danyel smith [writer]

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[book in my house; one i’m actually featured in—a VIBE cover story about Keyshia Cole. boy I was happy to get in this book] Daphne Carr/Nelson George “Best Music Writing 2008”

[book in my house; one i’m actually featured in—a VIBE cover story about Keyshia Cole. boy I was happy to get in this book] Daphne Carr/Nelson George “Best Music Writing 2008”

“Dewy and still damp from the shower, Mariah Carey has put on a little powder and a little mascara. Her big mane is wet and close to her scalp. She’s in blue boxers and a tank and is listening to old Stevie Wonder. It’s midnight, and we’re 40 miles north of San Francisco. While we split a bottle of merlot and munch on Monterey Jack cheese, Mariah seems very much like the kind of 28 year old who could sell more than 5 million albums when she was just out of high school. Since that 1990 introduction, she’s gone on to sell more than 80 million albums. Married a mogul almost twice her age. Got divorced before she was old enough to be too mad about it. Started and walked away from her own record label. Dated one of the best athletes in America. Always endured much mulatto melodrama … Now she’s recorded a big ballad with Whitney Houston as she prepares to release her new album, tentatively titled The Ones - a collection of all 13 of her No. 1 top singles, plus four bonus tracks. All this to say that the best-selling female recording artist of the decade seems confident yet slightly mystified. Ecstatic but slightly troubled. Expansive and slightly paranoid. Bossy yet gracious … She’s fighting a copyright lawsuit, getting ready to star in films, and still singing all the time. Miss Mariah—much dissed, much loved—makes jokes but isn’t one. Like her new single with Jermaine Dupri, she seems a big “Sweetheart.” But while she floats like a butterfly, one gets the impression she can also sting like a bee.”

Lede from VIBE magazine Mariah Carey cover story. By Danyel Smith, November 1998

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[book in my house; that i’ve read] Rickey Vincent, “Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of the One”

[book in my house; that i’ve read] Rickey Vincent, “Funk: The Music, the People, and the Rhythm of the One”

Source amoeba.com
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[book in my house; that I LOVE] Gillian G. Gaar, “She’s a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll”

[book in my house; that I LOVE] Gillian G. Gaar, “She’s a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll”

Source love-bookstore.com
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[book in my house; on deck] Steve Knopper, “Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age”

[book in my house; on deck] Steve Knopper, “Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age”

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remember that group, Electrik Red?

remember that group, Electrik Red?

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[book in my house; that i often flip through] Herb Jordan, editor, “Motown in Love: Lyrics from the Golden Era”

[book in my house; that i often flip through] Herb Jordan, editor, “Motown in Love: Lyrics from the Golden Era”

[book in my house; i’ve read sooo many times] Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones, “Blues People: The Negro Experience in White America and the Music That Developed From It.” I have that blue and ebony edition.

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[book in my house; i haven’t read—yet] Peter Guralnick, “Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke”

[book in my house; i haven’t read—yet] Peter Guralnick, “Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke”

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[book in my house; that i’ve read] Karu F. Daniels, “Brandy: An Intimate Look”

[book in my house; that i’ve read] Karu F. Daniels, “Brandy: An Intimate Look”

Danyel Smith, author and journalist, and former editor in chief of Vibe, who now writes at http://thesmithian.tumblr.com, says of Rihanna's post-Chris Brown career: "I had a romantic notion of her having waited a while longer before returning to her public life: I see her living somewhere quiet, chilling with no makeup, reading deep books, thinking healing thoughts and staring into sunsets. But then I say: Why should she have to go into semi-seclusion, why does she have to stretch out her victimhood?"

But, Danyel Smith reminded me, that doesn't mean that everyone's given up on her. "When you say, 'How did we discard her so quickly?' 'We' is too big a word," said Smith. "I don't think the African-American community has discarded her. There is ... sadness and on some levels disgust, and I hesitate to speak for every African-American like we're all joined hand-in-hand. But I do think that however misguided, there is a huge hope for her recovery. And there is still a deep and abiding love for the Whitney we knew on those first three or four albums."

Danyel Smith on Whitney Houston. In Salon, April 2006

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