Jeremy Smith
@mrbeaks.bsky.social
1.9K followers 430 following 2.8K posts
Freelance entertainment journalist. Credits: /Film, AV Club, Fangoria, New York Magazine, Polygon, Salt Lake Magazine, Thrillist, Variety, Yardbarker and so much more! Cleveland Cavaliers Fan/Sufferer. I've been to Prague.
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mrbeaks.bsky.social
Yeah, I'm beating her ass to publication. I'll have a ms to an editor by the end of the week.
mrbeaks.bsky.social
Next song is gonna be Saga's "Wind Him Up."
Reposted by Jeremy Smith
phillewis.bsky.social
Lauryn Hill just shared a moving tribute to the late D’Angelo:

People need reflection.

I regret not having more time with you. Your undeniable beauty and talent were not of this world, and a presence not of this world needs protection in a world that covets light and the anointing of God. You sir, moved us, stirred us, inspired and even intimidated others to action with your genius. Thank you for being a beacon of light to a generation and beyond who had no
remembrance of the legacy that preceded us. Thank you for charting the course and for making
space during a time when no similar space really existed. 
You imaged a unity of strength and sensitivity in Black manhood to a generation that only saw itself as having to be one or the other. It is my earnest prayer that you are in peace, far away from selfishness, fear and/or controlling interests. Far from possessiveness, far from greed, far from manipulation, far from exploitation, far from intentionally designed chaos and that you Brother are in peace, in bliss and in eternal light and fulfillment with our Father in heaven. I Love you and I miss you. May God grant peace and shelter to your family, true friends and genuine appreciators, Brother, King. A photo of Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo, wearing black
Reposted by Jeremy Smith
thetrudz.photo
‼️ I never liked his incredible music being reduced solely to the “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” video. The Voodoo tour caused him a lot of pain.
Article (Amy Wallace; GQ) excerpt reads: “D'Angelo felt tortured, Questlove says, by the pressure to give the audience what it wanted. Worried that he didn't look as cut as he did in the video, he'd delay shows to do stomach crunches. He'd often give in, peeling off his shirt, but he resented being reduced to that. Wasn't he an artist? Couldn't the audience hear the power of his music and value him for that? He would explode, Questlove recalls, and throw things. Sometimes he'd have to be coad not to cancel shows altogether.

When I ask D about this, he downplays his suffering. Watching him pull hard on another Newport, I realize that he finds it far easier to confess his addictions than his insecurities about his corporeal self. Self-destructing with a coke spoon—while ill-advised—has a badass edge. Fretting over what Questlove has called "some Kate Moss shit" seems anything but manly. If given the chance, he tells me, he would absolutely shoot the video again. But he does admit to feeling angry during the Voodoo tour.”

“Amen! (D'Angelo's Back)” via GQ Article (Amy Wallace; GQ) excerpt reads: "’One time I got mad when a female threw money at me onstage, and that made me feel fucked-up, and I threw the money back at her,’ he says. ‘I was like, 'I'm not a stripper.' He was beginning to sense a darkness beckoning. He recalls a particular moment onstage at the North Sea Jazz festival in 2000. The band was in the middle of ‘Devil's Pie,’ his song about the spell fame casts upon the weak—Who am I to justify / All the evil in our eye / When I myself feel the high / From all that I despise—when he felt an ominous presence in the crowd. ‘That night I felt something that was like, whoa,’ he tells me. E-vil.

On the last day of the eight-month tour, Questlove says D'Angelo told him, ‘Yo, man, I cannot wait until this fucking tour is over. I'm going to go in the woods, drink some hooch, grow a beard, and get fat.’ Questlove thought he was joking. I was like, ‘You're a funny guy.’ And then it started to happen. That's how much he wanted to distance himself."

While the tour was a success, both critically and commercially, it left D broken. ‘When I got back home, yeah, it wasn't that easy to just be,’ he says. ‘I think that's the thing that got me in a lot of trouble: me trying to just be Michael, the regular old me from back in the day, and me fighting that whole sex-symbol thing. You know: 'Hey, I ain't D'Angelo today. I'm just plain old Mike, and I just want to hang out with my boys and do what we used to do.' But, damn, those days are fucking gone."

“Amen! (D'Angelo's Back)” via GQ
mrbeaks.bsky.social
I know people who've worked with her. One acquaintance described her as "offensively stupid."
mrbeaks.bsky.social
I have it on *excellent* authority that Cheryl Hines did not know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was when she started dating RFK Jr. Seriously. Just did not know it was a thing.
simonsaybrams.bsky.social
Wormy can have a little brain salami, as a treat
Reposted by Jeremy Smith
carnage4life.bsky.social
I’d been thinking for a while that it seems like a startling number of rappers have died in their mid-40s to mid-50s from natural causes but it didn’t really feel like an epidemic until I saw this list. 😦
Deaths of Hip-Hop Artists Reveal the Alarming State of Black Men’s Health
Neo-soul singer D'Angelo joins growing list of Gen X Black male performers who are dying relatively young.
capitalbnews.org
Reposted by Jeremy Smith
carlquintanilla.bsky.social
POLITICO: “.. They referred to Black people as monkeys and ‘the watermelon people’ and mused about putting their political opponents in gas chambers. They talked about raping their enemies .. and lauded Republicans who they believed support slavery.

@politico.com
www.politico.com/news/2025/10...
mrbeaks.bsky.social
I was in the audience for this. Only time I got to see the man perform. He was a god.
BET 2012 - D'Angelo
YouTube video by RW - Black Music
www.youtube.com
mrbeaks.bsky.social
Thank you for your service.
mrbeaks.bsky.social
It bothers me because I try very hard not to be a pest with my contacts, but this motherfucker operates with impunity. I try to be polite and deliver interviews that I'd want to read if I were a 16-year-old kid. This is evidently anathema.
mrbeaks.bsky.social
I know someone who had to drive to his place to pick up a check. He greeted her at the front door with his dick dangling out of his robe.
mrbeaks.bsky.social
Thank you, BJ. But I think we can both agree that the Hardy Boys should've fucked more.
mrbeaks.bsky.social
Dreiser's SISTER CARRIE and AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY. These are not pleasant reads, but the prose and profound level of detail will make you want to write carefully and empathetically.
shaenon.bsky.social
If you're a writer, read outside the genre you write in, and read old stuff. Partly this expands your horizons but mostly it gives you stuff to rip off without anyone noticing.
rachelfeder.bsky.social
Tell me your most unhinged literary opinion, as a little treat
mrbeaks.bsky.social
It would probably a good thing for *every single elected Democrat* to reiterate this. Ditto liberal celebrities. They need to show up, too.
indivisible.org
“No, Speaker Johnson — the No Kings rally on October 18 is not a hate America rally. In fact, it’s quite the contrary: It’s a love America rally.” #NoKings
mrbeaks.bsky.social
This is a bummer. Interviewed Keira several times, and she was so refreshingly candid. This is rehearsed bullshit. As with the comics who performed in Riyadh, just say you straight-up did the gig for the cash.
mrbeaks.bsky.social
Have they ever covered DeBarge?
mrbeaks.bsky.social
The Lions' window is closing. Spend the draft capital and make it happen.
mrbeaks.bsky.social
Go get Myles. I want him in Minnesota, but he needs the fuck out of Cleveland.