B13 Peer Review

This guy is truly the scum of the earth. We told you last week about  24-year-old Chicago man Qawmane Wilson , also known by his rap name, Young QC. The young man enlisted the help of his friends in order to murder his mother, Yolanda Holmes, in an attempt to get his hands on her two life insurance policies and her bank accounts. Holmes was the owner of the salon, Nappy Headz, in Chicago. While Wilson walked away with more than $90,000 soon after her death (that was just from her bank accounts), he inevitably was caught by police and was charged this month with murder and home invasion. His friends, Loriana Johnson and Eugene Spencer, the driver and the hit man who actually went into the home of Yolanda Holmes to shoot and stab her dead in September 2012, were charged with everything from first degree murder, to home invasion, as well as  aggravated discharge of a firearm. The story was bad enough, but it seems that after Holmes’ death, Qawmane became something of a ...

Ice Queen: The trials and triumphs of Kimberly Jones Story by Stereo Williams Photography by DeWayne Rogers “I think that would be super corny for me to try to answer a question like that …” Lil’ Kim is one of the most iconic female artists of the last 20 years. She could make a case for most famous female rapper of all time. She cut a path for brazen female sexuality in hip-hop that cemented her legacy long before a stint in prison slowed her career and gossip blogs began their often mean-spirited and personal attacks on her image. Her legacy is close to unquestionable — but today, she’s refusing to answer any question about that legacy. So, in addition to being an innovator and an icon — Lil’ Kim is defensive. “No disrespect, no shade, but I’m not going to answer [that] question because I think that’s kinda corny,” she says adamantly. “I don’t know how to answer that.” "KIMMY BLANCO" The question concerned the public’s ongoing fixation with the “Q...

Mexican musician Carlos Santana.(AFP Photo / Hector Guerrero) are on tumblr Malone performed as a member of the Santana Blues Band up until 1968 when he was convicted of a crime and sent to San Quentin Prison, according to Bay Area station KRON4. The next year Santana performed with his eponymous rock group at the first Woodstock music festival in New York state alongside the likes of The Who, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead, but by then had last contact with his ex-drummer. Guitar legend Carlos Santana says he plans on entering the studio with his old drummer, Marcus Malone, after a California news host recently reunited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee with the now-homeless percussionist. Screenshot from youtube video by user TVman1981 Neither Santana nor Malone has seen each other in the four-and-a-half decades since, until just recently when KRON’s Stanley Roberts reunited the two in Oakland, California. Roberts met Malone earlier this ye...

Being racially ambiguous can mean smart  business  on the celebrity scene for our favorite actresses, models, and mega-star crushes. And while some fans shun them for not claiming their African American roots, others say the world is no longer about ethnic divide. We will let you be the judge, check out 25 celebrities you probably had no clue had some African American heritage! Mariah Carey Photo: WENN While Mariah Carey may seem to forget a lot of where she comes from when it comes to manners and being nice to us “common folk” one thing she has always been proud of is  her  unique familial blood line. Her father was of African American and Venezuelan ethnicity while, her  mother  is of white Irish descent. Cash Warren Photo: APEGA/WENN While Jessica Alba may seem like the bi-racial partner in  her  marriage with movie producer Cash Warren, he too is of ethnic descent. Cash is the son of  Hills Street Blues  actor Mich...

Human Barbie with Barbie (Valeria Lukyanova/Facebook) Of all the stars to be born on the Internet, one of the strangest is surely Valeria Lukyanova, otherwise known as the "Human Barbie." While critiquing the Barbie archetype  and promoting a realistic  body image   has been a popular  trend online  and in digital art lately, Lukyanova has gone the opposite route. The Ukrainian model's physique is her medium, and she's consciously transformed herself into a living doll. When images of Lukyanova first began circulating in 2012, some news outlets called her a fake. But since then, she's done a number of interviews and has been the subject of  a short documentary . In a world overrun with airbrushed images, stick-thin models, a multibillion-dollar cosmetic surgery industry, and distorted ideas about what real women should look like, Human Barbie has touched a cultural nerve. Researcher and artist  Nickolay Lamm  said that discounting Lukya...