VIDEO CONVERSATION: FATi, The New Queen of AfroPop

FATi, the new Queen of Afropop, is on a mission and she gives us the deets when she sits down with What’s The 411’s host, the award-winning journalist, Kizzy Cox, and comedian Onika McLean.

FATi takes us on her career voyage starting with giving up her “day job” with the thought of showcasing her talents on Broadway to going back home to Abidjan to structure her singing career to performing before 500,000 people at a concert in Nairobi, Kenya, and more.

FATi is not the typical newbie in the recording industry, as her father, helped her to understand early in the process that she needs to be more than a singer and take control of her product. He’s also quick to remind her when necessary that "you got to be about your business."

When FATi arrived in Nairobi, Kenya to perform at a benefit with her uncle, Robert “Kool” Bell, to find 500,000 people in the audience, she showed her vulnerability, as she suffered a serious case of stage-fright. And, FATi’s mother immediately took on the Cher character in the movie, Moonstruck, to set her straight. Needless to say, FATi rebounded quickly and performed to rave reviews.

Coming from a tight-knit family, everyone is on board with supporting FATi’s dream; in fact, her brother is her manager. And, FATi is having a great time while living her dream. She’s still looking forward to performing on Broadway and would love to perform with Akon, Missy Elliot, T Savage, and Shekhinah (South Africa) to name a few.

FATi knows everything is about timing, and she’s willing to stay focused, and continue to do the work, so she will be ready for greater opportunities.

MUSIC VIDEO: FATi Performs Her Latest Song, QUEEN

VIDEO DISCUSSION: Cindy Rainne, the Irresistible Me singer, Shares Her Blueprint for Getting Unstuck and Going After Your Dreams

 If you are an aspiring singer, or a singer stuck in a rut, then you do want to watch What’s The 411TV’s interview with singer-songwriter Cindy Rainne.

At What’s The 411TV, we’re not aspiring singers, but the things that were getting in the way of Cindy Rainne being her best self happens to all of us at some point in our lives. How Cindy dealt with those issues to get her on the road to be her best self can be a lesson for all of us.

What’s The 411’s hosts, award-winning journalist, Kizzy Cox, and comedian Onika McLean, are hanging on to every word as Cindy Rainne shares her journey. She talks about her life experiences including some of her experiences during her painfully complex childhood and how she changed her outlook on relationships with men.

Cindy demonstrates her resourceful when she details how she raised money to get her album/EP produced by a well-known producer in London, a feat no one thought she could pull off. If you don’t know by now, in the music industry and in life, the right relationships matter.

You can catch Cindy Rainne's next performance on Monday, June 17, 2019, at the Groove in New York City, and she will be traveling to perform in Switzerland this summer.

Follow Cindy @CindyRainne on Instagram and Facebook.

Check out Cindy Rainne's music video, Irresistible Me.

Also, have a listen to Cindy’s latest release, The Mask:

Cindy Rainne is truly an inspiration to anyone with a dream.

And, if you like being inspired, be sure to watch What's The 411's interview with FATi, the new Queen of AfroPop. 

We can definitely see these two ladies performing together in the future.

Boseman, an actor who has played several iconic characters, is breaking down barriers and making Hollywood screen history

Are you going to see the movie, Black Panther?

What’s The 411Sports correspondent, Crystal Lynn, caught up with the Black Panther star, actor Chadwick Boseman, after the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game held at Madison Square Garden.

Boseman, one of the players representing the East, says he is incredibly blessed and lucky to have played iconic characters in movies.

Boseman said that he is enjoying every moment of his acting career and hopes that whatever he does is enlightening to people. The Get on Up actor wants to do something different with each role; that’s all you can do is to “enjoy it and be thankful for it.”

Boseman’s role as T’Challa in Black Panther is certainly different and the movie is inspiring and we are all thankful for it.

If you haven’t seen Black Panther, run, don’t walk, and don’t wait for it to come to your video streaming service, catch Black Panther in theaters now!

The National Book Foundation’s Why Reading Matters Conference 2017 focuses on building a new audience for books

The National Book Foundation is hosting the Why Reading Matters Conference 2017 on Thursday, June 15, 2017, at the Frank Sinatra School of Arts in Long Island City, NY.

