Leslie D. Rose

D.C. Metro-based veteran journalist, editor, photographer, and creative writer.

Rap and hip hop music became major tools for advertising, marketing, and branding in the mid-1980s. It is likely the perception of cool that works well for advertisers, coupled with the ever-growing popularity of the genre among younger audiences. Over the years rap has been used as a means of drawing in consumers not familiar with it but fascinated with its elements, as well as rap fans seeking to emulate popular artists. Since the mid-1980s, rap has been used to sell everything from clothing to cars, cell phone providers, computers, beverages, food, lint rollers, and dolls.

Baton Rouge musician and pastor Ronaldo Hardy put an entire year’s worth of grief and honesty into his new album, “FOURSIXTWENTY.”

Ryan credits her ongoing commitment to journalism to her regularly scheduled mental health counseling and perseverance instilled in her by her family.

There’s no experience quite like the HBCU experience.
Outside of these institutions, you'd be hard-pressed to find a plethora of Black folks learning and growing together while surrounded by tradition, fashion, Black empowerment, step shows, marching bands, football and a bevy of other customs. There’s a reason why so many HBCU graduates won't stop boasting about being HBCU graduates.

Sharon Weston Broome, Mayor-President of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, inherited a city riddled by loss and grief.

Abdullah Muflahi reflects on the loss of his friend and how his convenience store became a local protest landmark

Calling myself a proud HBCU graduate would be quite the understatement. I am a gold and white waving, “that’s my HBCU” saying, history spouting, “my school is better than your school” bragging, #HBCUProud kind of alumna.

After serving 68 years in prison for a spree of robberies as a juvenile offender, Joe Ligon, known as the nation's oldest juvenile lifer, was released this week from State Correctional Institution Phoenix in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, according to The Philadephia Inquirer.

A New Orleans street along the perimeter of Xavier University of Louisiana has officially been renamed after the university's president emeritus and longest-serving HBCU president, Norman C. Francis, J.D.

Students in McKinley’s Humanities Amped program do hands-on research on local social issues

Wonder and Coretta Scott King presented a petition to the speaker of the House bearing more than six million signatures of support for a national holiday honoring Dr. King.

HBCU rivalries are sibling-like competitions between historically Black colleges and universities that allow for a year’s worth of boasting.

These competitive, yet playful spats derive from things like Hampton and Howard University’s ongoing Real HU battle to Grambling State and Southern University’s Bayou Classic, to even the playful teasing that comes along with the annual rankings of best HBCUs, that often sees Spelman College, Howard and Xavier Unive...

Bootsy Collins has made a career out of fun music and exciting costumes. He was a pivotal member of the funk culture in the 1970s with the band Parliament-Funkadelic, a collective known for characters, costumes and outer space themes, which gave way for Collins’ childhood sketch-inspired star costume and bass guitar design.

Throughout the years, he has continued to be a representative of the funk, taking just three years away from the stage during his entire career. This week, he returns to the road, embarking on the yearlong #iGiveaFunk Tour. And he’s completely sober.

Acclaimed actor Will Smith says he's been called the n-word to his face at least five times in his life, but it's never hurt his feelings because he doesn't consider the name-callers to be intelligent people.