C1 • ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • AUGUST 22 - 28, 2013

By Kenya VaughnOf The St. Louis American

“When we would circle up for prayer, for some reason I would always be by her,” Shedrick Mitchell said of the late Whitney Houston. “And when she would pray, she would be squeezing my hand so tight. I would be like, ‘Nippy, you’ve got a

man’s hand grip.’”He spent nearly decade as the lead

keyboardist for Houston’s band. From 2004 until her untimely passing last February, a man from St. Louis was backing her up on keyboards.

“Even in New York, I represent St. Louis so hard,” Mitchell said. “I lived 19 years in St. Louis and I’ve lived the past 19 years in New York, but I

Naturalista Sunshine Malone played host

as national representatives from the

African Pride hair care line came to town

and provided a forum for conversation,

counsel and connection regarding the

natural hair journey.

www.stlamerican.com

•Only Online • African Pride’s Ultimate

Beauty Social stops in STL

See KENDRICK, C4

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Kendrick’s call to arms

‘Control’ verse

puts hip-hop’s

new class on blast

By A PlusFor The St. Louis American

The smoke has cleared and the dust has settled from last week when Kendrick Lamar had all of music on the edge of its seat with his verse on Big Sean’s “Control.”

The song, which didn’t make Big Sean’s upcoming album because of “sample clearance issues,” leaked last week and quickly made headlines. Not only because of his ambitious decision to call himself the best MC in the game, but he named names when he blasted his classmates.

In the verse that had everyone fired up, Lamar vowed to “murder” (with words) Jermaine Cole, Big K.R.I.T., Wale/ Pusha T, Meek Mill, A$AP Rocky, Drake/ Big Sean, Jay Electron’, Tyler, Mac Miller and referred to them all with a phrase we can only print as “[n-word expletive].”

“‘Control’ Verse Leaves Hip-Hop Saying ‘Good Lord,’” was how MTV prefaced their version of the breaking story that just might have had Kendrick Lamar making history as the first rapper to appear on TMZ for actually rapping.

In the scheme of things – as far as diss records goes – it was quite modest when you think of songs like Tupac’s “Hit ‘Em Up,” Ice Cube’s “No Vaseline” or even LL Cool J’s “I’m Bad.”

Actually, it’s not even a diss. It’s more of a call to arms to the other MCs reminding them – and the

Chante Moore

helps BFL close

Family Week 2013

By Kenya VaughnOf The St. Louis American

“At Better Family Life we have the organizational infrastructure to work towards peace every day, but we use Peacefest as kind of like a revival,” said James Clark, vice president of community outreach for Better Family Life.

“Peacefest gives people a chance to come together, celebrate and enjoy the company of other peace-loving people.”

Every year, the event serves as the culmination of BFL’s Family Week – which Clark admits felt like “Family Month” this year because of an expansion of their Amnesty Project. For 2013, BFL’s “Family

God made ‘Manifest’ in song

See PEACE, C4

love and miss St. Louis so much.”After graduating from McCluer

High School, he received a full scholarship to the Mannes College music program in New York City. He went on to work with Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, Al Green, Jay-Z and

Whitney.Mitchell was recently inducted

into McCluer’s Wall of Fame for his work as a musician and

Shedrick Mitchell – performing onstage with Maxwell at the 19th Annual ESSENCE Music Festival – performs with Manifest 6:30 p.m. Saturday, August 24 at McCluer South Berkeley High School.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

Shedrick Mitchell returns home to

sing gospel in his old school

Peacefest

in the park

Peacefest 2013, which begins 10 a.m. Sunday, August 25 at Forest Park’s Central Field, will feature a concert headlined by R&B singer Chante Moore.

See MANIFEST, C5

American staff

Though the Annie Malone Children & Family Service Center’s annual May Day Parade is a fan

favorite, it is more of a “friend-raiser.” The annual Soiree is the agency’s major fundraiser, and it’s set for this Friday, August 23 at Annie

Malone’s headquarters, 2612 Annie Malone Drive in The Ville Neighborhood.

“This is huge for us,” said Annie Malone’s CEO Darryl L. Wise. “We depend on individual donations. We have to

maximize our fundraising potential.”

This year’s Soiree has a

Caribbean Nights theme. Participants are encouraged to dress in laid-back, dressy-casual attire to fit the Caribbean Nights theme. The evening will feature music with a Caribbean/reggae flavor and nationally acclaimed, award-winning artist Daniel Hodges, who will be unveiling

Annie Malone goes CaribbeanChildren & Family Service

Center’s Soiree is Friday

See MALONE, C5

Twists, cinks, curls, waves, locs, braids and blowouts ripped the runway for a standing room only audience Sunday night at the Four Seasons for Uhuru Salon’s Natural Hair Revolution 2013 hair show and competition. Participating salons included Beauty By Design, Da Rootz, Locs of Glory, Napps (pictured above) and Womack’s Barber and Beauty Style.

Photo by Lawrence Bryant

A nat ur al phenomenon