Category: Trending

We are just hours away from City Girls‘ third studio album, RAW. This new album marks the rap duo’s first album in three years, and like any City Girls project, the tracklist is stacked with hits — both past and future.

City Girls finally revealed the tracklist tonight (October 19) via Instagram, and fans can expect to hear 18 tracks. Ahead of the album, City Girls have already released their Usher collab, “Good Love,” which came out over a year ago. This past summer, they released the singles “Piñata” and “I Need A Thug,” as well as JT’s solo track, “No Bars.”

The rest of the album boasts some pretty promising collabs, including “Static” with Lil Durk and “Emotions” with Muni Long. Earlier this week, the girls teased “Flashy” with Kim Petras as the next single from RAW.

You can see the RAW cover art and tracklist below.

1. “RAW”
2. “Piñata”
3. “Static” Feat. Lil Durk
4. “No Bars”
5. “Lineup”
6. “Show Me The Money”
7. “Emotions” Feat. Muni Long
8. “Fancy Ass B*tch” Feat. Juicy J
9. “Good Love” Feat. Usher
10. “Work For It”
11. “I Need A Thug”
12. “Flashy” Feat. Kim Petras
13. “Wigs”
14. “Face Down”
15. “What You Want”
16. “Tonight”
17. “Survive”
18. “F*ck The D To The A”

Sometimes you just need a little snuggle from your four-legged friend to make everything right in the world again.

Everyone knows that cats are a bit fickle in this area, their comfort is dependent on how annoyed they are with your existence that day. But dogs? Everyone can attest that no matter what kid of day you’ve had, your dog will be there with their tail wagging while covering you in dog food flavored kisses.

They seem to be much more invested in your happiness than cats. So, when you’re feeling down, your doggo is likely to sense it and snuggle up right in your lap hoping to bring you comfort. But apparently some dogs were absent that day in how to be a dog school and they missed the lesson.

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This adorably hilarious video of a very serious dog trying to console her human who seems to have nothing but complaints about her efforts is a must watch. The poor dog sits stiff with a straight face and a paw placed on her owner’s shoulder as she sits on the floor critiquing the dog’s style of comfort. Maybe in a past life Queen Charlotte from “Bridgerton” was his mother only offering sorrows sorrows and prayers for consoling? Anything’s possible.

Look, she’s trying, terribly, but she’s trying and that’s much more than cat owners can say when their cats are in a mood. Check out the video below shared by Furry Tails and tell that sweet girl that she’s doing a good job. She gets an A for effort.

Sometimes you just need a little snuggle from your four-legged friend to make everything right in the world again.

Everyone knows that cats are a bit fickle in this area, their comfort is dependent on how annoyed they are with your existence that day. But dogs? Everyone can attest that no matter what kid of day you’ve had, your dog will be there with their tail wagging while covering you in dog food flavored kisses.

They seem to be much more invested in your happiness than cats. So, when you’re feeling down, your doggo is likely to sense it and snuggle up right in your lap hoping to bring you comfort. But apparently some dogs were absent that day in how to be a dog school and they missed the lesson.

---

This adorably hilarious video of a very serious dog trying to console her human who seems to have nothing but complaints about her efforts is a must watch. The poor dog sits stiff with a straight face and a paw placed on her owner’s shoulder as she sits on the floor critiquing the dog’s style of comfort. Maybe in a past life Queen Charlotte from “Bridgerton” was his mother only offering sorrows sorrows and prayers for consoling? Anything’s possible.

Look, she’s trying, terribly, but she’s trying and that’s much more than cat owners can say when their cats are in a mood. Check out the video below shared by Furry Tails and tell that sweet girl that she’s doing a good job. She gets an A for effort.

Kids can seem pretty unappreciative at times. Parents often sacrifice a lot to give their child the best, just to have it thrown in their face, or in the bin. This is something that Haley Hassell recently discovered when she went to three different stores to get her daughter the latest trendy pencil case.

When Hassell gave her daughter the pencil case, she threw it in the bin complaining that everyone already had it. That’s when Hassell decided to teach her daughter the perfect lesson.

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In a Facebook post, Hassell explained:

“[Daughter] learned a tough love lesson today… I went to 3 different stores to get that LOL pencil box you see in the trash there. When I surprised her with it this afternoon (just knowing she would be ecstatic) she stared at it and threw it in the trash and slammed the bedroom door. She yelled ‘that’s stupid, everyone in my class has that..I don’t want it anymore!'”

