Hey Mofos! 

I am so excited for this new Starz series Black Mafia Family that premieres 9/26. 

Here's what the show is about: “BMF" (aka Black Mafia Family) is inspired by the true story of two brothers who rose from the decaying streets of southwest Detroit in the late 1980’s and gave birth to one of the most influential crime families in the country. Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory’s charismatic leadership, Terry “Southwest T” Flenory’s business acumen and the fraternal partnership’s vision beyond the drug trade and into the world of Hip Hop would render the brothers iconic on a global level. Their unwavering belief in family loyalty would be the cornerstone of their partnership and the crux of their eventual estrangement.

I sat in on a press junket and got to ask Lil Meech and KA$H Doll a question for Check the Rhymes. Press play! 

Will you be watching? 

~Meik 

If you follow me on social media, then you already know that I absolutely adore Kaavia James Union Wade with her cute shady baby self. I'm a fan of her mama, Gabrielle Union, so I had to check her out when she came to town to Blumenthal Performing Arts for her book tour. Her new book, "You Got Anything Stronger" was given out with a ticket and had me almost do a two step in the lobby and wish I had a tambourine. Won't He Do It?

Anyhoo, the moderator for the evening was former news anchor Brigida Mack and her and Gab seem to hit it off. It was like being Pearl from 227, sitting in the window watching Mary and Rose carry on a convo. 

Some gems were dropped and here's a quick rundown:

You repeat what you don't repair. 

There's no such thing as balance, stop chasing it. It doesn't exist. 

There's no need to be ashamed of going to therapy. Tuning up your mental health is just as important as tuning up your car. DO IT. 

Make space for those to be their authentic self. 

It's okay to ask for help. 

Marriage is work. *now this one I wanna see for myself.. COME ON HUSBAND!!!!!!!*

The list goes on, but you need to read the book to pull out the gems for yourself. What really makes me love Gab is her transparency, especially when it comes to something a lot of women, especially Black women deal with when wanting to have children. Fertility issues can drain you in so many ways. Even dating is hard because you wonder ...well you know what, that's a whole other blog.  I've shared my fibroids story complete with an iron deficiency, and I most recently had another surgery back in April, but it's hard to move forward thinking of yourself as damaged goods, but you cry with Gab as she shares her story because you feel every single tear drop she shed. Her story of how she finally got the child she so desperately desired is inspiring, because she didn't give up and it reminds me not to either in any part of my life. 

I want to thank Gabrielle, my bestie in my head, for sharing her life with us, including Kaavia as she is growing up. Sometimes with celebs we don't know what they are going through behind closed doors and I appreciate the transparency, tho if I was famous, y'all wouldn't know ish LOL. Seriously,  I also loved the dance breaks during the tour, it also felt like a women's retreat to woo sah from the ish men be putting us through! Ok maybe that was my take away. They asked pre-submitted questions from the audience, but I was wondering how the hell those 5 people knew to submit questions because I had a couple questions. But maybe, just maybe, I will get the opportunity to interview Gab one day. 

I suggest you grab a copy of this book and definitely give it a read. Join a book club and chat about it and as Gab said, build your community so you have people to talk to and lean on. You can't do it alone. 

~Meik

Cheerleading is my ish and if you know me, you know that I have been involved with cheerleading in some capacity since I fell in love with it when I was 4 years old. Matter of fact, my first cheer uniform was a kid's Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders one. I loved it with my blue and white poms. Anyhoo, I jumped at the chance to chat again with DCC's squad director Kelli Finglass and show squad cheerleader Lexie Smith about the new season of DCC: Making the Team. 

Fun fact-- the reality show I was on in 2007, "I Want to Look Like a High School Cheerleader Again" was a spin off of this show! Fun times! 

Check out the DCC interview on Check the Rhymes! 

Let me know your favs during the audition process! 

~Meik

Hey Mofos! 

I'm back with another movie review! I was super intrigued about this film about Tammy Faye Bakker especially knowing a little bit about her life with Jim Bakker. I had to check out the screening of In the Eyes of Tammy Faye.

