All Articles Tagged "gq magazine"
Who’s That Girl? We Almost Didn’t Even Recognize Rosario Dawson On The Cover Of GQ
From GQ.com
From StyleBlazer
Rosario Dawson may be one of the most lowkey beauties in Hollywood, and that’s just one of the reasons why we love her! The gorgeous actress and social activist is giving us a reminder of her stunning good lucks and to die for curves in GQ‘s May issue. She rocks a throwback swimsuit and bats her Bette Davis eyes in one shot, and then completely spins it with a modern bad girl strategically placed leather look. And boys, if you want to get any information out of her, just tickle her!
Read more at StyleBlazer.com
Some Things Just Get Better With Time: Denzel Tells GQ About His Father, Whitney Houston & His Message To Black Folk
Source: GQ Nathaniel Goldberg
If someone told you that Denzel Washington doesn’t have that “it” factor anymore, that he’s not as fine as he used to be, or that he’s no longer relevant, that person told you wrong. At 57, Denzel is still gorgeous, still insightful, with some advice for us all. Denzel sat down for an interview for the October issue of GQ and was surprisingly candid and honest about his life experiences, from his relationship with his parents, his past beef with director Quentin Tarantino to his thoughts on Whitney Houston’s passing. Check out highlights from the interview below.
On His First Job in the Barbershop
I was a paperboy. I was maybe 9. I faded on that quick. There’s no money in it. I was 11 or so when I started in the barbershop. That was great theater. Professional liars in a barbershop. There were a lot of father figures in there. I was there with grown men. You know, saying grown-men things. Listening to men talk and lie. I learned to hustle. If you came in, I looked at you like money. Okay, you’ve got good shoes? You might have a few dollars. I had a little side hustle where you brought your clothes on Saturday; I’d take them to the cleaners and deliver them at the end of the day. Fifty cents here, a dollar there. I was 13 and buying my own clothes. Working in that barbershop, learning how to tell stories…I learned how to act. [laughs]I miss it. I really dug that independence. My oldest daughter—I see her digging her independence. She doesn’t like me talking about it, but she’s working with Tarantino.
On Whitney Houston
Whitney was my girl, and she had done so well in recovery. And that is the toughest part about addiction.
GQ: Were you friends still?
Not “talk every month” friends, but I talked to her from time to time. And that was a monster drug that got ahold of her, it was a mean one. You can’t go back to that one. Nobody beats that. I look at people—and I don’t think I’m speaking out of line—Sam Jackson, I’ve known for thirty-some-odd years, he was down at the bottom. And he came all the way back. And when he cleaned up, he never looked back. But he can’t have that beer, because it might lead to the tough thing.
Whitney was such a sweet, sweet girl and really just a humble girl. You know, they made her this thing. She had a voice, obviously, but they packaged her into this whole whatever, but she was really just this humble, sweet girl. Me and Lenny [Kravitz], we were talking about her yesterday, and it’s more of an example to me or the rest of us to keep it together. I was listening to her song “I Look to You.” It’s prophetic. Maybe I’m speaking out of line. Maybe she thought she could have one. And then the next thing you know, her body was betraying her. She didn’t know that her body was aging quickly. She couldn’t take it. Your body can only take so much. Some people survive [Hollywood and fame], and some people don’t.
His Message to African Americans
Take responsibility. One of the things that saddens me the most about my people is fathers that don’t take care of their sons and daughters. And you can’t blame that on The Man or getting frisked. Take responsibility. Look in the mirror and say, “What can I do better?” There is opportunity; you can make it. Whatever it is that you choose, be the best at it. You have an African-American president. You can do it. But take responsibility. Put your slippers way under your bed so when you get up in the morning, you have to get on your knees to find them. And while you’re down there, start your day with prayer. Ask for wisdom. Ask for understanding. I’m not telling you what religion to be, but work on your spirit. You know, mind, body, and spirit. Imagine—work the brain muscle. Keep the body in tune—it’s your temple. All things in moderation. Continue to search. That’s the best part of life for me—continue to try to be the best man.
Read the rest of this fascinating interview at GQ.com.
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How Terrell Owens’ Brokeness Reminds Us of the Importance of an Education
Skip money. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Word on the street is that not only does Terrell Owens have a slew of baby mother drama on his plate, but the wide receiver tells GQ that he is going broke. Not just any ‘ol broke, we’re talking damn near $80 million. The running line of the piece is that if you asked where T.O. was a few months ago, especially since he hasn’t touched a football during this NFL season because no team will take him, his answer in text form would be, “I’M IN HELL.” It’s no secret that Owens is known in the NFL for his crappy attitude and sometimes his dismissal of authority, and while he has had his golden years in the league, it seems that reputation is coming back to haunt the brother. After tearing his ACL and spending the 2011 NFL season doing rehabilitation for it, no teams made an effort to bring him on. Who knew a temper could trump true talent?
