Meek Mill vs. Drake
Everything is better with memes and when you think about the Meek Mill vs. Drake beef you can’t help but think of the jokes that followed. The beef started when rapper Meek Mill aka “Mr. Twitter Fingers” started a series of tweets aimed at rapper Drake for allegedly using a ghostwriter. Drake never denied or affirmed the accusation, but the Toronto native recorded two diss songs directed at Meek. His song, “Back To Back,” became the first diss track to be nominated for a Grammy Award. But, the huge award went to Black Twitter for continuously feeding the world with hilarious memes and videos.
Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly
President Barack Obama naming “How Much A Dollar Cost” as his favorite song of the year shows how much Kendrick Lamar’s album transcends through every age and race spectrum. The album “To Pimp A Butterfly” was a critical album for the year speaking about everything from police brutality, economic development and social and racial issues. Black twitter deemed it one of the many albums needed for 2015.
Hit that “Nae Nae”
Silento’s single “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae” debuted in the summer and had to be the most played song on TV, social media and parties. Thousands of videos circulated social media and YouTube of “Nae Nae” dancers. Even presidential candidate Hilary Clinton was seen “Nae Nae” dancing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Black twitter when ham—deeming her efforts “a way to get the Black vote”. The music video has over 524 million views on YouTube and is still very popular.
Janelle Monae takes it to the streets
Wondaland creative and singer Janelle Monae took it to the streets and all forms of social media to voice her dissatisfaction with police brutality by partnering up with the Black Lives Matter movement. She protested in the streets of Philly and Chicago with other Wondaland artists about the loss of lives such as Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice and the countless others killed in the hands of law enforcement.
Straight Outta Compton
The hit blockbuster biopic was a success and became the highest grossing film ever by a Black director, F. Gary Gray. The movie made $200 million worldwide. It chronicled the lives of N.W.A. members Eazy E., Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. People took to Twitter about how great the film was and wondered if it “deserved an Oscar”.
The Wiz Live!
There is nothing like watching your favorite movies or shows with family and relatives, the same can be said for Black Twitter. “The Wiz Live!” premiered on Dec. 3 and drew in over 11 million viewers. Twitter was full of TV side commentary all night with endless tweets about Black excellence and meme praising the live musical. From the awesome set design to the vogue scenes of Emerald City—Black Twitter talked about it all. The cast of the show featured some of Black Hollywood’s best actresses and singers like Uzo Aduba, Ne-Yo, Mary J. Blige, Shanice Williams, Amber Riley and Queen Latifah.
Bad Boy Reunion at 2015 BET Awards
Most of the original Bad Boy family and label creator P. Diddy reunited for the 20-year anniversary of the label at the 2015 BET Awards. The performance had Mase, Lil Kim, Faith Evans, 112 and Diddy performing some of their greatest hits like “Feels So Good,” “Hypnotize,” and “Never Knew Love Like This Before”. Twitter said the reunion was “the best thing that happened all year”.
Serena Williams Sportsperson of the Year
Serena Williams dominated the sports world this year, which led to her being named the first individual woman to be the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year. She won three major grand slam titles and was one title away from breaking Steffi Graf’s Open-era record. But, what got Black twitter going was the comparison of Williams to thoroughbred racehorse American Pharaoh for Sportsperson of the Year. “Serena Williams was compared to a racehorse just because she’s an unconventional beauty,” said Twitter user D.K. Upshaw. At the end of the day no one deserves it more than Williams.
Steve Harvey crowns wrong contestant
As the host of the Miss Universe pageant, Steve Harvey had the duty to announce the 2015 winner, Miss Philippines. However, he crowned the wrong woman initially giving the title to Miss Colombia. The mishap lit up the social media world with countless videos and memes making fun of the Family Feud host. Twitter users went as far as saying, “Steve Harvey should host the Oscars, so Leonardo DiCaprio can final win one”. They also post pictures of Harvey’s smiling face with the caption “Happy Friday…wait sorry, it’s Monday”.