If you aren't familiar with who the Bakkers are, let me give you the quick rundown:

Jim Bakker is a televangelist and he and Tammy (his then wife) hosted the television show “The PTL Club” and they developed Heritage USA, a now defunct Christian theme park in South Carolina. Bakker’s shady ass was convicted and imprisoned on multiple counts of fraud and ish in 1989. Tammy got some sense and divorced him and eventually remarried. One of the things she was often mocked for was all that darn makeup she would wear and her squeaky voice. She passed away from colon cancer in 2007, and Jim is still outchea frauding and thieving at 80 something years old.

Caught up? Cool. Let’s discuss the film.

The film is based on the 2000 documentary of the same name, and captures the magic of who Tammy Faye Messner (Bakker) was beyond the headlines. Director Michael Showalter and screenwriter Abe Sylvia did a great job of humanizing this larger than life woman that has intrigued many of us over the years.

I still have questions about how she thought it was cute to go preach the word with this man with puppets, but that’s none of my business. 

Jessica Chastain does an amazing job at playing Tammy Faye, from the heavy makeup to the Betty Boop voice, the performance is spot on.  The film made me understand that the heavier the makeup got, the more it was a way for Tammy to protect herself from everything in her life crumbling into tiny pieces, and hiding her unhappiness. I UNDERSTAND. Now, what I don't get is why the folks around her, hell even Jim, didn't say "girl.. now girl.. you know damn hell well that is too much makeup," but I guess when you doing devil work, those things fall to the wayside. AND SHE GOT THE LIP LINER AND EYEBROWS  TATTOOED ON?! 

But now, I wanna know if she had bad skin from all this or.. nevermind, lemme get back to what I was talking about. I thought it was so cool that the film was shot in and around Charlotte, after all this is the scene of where PTL took it's mighty tumble. I also loved how they used old footage of Ted Koppel's interview and added the actors to it. It gave it a little more of a realistic feel for me. The "secular press" threat is always looming over the PTL Ministry which ultimately helps bring light to the evil-doings that were going on. 

Now this has to be said, Tammy Faye and Jim are the most annoying people ever. The cheesy laughs, the squeaky voices, the just "oh golly gee wilkers" of it all tore my last good nerve up. Even when Jim is telling her that he had an affair (and side note-- I didn't know Jim got down like THAAAAAT..and when you watch, you'll know wtf I mean..so come back and let's discuss), but anyway, he says, "the devil is coming for me, Tammy." Tammy cannot be bothered as she is slathering more makeup on top of the caked on ish on her face by responding, "Can we talk about Satan later? You know, I'm trying to feel like myself, again."

I wasn't sure if this was in the words of Andrew Chad DeliverT Caldwell says, "making a 'mock' of them" or if this was really how they talked and acted. It's extreme and campy, but looking at past footage--I just.. well, again it humanizes them, but I hollered when Jim comes for her whiny voice. Who knew the cult.. errrr church folks???? could shade like this?! 

You can’t help but want to see Tammy Faye win, especially at her lowest point when her marriage is over and she can’t quite grab a hold of the spotlight again or even the lifestyle she was used to, but you also want to shake her and wonder WHYYYYYYYY are/were you with this triflin ass man? Speaking of Jim Bakker, Andrew Garfield portrays him as someone who doesn’t have the balls or umph to make his dreams come true until he meets Tammy. Chastain and Garfield are perfectly cast in this film. 

But the one that stole the movie for me was Tammy's mother played by Cherry Sutton. That lady wasn't fooled for one second and knew Jim wasn't about ish, and I was here for her stoic ain't with the shits demeanor. 

My main question is for the many folks that donated their hard earn money to PTL every single time they went on the air with their sob stories, religious proclamations, and over the top antics. This film left many questions unanswered for me, like where did Tammy & Jim get the money to even start PTL? 

This film did give a closer look at Tammy Faye and her intentions. I do think she meant well and then it took a darn turn. I could relate on the levels of not feeling good enough, pretty enough, and hiding behind a mask of who you are to put on a front for the public. The film paints a sympathetic picture of a woman that was unhappy but had the "He mine, Imma stick beside him," mentality because he told her it was for God and she believed it. 

There’s Oscar buzz around this film, but y’all know I’m still partial to RESPECT so IDK about all that yet. Overall, this was a good film, and for someone that walked in not really knowing much about Tammy Faye, this gave a good overview of the woman that just wanted to do the Lord's work and love everyone. 

The Eyes of Tammy Faye opens in theaters on September 17. Let me know if you go check it out and what you think!