Touré

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Touré

Touré in 2006
Born (1971-03-20) March 20, 1971 (age 41)
Boston, Massachusetts[1]
Occupation TV host, novelist, journalist, cultural critic
Language English
Nationality American

Touré (born Touré Neblett, March 20, 1971)[2][1] is an American novelist, essayist, music journalist, cultural critic, and television personality based in New York City. He is the host of Fuse's Hiphop Shop and On the Record. He is also a contributor to MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan Show and serves on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominating Committee.[3]

Contents

Career

Writing career

While a student at Emory University, Touré founded the black student newspaper, The Fire This Time.[4] He dropped out of college in 1992 and became an intern at Rolling Stone magazine but was fired after a few months. Weeks later he was asked to write record reviews and then feature stories. His first feature was about Run-DMC. Since 1997, he has been a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, writing primarily about hip hop.[5] In April 2011 he wrote the Rolling Stone cover story about Adele.[volume & issue needed]

Touré has written four books: The Portable Promised Land (2003), a collection of short stories, Soul City (2004), a magical realist novel about life in an African-American Utopia, and Never Drank the Kool-Aid (2006), a collection of his published writing between 1994 and 2005. In September 2011 Free Press published Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?, a look at modern Black identity that includes a forward by Michael Eric Dyson and excerpts from over 100 interviews with notable people like Jesse Jackson.

He has also written about Dale Earnhardt Jr. in Rolling Stone magazine's "Kurt is My Co-Pilot", a story that ended up in The Best American Sports Writing 2001.[6][7]

Television

Touré interviewing DJ Spooky at the 2009 Brooklyn Book Festival.

His television career began in the late 1990s with occasional appearances on talk shows like The Today Show. In 2003, he became the host of Spoke N' Heard on MTV2, a weekly half-hour interview show. In 2004, he became CNN's first pop culture correspondent, covering the Oscars and the Grammys and talking about pop culture on a recurring segment on American Morning called "90 Second Pop," hosted by Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer. In 2005, Touré left CNN and became a correspondent for Black Entertainment Television (BET), where he hosted a show called The Black Carpet. In 2008, he left BET and became a contributor to MSNBC. In September 2009, he became the host of the Hiphop Shop, a hiphop music video and interview show on Fuse. Touré has filled in as occasional substitute host of the arts and culture interview program The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC, New York City's largest public radio station. His show I'll Try Anything Once aired on Treasure HD. The 13-episode, half-hour series featured Touré attempting challenges each week. He has hosted several shows on Tennis Channel including Top Ten Hottest Shots and Community Surface.[8] Touré was one of the journalists interviewed for biographical insight into the life of rapper Eminem on the A&E Biography episode devoted to that musician.[9]

On March 29, 2012, Touré criticized Piers Morgan's interview of Robert Zimmerman regarding his brother George's shooting of Trayvon Martin on Morgan's CNN talk show, Piers Morgan Tonight, stating that Morgan failed to ask Zimmerman challenging questions, and provided a platform for mendacity on Zimmerman's part. After Morgan and Touré initially traded personal insults, they agreed to an interview on the March 30, 2012 episode of Piers Morgan Tonight.[10] The two continued their hostilities during the March 30 interview, with Morgan calling into question Touré's journalistic professionalism and Touré arguing that Morgan's relatively short time in the United States made him less empathetic to the American experience. The two continued to feud on Twitter after the show's taping.[11]

Personal life

On March 19, 2005, Touré married Rita Nakouzi on a beach in Miami, with Rev. Run from Run-DMC as the officiant and Nelson George as the best man. Touré and his wife live in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.[12] They have a son named Hendrix and a daughter named Fairuz.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b Contemporary Authors Online, Thomson Gale, 2006, s.v. "Toure." "Personal Information: Born March 20, 1971, in Boston, MA; married Rita Nakouzi, March 19, 2005."
  2. ^ Target Entertainment Group, "Target Entertainment launches over 100 hours of new programming at MIPTV," press release, March 21, 2011 - "...renowned music journalist Touré Neblett talks with some of the most provocative players in music today...."; Miles Marshall Lewis, "It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Black," Huffington Post, August 25, 2011 - "Touré Neblett is the cultural critic folks love to hate. "
  3. ^ Menz, Wonders, Petey E., Jeannie Sui. "Critic Touré Reveals Prince's Religious Roots". The Harvard Crimson. www.thecrimson.com. http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2012/3/27/toure-prince-lectures/. Retrieved May 7, 2012. 
  4. ^ Mary J. Loftus (Autumn 2009). "News makers". Emory Magazine. http://www.emory.edu/EMORY_MAGAZINE/2009/autumn/black-star.html. Retrieved 25 April 2012. 
  5. ^ Touré (2006). "The Book of Jay". Rolling Stone online. Archived from the original on 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060526041646/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/8898314/the_book_of_jay. 
  6. ^ Mattei, Al. "Book Review: Visionary Choice Mark 2001 Edition". www.topofthecircle.com. http://www.topofthecircle.com/BEST2001.html. Retrieved May 7, 2012. 
  7. ^ "Best American Sports Writing Index 1991-2012". indiepro.com. http://indiepro.com/glenn/best-american-sports-writing-index-1991-2010/. Retrieved May 7, 2012. 
  8. ^ "Community Surface". Tennis Channel. accessed May 24, 2011.
  9. ^ Biography: Eminem. A&E
  10. ^ Christopher, Tommy (March 30, 2012). "Update: Piers Morgan Books MSNBC’s Touré In Real Time To Settle Twitter Feud". Mediaite.
  11. ^ Christopher, Tommy (March 30, 2012). "Piers Morgan And Touré Finish Their Twitter Feud On CNN’s Air". Mediaite.
  12. ^ Navas, Judy Cantor. "Rita Nakouzi and Touré". The New York Times. March 27, 2005
  13. ^ Copage, Eric V. (May 22, 2009). "Rita Nakouzi and Touré". The New York Times.

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