Since he’s been on the sidelines, or in the house (let’s keep it real), he hasn’t made the money he’s used to. And on top of that, the mothers of his four children have been coming after him during this tough period, asking him to contribute more than what he claims to have in child support. The drama behind it has blown up so big that he doesn’t even get to see his youngest child thanks to beef with the mother of the child–a son. This is what it says in the article:
“…he pays a total of $44,600 a month in child support for his four children, ages 5 to 12: “If there’s anything I’m sorry about, it’s getting involved with all that.” He never actually dated any of the women, he says. One was a one-night stand, the others “repeat offenders.” Owens, who has never been married, concedes he is “not a very good judge of character.” Still, he “never suspected they were the types to do what they done in the past year.”
Also in the article, it’s revealed just how truly bad a judge of character Owens is by the business ventures he let himself get involved in through the urging of his associates and financial advisers. From a number of random homes to an Alabama entertainment complex that fell ALL the way through, his investments wound up costing him millions. “I hate myself for letting this happen,” he says. “I believed that they had my back when they said, ‘You take care of the football, and we’ll do the rest.’ And in the end, they just basically stole from me.”
Erykah Badu Talks Family & Working with Steve Harvey in GQ
In the November issue of GQ, the magazine highlights musical survivors. Artists whose music has resonated over time. With a career starting in the mid ’90s, it’s no wonder that Erykah’s name is among this list. She mentions in this interview that no two songs in her catalog sound exactly the same– and that’s true. Erykah’s music is forever changing, different from anything we’ve ever heard before, but always real. Find out how she got her start in the game and her childhood in this candid interview with excerpts from the GQ interview below.
GQ: Do you remember when you first sang in public?
Erykah Badu: I was five or something. At school. I was in a Christmas play in kindergarten. There was a part of a little boy who sings “Somebody Snitched on Me,” and all the boys in my class were in line auditioning. So I got in line, too. It was acting, and I figured I could act like a boy. The music teacher, Ms. Goodman, who had a big influence on me, encouraged me to do it. The other kids were laughing, but I was like, I’m serious, I can pull this off if you give me the opportunity. That was the first time. I was petrified and at first my voice and hands were shaking, but when I saw people having that look—the look I always look for, the I’m happy for youlook—I knew I was doing a good job. I got unscared and, you know, pulled some antics, and that was my first time.
GQ: What was Texas like when you were growing up?
Erykah Badu: Texas, to me, was my school, home, my Church sometimes, the movies sometimes. My world was in my head—it still is. I didn’t know who was poor or rich. My mom and grandma and everybody just made it a good time all the time. Music was always going. My grandmother was very, very hard, and I saw that, but we would always be laughing. I got two grandmothers and my mother’s mother and father’s mother are both in their 80s and still alive and still—how do I put it?—actively opinionated. [laughs] And I trust them dearly. My grandmother on my father’s side bought me a piano when I was seven. I didn’t know how to read music, so she’d put the charts up, and she don’t know how to read either, so I would pretend. If she hears this interview, then she’ll know that, otherwise she’ll never know! I wrote the first song on that piano and she sang. She has a beautiful voice. It reminds me of [starts singing] Soon I will be done… [stops singing]. What’s that lady’s name? An old gospel singer. Very famous.
GQ: Mahalia Jackson?
Erykah Badu: Yes! She was a straitlaced grandmother, very religious. If I had to sing something on the piano, it couldn’t be saying baby or nothing, it had to be Jesus. It had to mean something.
GQ: How did that influence you?
Erykah Badu: Greatly! I still carry that with me. Not literally, but I understand the lesson, which is, Make sure it’s real. When you do it, it gotta be real, or that’s not it. That is something I carry with me in my pocket.
GQ: You were a rapper at one point, too. Was there a time when being an MC seemed more likely for you than being a singer?
Erykah Badu: That was back when I was in college. I went to [Grambling State] university from 1989 to ’93 to study theater, so I was an actor at that point. It wasn’t my aspiration to be a singer, it was to be an artist. When I was 23 or 24, I was rapping and emceeing a lot with Free, but I was also working at Steve Harvey’s comedy house. He was my boss—the best boss ever. Funny, generous, considerate, and he knew I was an artist. When I started working there I was a waitress, and somehow I became a hostess. When he knew he could trust me, he moved me to the ticket booth. I handled money and helped organize transportation and hotel reservations for the comedians that came in. I noticed Steve didn’t have a stage manager, so I got that job, making sure everybody was taken care of. I love being of service to people—the whole act of it is really great to me. One day Steve was late going onstage, so I went out to the mic and threw out some jokes and stuff. People were laughing and heckling and having fun and Steve came onstage and scolded me in front of everybody. It was so funny. We started doing it every night. [Laughs] It felt like, This is where I want to be. Steve was really inspirational in that.
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