“OK So by this time there was probably smoke coming out of my ears and I’m trying real hard not to completely lose it on this kid that I have worked so hard to completely take care of financially on my own & make sure she always gets what she needs and then some. BUT I thought I had always taught her to be grateful & know how lucky she was but apparently sis needed a small wake up call!”

“SO before completely going Madea mad on my child I check myself and say, ‘okay that’s fine, let me go get the one you’re going to use.’ Came back with her new pencil box, which is the Ziploc bag. She lost her mind! Suddenly the LOL Box she just trashed was good enough and the Ziploc bag was horrible…but it’s too late for all that.”

Yes, Hassell gave her daughter a Ziplock bag as a pencil case since she didn’t appreciate the LOL one.

“I told her to get the LOL out of the trash and we would be finding a child to give it to tomorrow..one whose mommy and daddies don’t have money for any school supplies or someone who may not even have a mommy or daddy.”

“I explained to her she’s not entitled to anything special and she is taking for granted how lucky she is. So for now she will be using a Ziploc bag & will personally be delivering the nice box to a child that could benefit from it. Maybe I overreact sometimes but I would’ve done anything to have all the things she does as a child. I truly believe changing your perception & just being grateful can turn around any situation in life.”

Commenters seemed to love the punishment, with one user writing: “I’m down for this. Yes it’d be easier to give in, but sometimes you gotta teach them the principle of the matter.”

While another added: “I think you responded appropriately. Maybe she can earn the one she decides she wants at some point.”

Others were less receptive of the idea, with a commenter writing: “I guess I pretty much interact with my child on a regular basis, you know, take them with me when buying stuff for THEM so I know what they want. I talk to my child and care about their feelings. I don’t fear monger them. But hey, good job being a monster mom!”

Personally, I fully support mom on this one and think it’s important to teach kids to appreciate what they have. If you don’t, they’ll most likely turn into terrible adults.

This article originally appeared on 8.24.19

Kids can seem pretty unappreciative at times. Parents often sacrifice a lot to give their child the best, just to have it thrown in their face, or in the bin. This is something that Haley Hassell recently discovered when she went to three different stores to get her daughter the latest trendy pencil case.

When Hassell gave her daughter the pencil case, she threw it in the bin complaining that everyone already had it. That’s when Hassell decided to teach her daughter the perfect lesson.

---

In a Facebook post, Hassell explained:

“[Daughter] learned a tough love lesson today… I went to 3 different stores to get that LOL pencil box you see in the trash there. When I surprised her with it this afternoon (just knowing she would be ecstatic) she stared at it and threw it in the trash and slammed the bedroom door. She yelled ‘that’s stupid, everyone in my class has that..I don’t want it anymore!'”

“OK So by this time there was probably smoke coming out of my ears and I’m trying real hard not to completely lose it on this kid that I have worked so hard to completely take care of financially on my own & make sure she always gets what she needs and then some. BUT I thought I had always taught her to be grateful & know how lucky she was but apparently sis needed a small wake up call!”

“SO before completely going Madea mad on my child I check myself and say, ‘okay that’s fine, let me go get the one you’re going to use.’ Came back with her new pencil box, which is the Ziploc bag. She lost her mind! Suddenly the LOL Box she just trashed was good enough and the Ziploc bag was horrible…but it’s too late for all that.”

Yes, Hassell gave her daughter a Ziplock bag as a pencil case since she didn’t appreciate the LOL one.

“I told her to get the LOL out of the trash and we would be finding a child to give it to tomorrow..one whose mommy and daddies don’t have money for any school supplies or someone who may not even have a mommy or daddy.”

“I explained to her she’s not entitled to anything special and she is taking for granted how lucky she is. So for now she will be using a Ziploc bag & will personally be delivering the nice box to a child that could benefit from it. Maybe I overreact sometimes but I would’ve done anything to have all the things she does as a child. I truly believe changing your perception & just being grateful can turn around any situation in life.”

Commenters seemed to love the punishment, with one user writing: “I’m down for this. Yes it’d be easier to give in, but sometimes you gotta teach them the principle of the matter.”

While another added: “I think you responded appropriately. Maybe she can earn the one she decides she wants at some point.”

Others were less receptive of the idea, with a commenter writing: “I guess I pretty much interact with my child on a regular basis, you know, take them with me when buying stuff for THEM so I know what they want. I talk to my child and care about their feelings. I don’t fear monger them. But hey, good job being a monster mom!”