The theme this year is Why Reading Matters: Building a New Audience, and the conference will feature a full day of presentations focused on building a new audience for books.

Check www.nationalbook.org, for more information

When New Yorkers Tell Their Stories: From Top Hats & Bonnets to Kooky & Outrageous

When I was a child, I thought Easter was one day: Easter Sunday, when I was decked out gloriously with new dress, shoes, and hat. Such finery, of course, was to be worn only once -- on that special Easter day. As with so many things in life, I've come to understand Easter as being more expansive. Indeed, rather than being limited to only one day, Easter is a season. In the liturgical calendar, the season of Easter lasts seven Sundays, beginning on Easter Sunday and spanning to the Day of Pentecost. That adds up to 50 days of Easter!

Of course, we humans have found ways to express not only our faith or spiritual traditions of Easter, but also to express our joy and playfulness as Spring returns. Enter, the Easter Parade!

After a New York winter that was especially challenging , seeming never to end, we may have been even more excited than usual to shed our protective, multiple layers of clothing. And, what better way to show off our bright new Spring outfits -- topped off with spectacular bonnets and sophisticated top hats -- than to strut down Fifth Avenue in the Easter Parade on Easter Sunday? Perhaps strutting our finery in procession for all to see and admire is a way we choose to tell our story of joy – even exuberance – about Spring's arrival, at long last!

In my new, more expansive view, perhaps each of us becomes the author of our Spring or Easter or whatever story we choose to tell, as we gather with thousands of other "storytellers" in the Easter Parade. As you can see, even the most outlandish hat-creations are part of the story. I'm guessing that it's just these kind of broad-ranging, diverse expressions I find in the procession every year that keep me coming back.

At about 11:00 am or so, a group of friends and I head to 49th Street & Fifth Avenue, decked out in our bonnets. I make certain to look for Fred Moody, a gifted photographer, who's always in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral at about that time. This year, at 53rd Street & Fifth Avenue, TheRoot.com captured my bonnet along with Marie Pierre; Lisa McFadden; Twila Perry; Paula Pelliccia and her fashion designer daughter, Lisette Ffolkes, who works for Tracy Reese; and many others. It's taken us about an hour to walk four blocks!

Marie Pierre at the Easter Parade on New York City's Fifth Avenue  Photo credit: Derrick Davis for The Root

Lisa McFadden at the Easter Parade on New York City's Fifth Avenue  Photo credit: Derrick Davis for The Root

Twila Perry at the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue in New York City  Photo credit: Derrick Davis for The Root

Paula Pelliccia and her daughter, fashion designer, Lisette Ffolkes. Photo credit: Derrick Davis for The Root

Lana Turner, Harlem real estate broker & fashion-setter, at  NYC's  2015 Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue. Photo Credit: T. Perry

As my friends and I slowly make our way to the Parade's end at 57th Street & Fifth Avenue, we're stopped dozens more times by other Easter paraders – or professional photographers -- who want to take our photo. However, we're not merely subjects; we are active participants in these "stories," as we also ask even more folks to pose so we can capture their Easter creativity with our cameras and smartphones.

Indeed, there's no such thing as an on-looker, because even those who aren't decked out in Easter bonnets are part of the Fifth Avenue procession. Maybe you'll consider this pageantry as narrative. Maybe you'll join in next year's Easter Parade on "The Avenue"!

Each month, I’ll share images of books and authors that I come upon in unexpected places. It’s all to inspire you to experience, as if for the first time, the wonder of books and their creators.

When it was announced last year that the NBA All-Star 2015 would be held in New York City, fans from across the world were excited that one of the largest basketball events would be coming to the Big Apple. With the new Barclays Center in full effect located downtown Brooklyn, minutes from the Brooklyn Bridge and a new and improved Madison Square Garden, it was no question that the best city in the world could handle three days of NBA festivities. The remaining question that lingered going into NBA All-Star is whether or not Madison Square Garden is still the Mecca of Basketball and, perhaps, by extension, is New York City still the Mecca of Basketball. With the Knicks struggling to win games and the Brooklyn Nets remaining a team of overpriced players with a seemingly disconnected owner, there was only one New York born and partially raised player that made it on the All-Star roster—Carmelo Anthony. Yet despite the politics of basketball, it became evident that the events were more than just basketball.

