Derrick Mathis

Random Publicity

Derrick Mathis
SEVEN OF US, ALL GAY MEN OF VARIOUS ETHNIC backgrounds, were huddled around three tables eating a late dinner at the California Chicken Café on Melrose. The latest rash of gay bashings in West Hollywood weighed heavily on our minds. We talked about 33-year-old Trev Broudy, in a coma after......

The Word in Inglewood

Derrick Mathis
Activist Dick Gregory can always combine the humorous with the serious, even as he leans toward the serious. And demonstrators in the courtyard of Inglewood’s City Hall last Friday captured that spirit when they brandished signs such as ”Buy a videocamSave a life.“ They were crammed in amid an armada......
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The Way of All Flesh

Derrick Mathis
Getting nowhere with Al Green, in 1973 singer Sylvia Robinson took “Pillow Talk,” a song she’d written for the R&B superstar, and recorded the tune herself. That 22 orgasms were supposedly counted on Donna Summer’s later “Love To Love You” don’t mean jack after a session with Robinson’s elegant erotica,......
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Get Loose

Derrick Mathis
DOCTOR L, TONY ALLEN, JEAN PHI DARY Psyco on da Bus (Platform) “Yeaaah,” groans Afro-beat legend Tony Allen, his bluesy Nigerian drawl responding to the tones of a jazzy keyboard as if a masseuse has just pounded the kinks out of his back. “We don’t want to fight no wars.”......

Black to the Future

Derrick Mathis
It‘s the age-old thing of black America inventing something and white England digging it and working it out into a more palatable form. You’d say all the stars are English, but the guys I name as my heroes are black Americans. --Norman Cook, a.k.a. Fatboy Slim, in Playboy Juan Atkins,......
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Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Derrick Mathis
Photo by Troy Rasey “I got engaged, and my future husband’s in New York visiting his son,” Keoki proudly announces as he makes himself comfortable on the couch in Moonshine Music’s upstairs conference room in April. “We’re getting married May 7. And check this out — it’s my grandmother’s birthday......
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First Lady

Derrick Mathis
”I ain’t losin‘ no damn weight,“ says comedian and TV’s The Parkers star Mo‘Nique, speaking by phone from her hotel room in NYC. ”I exercise, and I’m healthy as an ox. I‘m okay with being a size 22-24, and I’m sexy as a mothafucka -- ain‘t shit wrong with me.“......
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Giant Steps

Derrick Mathis
No matter the consequences, it‘s harder than hell to get to a dance club earlier than 11:30 p.m. Besides, everyone knows the real party never gets started before midnight. Arrive before that bewitching hour and you’ll most likely find a loose community of anxious, tight-lipped geeks of both sexes, transfixed......

Departure Lounge

Derrick Mathis
Outside Vynyl, you can feel the thump, see the walls flex with every beat. Inside, a propulsive blend of classic soul, Afro-house and jazzy bass lines commands the attention of the dance floor as the sweat-soaked mob writhes and twists, screaming the name of the DJ wreaking holy hell on......
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African Sunrise

Derrick Mathis
”Revenge -- huhI’m mad . . . Git‘ down, with my girlfriend -- huhThat ain’t right!Hollerin‘, cussin’, you wanna fight . . . Looka here -- huhDon‘t do me no darn favorI don’t know karate, but I know KA-RAZY!“ Garth Trinidad jackknifes ”The Payback“ into the airwaves. The smell of......