Scoop Jackson has had a remarkable career spanning over 30 years as a professional journalist, primarily focusing on music and sports. His byline has appeared in Slam, XXL, Wax Poetics, Vibe, and The Source magazines, as well as several projects with ESPN. Currently, he serves as the president of his production company Strong Island Media based in Chicago, where his journey has taken him through various platforms, including magazines, television, and books including The Game Is Not A Game (available from Haymarket Books): https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1409-the-game-is-not-a-game

PRODUCTION NOTE

When I started Entry Points several years ago, I recorded and released 12 episodes before I stopped and eventually withdrew them all from publication. As I decided to resume the podcast, one episode particularly stood out as one of my favorite conversations among several wonderful guests who took the time to sit with me.

I hope you enjoy this “classic” episode of Entry Points from the original series in 2017, featuring my guest and friend, Scoop Jackson.

Special Guest: Scoop Jackson.

Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Troy Gua is passionately creative: a self-taught artist, designer, maker, and tinkerer, continuously cultivating a prolific output of smart, bold work in a diverse range of media, produced with wit and a crisp visual aesthetic. His art invites viewers to take a closer look, below the surface, into themselves and outside to others, with empathy and understanding rather than judgment.

His most famous work is Le Petit Prince (also known as LPP), which is an ongoing series of detailed and meticulously staged photographs — a surreal reimagining, in sculptural miniature and in chronological order, of the life and career of Prince. A single figurine, LPP is a constantly evolving one-of-a-kind sculpture with countless hand-crafted outfits, props and a selection of facial expressions (heads), that serves as the subject of the photographs. The project is long and storied and has become beloved to many in the Prince fan community.

Special Guest: Troy Gua.

Links:

• Seattle Art Museum | Troy Gua
• Troy Gua website, "LE PETIT PRINCE" — The Prince Estate is not affiliated, associated, or connected with Troy Gua or Le Petit Prince, nor has it endorsed or sponsored Le Petit Prince or Troy Gua. Further, The Prince Estate has not licensed any of its intellectual property to Troy Gua or Le Petit Prince.
• Troy Gua website, "POP HYBRIDS"
• Seattle Refined, "Artist of the Week: Troy Gua"
• Club LPP Patreon
• YouTube, "40 Years of Prince's Purple Rain a la Le Petit Prince, aka LPP"

De Angela Duff is an Associate Vice Provost at New York University and Industry Professor in Integrated Design & Media at NYU Tandon in Brooklyn, New York. She organizes and leads conferences and workshops on generative AI for teaching and learning in higher education.

She also curates music symposia and has conducted more than a dozen of in-person and virtual events that focus on the artist Prince. In addition, Duff produces and co-hosts What Did Prince Do This Week?, a weekly online book club series on her "polished solid" YouTube channel.

Special Guest: De Angela Duff.

Links:

• What Did Prince Do This Week? #WDPDTW — What Did Prince Do This Week? #WDPDTW is a very slow read of Duane Tudahl’s entire Prince Studio Sessions book series through an interactive, online, weekly book club every Saturday at noon ET on YouTube and Facebook to discuss with YOU what Prince did during the parallel week, beginning in 1983. We’re going to start off with Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984 (Expanded Edition) by Duane Tudahl! We’ll read it over the course of two years. Yes, it is a commitment, but we’ll be reading the book in very short, digestible, bite-sized chunks! Here’s the schedule. Hope some of you will be committed, brave, and crazy enough to join me on this LONG journey! For more details including the schedule, visit: https://bookclub.polishedsolid.com
• Star Wars by Wes Anderson Trailer | The Galactic Menagerie
• Anthropic Claude
• In The Company Of Tourists: Prince, And The Only Eulogy To Him That Matters (The Music Snobs podcast) — After his untimely death, just as it was during his unparalleled career, the mainstream has celebrated Prince’s purple pop while consistently ignoring his black funk. During this special and previously unreleased ‘From the Vault’ episode of TMS, Scoop, Isaac, Jehan, and Arthur give the man who may well have been the greatest artist of all time the eulogy that only they could. During an unforgettable conversation, the Snobs explore life without a legend and reminisce over what made Prince ‘ours’.

Jason Orr is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, arts curator, and festival producer. Notably, he is the founder of FunkJazz Kafé Arts & Music Festival, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary in Atlanta, Georgia.

As such, Jason received a proclamation from the City of Atlanta in 2014 for his contributions to the city’s music, film, and cultural arts communities; and he made a documentary about his own creation, titled “FunkJazz Kafé: Diary Of A Decade”. And speaking of film, he is also a producer of “Maynard”; the documentary on former Atlanta mayor and visionary, Maynard Jackson.

Jason is a fascinating individual, whose story is uniquely Atlanta. A person who has used his talents to both produce his vision and benefit his community.

Special Guest: Jason Orr.

Links:

• FunkJazz Kafé 30th Year Anniversary Celebration (Recap)
• "Stepping Into Tomorrow" (The Story of Jazz Funk and The Music That Changed The World) Trailer — Music game changers tell of their life and times during the rise and transition of one of the greatest music innovations of the 20th century, amidst decades of social imbalance. Coming 2025.
• Pharoahe Monch - “Simon Says” Live at The Tabernacle — Pharoahe performs with a live band (and a lot of tubas) at the Tabernacle for FunkJazz Kafé, July 13, 2013.
• MAYNARD (Official Trailer) — Director Sam Pollard constructs a portrait of charismatic trailblazer Maynard Jackson, who became Atlanta’s first black mayor in 1973. Co-produced by Jason Orr.

Miles Marshall Lewis is a cultural critic, journalist, and author of several books, the most recent being “Promise That You Will Sing About Me: The Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar”. A former editor at Vibe and XXL magazines, his articles have been published by GQ, Essence, Rolling Stone and The New York Times.

We recently spent time discussing his path to journalism, leaving New York City to live in Paris for several years, and his unexpected interview with Prince that led to an Ebony magazine cover story in 2015. Because Miles and I are close in age, our talk begins with a subject that’s close to both our hearts: hip-hop. Which is a good thing, because as of August 5th 2024, he became the Cultural Historian for The Hip Hop Museum in the Bronx, opening in 2025.

Special Guest: Miles Marshall Lewis.

Links:

• Purchase “Promise That You Will Sing About Me: the Power and Poetry of Kendrick Lamar” — Miles Marshall Lewis explores Kendrick Lamar’s life, his roots, his music, his lyrics, and how he has shaped the musical landscape.
• MML’s journal entry about interviewing Prince (X thread) — 8/24/15, i met prince rogers nelson at paisley park studios for an hours-long convo. our talk ended up as a pretty infamous ebony Q&A months later. but the day we met, i journaled.
• The Hip Hop Museum — MML serves as the museum’s Cultural Historian.