clear my mind from clutter, giving me more time to relax?
In no particular order, here’s what I came up with!
Tip 1: Compartmentalize
Identify the areas in your life that require the most time out of your day, cause the most stress, and, of course, affect your funds the most. Once you have a handle on that, then you need to start thinking about the next most important step. What requires more money vs. what requires more labor and go from there.
Tip 2: Outsourcing
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We know that you’re a strong, independent woman who can do it all…but is that the life you want to continue living? For example, put down the broom, pick up the phone, and hire a house cleaning service if cleaning your home takes too much of your time. If you can’t afford a housekeeping service, then space out your chores. You don’t have to clean your home all in one day.
Tip 3: Maintain car maintenance checks
Girls, we must remember that our cars are just as important as our homes and bodies and require its own maintenance. We can’t ignore the check engine light forever. Little do you know, the very knowledge of knowing that your cars’ needs are being neglected is causing subliminal stress because it will always reside in your mind. Just take it a day at a time. Set aside one day to clean your car and set aside another day to make those big girl phone calls to schedule a maintenance appointment.
Tip 4: Meal planning
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If you’re not comfortable in the kitchen, then that means you’re probably ordering in or going out to eat. Figure out what your goal is when it comes to meals and your money. If you can afford to eat out every day, then do you sis! But maybe utilize a meal prep service at least once a month; that way, you don’t have to “think” about your next meal. And if you’re a girlie who likes to cook, then eliminate the mental fatigue by pre-planning your meals on your off days so you can just grab it and go throughout the week.
Tip 5: Notes & Calendar apps
What’d En Vogue say? Free your mind, and the rest will follow! When it comes to running your whole life, you’ve got to keep a schedule or else you’ll endure the mental gymnastics of trying to remember everything on your own. Utilize a calendar and write notes to yourself as they come to mind. Writing things down gets them out of your brain, freeing your mind from clutter and allowing you to rest.
Tip 6: Maintaining bills
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There’s not much you can do about having to pay your own bills. It can definitely be a lot harder to manage when you don’t have someone to (financially) depend on for things you didn’t plan, like getting a boot on your car, medical bills, etc… I’ve found that living below your means until you’re in a position to splurge, has helped tremendously. That means, to preserve my peace of mind, I have to say ‘no’ to hanging out sometimes unless, of course, someone else is footing the bill *wink wink*
Tip 7: Ask for help
It’s not a flex doing everything on your own, by yourself. This way of living is not supporting our soft girl-era ladies. Identify who’s in your circle and ask for help. Help might not always be monetary, but it could be in the form of asking someone to house-sit for you while the internet guy installs your router and you’re at work. That one effort of asking someone in your village for their time is indispensable.
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