The city had been recovering and healing after news spread on November 14 that Akai Gurley, a 28-year-old African American man who was shot to death by a NYPD officer in the stairwells in the New York City Housing Authority's Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn. The rookie officer, Peter Liang who was patrolling the dark, unlit stairwell, fired his gun, resulting in a bullet ricocheting off a wall, striking Gurley in the chest. If that wasn't enough for the city to handle, a grand jury decided on November 24 not to indict Officer Darren Wilson after fatally killing Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. Then two weeks later, here in New York, a Staten Island grand jury cleared an NYPD cop in the chokehold death of Eric Garner after the attack was caught on video. Garner was arrested for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. To top an already bad ending to 2014, two uniformed NYPD officers were shot to death in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn execution style in the line of duty after a gunman's mission revenge for the deaths of Garner and Brown.

The NBA has always been an organization in which players were allowed to express their voices, and due to the protests over the grand jury's decisions in the Brown and Garner cases, players like LeBron James, Derrick Rose and Brooklyn Nets players Kevin Garnett and Deron Williams wore T-shirts that read, "I can't breathe," the final words of Garner before he died in the chokehold. The players were responding to the "hands up, don't shoot" gesture that had been a worldwide slogan due to the deaths of Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. During media day for NBA All-Star, Miami Heat Dwayne Wade spoke about the importance of the NBA coming together during the course of these tragic events.

Miami Heat guard Dwayne Wade at the 2015 NBA All-Star Media Day

"I think the individual guys have done a great job of [taking] a stand or getting behind on whatever they believe in. Nowadays it's obviously a lot easier because of social media...for your voices to be heard," he said. "The NBA supports us doing that....When we leave here (New York), we are obviously going to do something in the community."

Additionally, Wade revealed that he constantly talks to his sons about being "aware."

"My kids...are shielded from the real world. This doesn't happen to every kid in America or across the world," he said. "You try to show them as much as possible. I am an open book with my kids. I don't try to hide them from what's going on in the world; I try to educate them and hopefully one day if they get into a situation they know how to or what not to do." Wade's comments made it clear that NBA All-Star came at the perfect time.

New York City is labeled as one of the greatest cities in the world because the people have proven that they can and will always overcome adversity. The city has undoubtedly produced a lot of basketball talent, and the argument is still up in the air on whether or not it's still the Mecca of Basketball. However, what the NBA All-Star 2015 did do was help to unify a broken city, if only for a short while.

The fashionistas were out and about during New York Fashion Week S/S 2015.

Ms. Fashionista J presented the follow celebrities that hit the red carpet during New York Fashion Week to give us her take on who was HOT or NOT:

• Angela Simmons
• Joan Small
• Nicki Minaj
• Skylar Duggins
• Tracee Ellis Ross

Tell us who you think was HOT or NOT.

View the Video and Join the Conversation

Brooklyn Nets point guard Deron Williams is in the What's The 411Sports Dog House more for his on-court performance than the comments he made about Brooklyn (New York City) in Resident magazine.

Many Brooklyn Nets fans are disappointed with Deron Williams' performance for the past two seasons.

Many feel the Brooklyn Nets could have gone further in the playoffs had Williams been healthy and able to perform better.

Unfortuantely for Williams, the fans don't care about his ankle issues, what they want is performance for his five-year $98 million contract.

Perhaps, the fans will get production out of Williams this season since he has had surgery on both ankles and has been given the green light to play.

For Williams' adjustment to NYC, he admits to having a hard time adjusting to life in New York, saying "I don't really feel like a New Yorker."

"I grew up in an apartment in Texas where you could send your kids outside like, 'Yeah, go play in the sun.' Here it's more challenging," Williams said.

Williams lives in a fabulous pad in the Tribeca (Triangle Below Canal Street) area in Manhattan, which is home to Robert DeNiro and the Tribeca Film Festival.

It is asphalt and concrete and a far cry from Utah or parts of Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester, Nassau or Suffolk counties areas in New York with trees and grass.

For a person who likes grass and outdoor living, why Tribeca over areas he finds more favorable?

Just asking?