Thursday Notes: Pras, NBA Playoffs, Jai Paul and more
Building the pathway to the middle class
For most New Yorkers, high school doesn’t involve welding or building bathrooms, but for the hundreds of students at the Bronx Design and Construction Academy, and the many schools like it, what students learn in their teen years puts them on a direct path to lucrative, middle class jobs.
Damaso Reyes, AmNews Investigative Editor
The Woman Shaping a Generation of Black Thought
Christina Sharpe — who is a professor of English literature and Black studies — is intent on showing how language is like a knife: a tool or weapon depending on who is wielding it. She also understands the way terms like “white supremacy” and “anti-Blackness” run the risk of losing their potency as they become more familiar and commonplace. Sharpe refuses the devaluation of these words and resuscitates them with her critical analysis and poetic reflections.
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Sports Roundup: NBA Playoffs, NFL Draft, Manchester City
Bucks lose the series to Playoff Jimmy and the Heat, Lakers lose to the Grizzlies, Warriors win a road game in Sacremento, Knicks beat the Cavaliers, the NFL Draft starts tonight, Manchester City beats Arsenal and a look at the salaries of WNBA players who play overseas.
Uristocrat
Music
Fugees star Pras found guilty of political conspiracy Charges involved illegal contributions to Obama and acting as an agent for China
The Associated Press
'Is this what it had to be?': The case that became hip-hop's missed opportunity for a Me Too moment
From the outside, The Source in the 1990s was the gold standard in hip-hop. But from the inside, Kim Osorio discovered it was something more grimy: an entrenched boys' club that normalized sexism.
Sidney Madden
Jai Paul, a Mysterious Pop Legend, Is Finally Performing
In 2009, the Internet was not yet algorithmically consolidated; it still seemed like a vast landscape of oddly shaped rocks that you could turn over to find something new. Around that time, an Indian British musician named Jai Paul, from the suburban neighborhood of Rayners Lane, in northwest London, uploaded an old demo to MySpace titled “BTSTU.” He was nineteen, maybe twenty. The demo began so quietly that you had to turn the volume up, just to hear static. Then came a sweet, offhand falsetto loop, a phrase that was sung like a person trying to dig up a memory; then a kick drum, a snare, a full-body synth shudder.
Halle Baileys "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid
Philadelphia
36 Hours in Philadelphia
Philadelphians can be tough on their hometown, griping about the traffic, the crime, the long-suffering sports teams. But these quibbles are mere blips compared to the attractions that await visitors: the colonial charm of the Old City, a barbacoa breakfast in the historic Italian Market, glittering mosaics on South Street and the fine restaurants in Fishtown. Long known for its food, the city now takes its meals outdoors — a pandemic holdover — in leafy new courtyards and gardens. For those visiting soon, spring is synonymous with street festivals: There’s the food-and-drink smorgasbord along East Passyunk Avenue; a wild homemade-vehicle race at the Kensington Derby and Arts Festival; a fashionable soiree with live music on Rittenhouse Square; and the annual greased pole climbing competition at the Italian Market Festival.