Personally, I fully support mom on this one and think it’s important to teach kids to appreciate what they have. If you don’t, they’ll most likely turn into terrible adults.

This article originally appeared on 8.24.19

Sometimes what people may consider to be a compliment is actually horribly offensive.

This is one of those times.

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An incredible woman has the perfect response for someone who says, “You speak so well … for a black girl.”

But that’s not all. Ernestine Johnson is just getting warmed up. She has plenty more to say about what speaking, looking, and acting like an average black girl really means.

And nope, this isn’t another lesson in political correctness; it’s more about common sense.

She clearly explains it all 42 seconds in the video below:

Oh, and my favorite quote that I’m taking and framing?

This one.

“See, the average black girl that I know, the average black girl that I know were Egyptian queens like Hatshepsut and Nitocris who were ruling dynasties and whole armies of men, excuse me while I set fire to this poem on my pen because I am tired. Tired of the stereotypes black girls have fallen into because of American mentality. Oh, but not half as tired as Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Septima Poinsette-Clark. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired, Miss Fannie Lou Hamer, Daisy Bates, Anna Arnold Hedgeman, and Dorothy Height are far more tired than I am.” — Ernestine Johnson

This article originally appeared on 01.28.15

Sometimes what people may consider to be a compliment is actually horribly offensive.

This is one of those times.

---

An incredible woman has the perfect response for someone who says, “You speak so well … for a black girl.”

But that’s not all. Ernestine Johnson is just getting warmed up. She has plenty more to say about what speaking, looking, and acting like an average black girl really means.

And nope, this isn’t another lesson in political correctness; it’s more about common sense.

She clearly explains it all 42 seconds in the video below:

Oh, and my favorite quote that I’m taking and framing?

This one.

“See, the average black girl that I know, the average black girl that I know were Egyptian queens like Hatshepsut and Nitocris who were ruling dynasties and whole armies of men, excuse me while I set fire to this poem on my pen because I am tired. Tired of the stereotypes black girls have fallen into because of American mentality. Oh, but not half as tired as Ella Baker, Diane Nash, Septima Poinsette-Clark. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired, Miss Fannie Lou Hamer, Daisy Bates, Anna Arnold Hedgeman, and Dorothy Height are far more tired than I am.” — Ernestine Johnson

This article originally appeared on 01.28.15

Imagine you’re working at a school and one of the kids is starting to act up. What do you do?

Traditionally, the answer would be to give the unruly kid detention or suspension.

But in my memory, detention tended to involve staring at walls, bored out of my mind, trying to either surreptitiously talk to the kids around me without getting caught or trying to read a book. If it was designed to make me think about my actions, it didn’t really work. It just made everything feel stupid and unfair.

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But Robert W. Coleman Elementary School has been doing something different when students act out: offering meditation.

Instead of punishing disruptive kids or sending them to the principal’s office, the Baltimore school has something called the Mindful Moment Room instead.

The room looks nothing like your standard windowless detention room. Instead, it’s filled with lamps, decorations, and plush purple pillows. Misbehaving kids are encouraged to sit in the room and go through practices like breathing or meditation, helping them calm down and re-center. They are also asked to talk through what happened.

Meditation and mindfulness are pretty interesting, scientifically.

Mindful meditation has been around in some form or another for thousands of years. Recently, though, science has started looking at its effects on our minds and bodies, and it’s finding some interesting effects.

One study, for example, suggested that mindful meditation could give practicing soldiers a kind of mental armor against disruptive emotions, and it can improve memory too. Another suggested mindful meditation could improve a person’s attention span and focus.

Individual studies should be taken with a grain of salt (results don’t always carry in every single situation), but overall, science is starting to build up a really interesting picture of how awesome meditation can be. Mindfulness in particular has even become part of certain fairly successful psychotherapies.

Back at the school, the Mindful Moment Room isn’t the only way Robert W. Coleman Elementary has been encouraging its kids.

The meditation room was created as a partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation, a local nonprofit that runs other programs as well. For more than 10 years the foundation has been offering the after-school program Holistic Me, where kids from pre-K through the fifth grade practice mindfulness exercises and yoga.

“It’s amazing,” said Kirk Philips, the Holistic Me coordinator at Robert W. Coleman. “You wouldn’t think that little kids would meditate in silence. And they do.”

