What is Culture Fries?

This is the publication I've always dreamed of creating. Deep dives into important ideas in culture. Smart writing about the world through the lens of culture. Fun video essays about culture. If you love culture and you love thinking deeply about it and love overanalyzing it and, of course, love arguing about it… then this is the place for you.

Sometimes I’ll explore a genius piece of art. Sometimes I’ll try to make sense of the world around us and how culture drives it or is driven by it. I think culture really matters, it brings us together and gives us meaning. Putting the world in context through culture is what I’ve been all about during my 30 year media career where I’ve worked at MSNBC, Rolling Stone, CNN, Vibe, MTV, The NY Times, BET, Fuse, the Village Voice, the Washington Post, TheGrio and more. I’ve written eight books including two about Prince—one was an oral history Nothing Compares 2 U and one was a study of the connection between Prince and Gen X called I Would Die 4 U. I’ve interviewed R. Kelly, Lady Gaga, Prince, Zadie, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye, Lauryn, Rakim, Tupac, Biggie, Q-Tip, Maxwell, Questlove, Nikki Giovanni, and many more.

I’ve always wanted to look at the intersection of culture and the world and now this, Culture Fries, is my favorite way of doing that.

I miss the great big idea culture think pieces that I used to read and write in the Times or the Village Voice or the Washington Post or and other places. Those pieces were a fun part of the conversation. The post-theater convo about that movie you loved wasn’t really over until you read a great review. The album didn’t fully hit you until you read a brilliant think piece that mined the deeper motivations of the artist. That’s the sort of work I live to do and it’s what I’ll bring here.

I already know some of the pieces I want to write:

• The long crazy story of a prep school kid I grew up with who became a professional counterfeiter in NYC. This will be a wild multi-part true crime story.

• How De La Soul is the father of the modern Blerd movement including Kanye, Drake, Donald Glover and more. But also how De La was connected to the crack epidemic.

• The fascinating story of the rise of craft chocolate in America.

• The real reason why Prince died takes us all the way back to his childhood.

• What’s the metamessage in Jay-Z’s long career? Like, if you look at everything he’s ever rhymed, what are the big messages? What has he been trying to telling us?

• The wild story of the rise and fall of the Celebrity Executive in hiphop.

• A surprising history of the rise of disco

• The story of the NYC gang truce that paved the way for hiphop.

• What Zadie Smith taught me about writing.

• The whole story of the Jay-Nas battle including the surprising aftermath. How they squashed the beef is just as important as the beef itself.

That’s some of what’s on my mind. You can DM me and tell me if there’s one of those that you’re dying to hear. If enough people vote for it, I’ll push it up on the list.

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Your favorite rapper’s favorite interviewer,

Touré