LeToya Luckett is an original member of Destiny’s Child and a proud product of Houston. And though she will rattle off a list of her favorite spots (the Breakfast Klub, Turkey Leg Hut and Burns Original BBQ), she didn’t have the typical Houston upbringing. “My friends were out in the mall, at the movies, and … Read more
Trailblazing female rapper MC Lyte has some sage advice: “I would never suggest to a female MC to do what I did,” she told me on this week’s “Renaissance Man.” As a young girl dreaming of becoming a recording artist, she went with a guy friend to Staten Island because the label First Priority Music, … Read more
Jalen Brunson is an out and proud Belieber. The new Knicks point guard revealed that his pregame routine includes listening to at least one Justin Bieber song — a tradition that dates back to his playing days at Villanova. “I wasn’t always a Bieber fan,” the 26-year-old said in an interview with the Knicks digital … Read more
Brooklyn native Omar Epps attended La Guardia, aka the “Fame” high school for performing arts, and grew up writing poetry, rapping and acting. But he had a chip on his shoulder. In middle school, he lost out on the lead role in a production of “Grease.” “That bothered me the rest of junior high school. … Read more
When Earthquake — government name: Nathaniel Stroman — was starting as a stand-up comedian, he had trouble getting booked. So he vented to his mother, who dished out some sage advice. “She said, ‘What did I tell you? Never get mad at a man that won’t let you ride his bike. You either get your … Read more
Marlanna Evans grew up in a small North Carolina town with a population of about 2,000 people. “Everybody knows everybody,” she told me on “Renaissance Man” of Snow Hill, North Carolina. “Two-parent home. I was one of five kids, a whole bunch of cousins running around barefooted, you know, going in the woods and fishing. … Read more
Early in Kim Coles’ career, she was given advice from the founder of Comic Strip Live, the New York City comedy club where Eddie Murphy became a star. He told her she needed to do one of two things: “‘[He said] you either need to lose 40 pounds and become like a babe and that … Read more
Actor Sean Patrick Thomas burst onto the scene as Julia Stiles‘ co-star and love interest in the 2001 classic “Save the Last Dance” — and he’s been a sex symbol ever since. And according to him, the movie, which features an interracial love story, may be responsible for many beautiful mixed babies. “I also get … Read more