There was a Christmas party, for example, where the kids knew they were going to get presents but were still expected to do meditation first.”As a little kid, that’s got to be hard to sit down and meditate when you know you’re about to get a bag of gifts, and they did it! It was beautiful, we were all smiling at each other watching them,” said Philips.

The kids may even be bringing that mindfulness back home with them. In the August 2016 issue of Oprah Magazine, Holistic Life Foundation co-founder Andres Gonzalez said: “We’ve had parents tell us, ‘I came home the other day stressed out, and my daughter said, “Hey, Mom, you need to sit down. I need to teach you how to breathe.'”

The program also helps mentor and tutor the kids, as well as teach them about the environment.

They help clean up local parks, build gardens, and visit nearby farms. Philips said they even teach kids to be co-teachers, letting them run the yoga sessions.

This isn’t just happening at one school, either. Lots of schools are trying this kind of holistic thinking, and it’s producing incredible results.

In the U.K., for example, the Mindfulness in Schools Project is teaching adults how to set up programs. Mindful Schools, another nonprofit, is helping to set up similar programs in the United States.

Oh, and by the way, the schools are seeing a tangible benefit from this program, too.

Philips said that at Robert W. Coleman Elementary, there have been exactly zero suspensions last year and so far this year. Meanwhile, nearby Patterson Park High School, which also uses the mindfulness programs, said suspension rates dropped and attendance increased as well.

Is that wholly from the mindfulness practices? It’s impossible to say, but those are pretty remarkable numbers, all the same.

This article originally appeared on 09.22.16

Imagine you’re working at a school and one of the kids is starting to act up. What do you do?

Traditionally, the answer would be to give the unruly kid detention or suspension.

But in my memory, detention tended to involve staring at walls, bored out of my mind, trying to either surreptitiously talk to the kids around me without getting caught or trying to read a book. If it was designed to make me think about my actions, it didn’t really work. It just made everything feel stupid and unfair.

---

But Robert W. Coleman Elementary School has been doing something different when students act out: offering meditation.

Instead of punishing disruptive kids or sending them to the principal’s office, the Baltimore school has something called the Mindful Moment Room instead.

The room looks nothing like your standard windowless detention room. Instead, it’s filled with lamps, decorations, and plush purple pillows. Misbehaving kids are encouraged to sit in the room and go through practices like breathing or meditation, helping them calm down and re-center. They are also asked to talk through what happened.

Meditation and mindfulness are pretty interesting, scientifically.

Mindful meditation has been around in some form or another for thousands of years. Recently, though, science has started looking at its effects on our minds and bodies, and it’s finding some interesting effects.

One study, for example, suggested that mindful meditation could give practicing soldiers a kind of mental armor against disruptive emotions, and it can improve memory too. Another suggested mindful meditation could improve a person’s attention span and focus.

Individual studies should be taken with a grain of salt (results don’t always carry in every single situation), but overall, science is starting to build up a really interesting picture of how awesome meditation can be. Mindfulness in particular has even become part of certain fairly successful psychotherapies.

Back at the school, the Mindful Moment Room isn’t the only way Robert W. Coleman Elementary has been encouraging its kids.

The meditation room was created as a partnership with the Holistic Life Foundation, a local nonprofit that runs other programs as well. For more than 10 years the foundation has been offering the after-school program Holistic Me, where kids from pre-K through the fifth grade practice mindfulness exercises and yoga.

“It’s amazing,” said Kirk Philips, the Holistic Me coordinator at Robert W. Coleman. “You wouldn’t think that little kids would meditate in silence. And they do.”

There was a Christmas party, for example, where the kids knew they were going to get presents but were still expected to do meditation first.”As a little kid, that’s got to be hard to sit down and meditate when you know you’re about to get a bag of gifts, and they did it! It was beautiful, we were all smiling at each other watching them,” said Philips.

The kids may even be bringing that mindfulness back home with them. In the August 2016 issue of Oprah Magazine, Holistic Life Foundation co-founder Andres Gonzalez said: “We’ve had parents tell us, ‘I came home the other day stressed out, and my daughter said, “Hey, Mom, you need to sit down. I need to teach you how to breathe.'”

The program also helps mentor and tutor the kids, as well as teach them about the environment.

They help clean up local parks, build gardens, and visit nearby farms. Philips said they even teach kids to be co-teachers, letting them run the yoga sessions.

This isn’t just happening at one school, either. Lots of schools are trying this kind of holistic thinking, and it’s producing incredible results.

In the U.K., for example, the Mindfulness in Schools Project is teaching adults how to set up programs. Mindful Schools, another nonprofit, is helping to set up similar programs in the United States.

Oh, and by the way, the schools are seeing a tangible benefit from this program, too.

Philips said that at Robert W. Coleman Elementary, there have been exactly zero suspensions last year and so far this year. Meanwhile, nearby Patterson Park High School, which also uses the mindfulness programs, said suspension rates dropped and attendance increased as well.

Is that wholly from the mindfulness practices? It’s impossible to say, but those are pretty remarkable numbers, all the same.

This article originally appeared on 09.22.16

Christmas and Chanukah may be known as holidays that are part of the season of giving, but let’s not forget that one of the greatest joys of Halloween is handing out candy to neighborhood children.

Well, a guy on Reddit could be the perfect candidate for the Scrooge of Halloween because he has a real problem with children from disadvantaged neighborhoods trick-or-treating in his “affluent” suburb.

Seriously, who gets mad about kids trick-or-treating on Halloween?

The aggrieved man shared his story on the AITA page, asking if he was in the wrong for being hostile towards the trick-or-treaters that come to his neighborhood every year.

“For the past few years, the neighbors and I have seen a growing amount of people come to our neighborhood for Halloween. This has caused a lot of people to ‘turn off’ for Halloween, which you’d think would get the crowd to lessen but it keeps growing,” he wrote.

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“I was openly annoyed with this leading up to Halloween, and my girlfriend would condemn it every time I brought it up because ‘Halloween’s all about sharing,’ saying it shouldn’t matter whether the kids are from the neighborhood or not,” he continued.

The girlfriend also noted that kids who come to their neighborhood may be unable to trick-or-treat where they live because it’s too dangerous. “Not surprisingly, this year at both entrances to the neighborhood, cars line the streets.. some with out-of-state plates (I live in a suburb of a city which is just over the state line.),” he continued.

When asked if he was wrong for “getting annoyed with parents who truck carloads full of kids to a neighborhood they don’t live,” the commenters overwhelmingly agreed he was. The most popular comment was simple and devastating. “Yep, and sorry about your privilege,” one commenter wrote.

Another popular commenter went to great lengths to describe why he was wrong.

“You are not required to hand out candy. You are not required to hand out more candy than you are willing to buy. If you don’t feel like participating or when you are out of candy, you can hang a sign and turn off your porch light and go on with your night,” Spectrum2081 wrote.

“However, when you start picking which kids are worthy of your Halloween treats, you are indeed an a**hole,” they continued. “Imagine being a kid, dressing up, knocking on a door on Halloween and saying, trick-or-treat to someone visibly annoyed by your presence. Imagine it is because of something like the color of your skin or because you are overweight. That would feel pretty bad. Now imagine it’s because you are too poor.”

Another person noted that it’s much more difficult to trick-or-treat in an urban setting.

“Most of these families likely live in neighborhoods that are predominantly apartment buildings and businesses with few single family dwellings. This means that the ratio of homes handing out candy vs buildings in general is low. Secondly, these kids are not less deserving of the candy from your neighborhood than children who have parents in a higher income bracket. The fact that you seem to think they are hints at a bias that you probably haven’t examined too closely but probably should,” SleepUntilTomorrow wrote.

However, a few people thought he could be right.

“I know this is the unpopular opinion,” Glatog wrote. “But when it is just a handful of kids extra it isn’t a big deal, and I’m sure you’d have no problem. But there is a neighborhood here that gets thousands of extra kids. That’s a little absurd. Not all of those kids live in apartments or bad neighborhoods. The sense of entitlement is wrong.”

It’s a little unnerving to think there are people of means who scoff at giving candy to kids from underprivileged neighborhoods. But it’s encouraging to see everyone step up and say that giving is a big part of the Halloween season, and it’s not a child’s fault if they live in a neighborhood where they can’t trick-or-treat.

The great thing about holidays is that, when celebrated correctly, they are a wonderful way to bring people together. The spirit of Halloween may be a celebration of spookiness, but at its heart, it’s the joy of seeing kids proudly filling their pillowcases with candy and toys given to them by people they hardly know. Adults should love that wonderful glint of mischief a child gets in their eyes while being out on a spooky night regardless of their parents’ tax bracket.