Actress and mother of three Jada Pinkett Smith stripped down to the buff for the July 2010 cover of Essence. The actress approached the magazine with the idea for the shoot with a desire to teach her 9-year-old daughter Willow, about positive body image and embracing her skin tone.

Excerpts from the story:

Jada on her flaws
“We, as women, have to love ourselves. Whatever you look like, you better be comfortable with it. … All my life black men have told me how flawed I am. People may look at that picture and not necessarily be able to identify my woes about my own body, but I have them. It’s just that I’ve gotten to the point where I’m like, ‘This is me’ and I embrace that. I’m getting older. I’ve got wrinkles in my face that I didn’t before, but it’s my face!”

Jada on self-love
“Do you love what you see when you look in the mirror? Because I bet that if you love it authentically, everybody else around you will. They won’t even have a chance to see anything else, because you will have a shield of confidence around you. That is a powerful gift that God gives us that most of us rarely use.”

Jada on posing nude
“When I walked out there and disrobed, I felt like a queen. I felt like the world was mine. Like there was this power just emanating from my person. Like there was nothing I couldn’t do.”

OK! I guess empowering nudity is what we’re on now (cues Erykah Badu’s “Window Seat”).

After Jada appeared on Oprah in May the rumors resurfaced that she had plastic surgery — some folks questioning if she is pro body image then why get surgery.  She looks great either way!

For those Essence readers that don’t feel like seeing Jada naked on their coffee tables, the magazine shot and alternate cover:

The issue hits newsstands this Friday, June 11th (same day as the release of her son Jaden’s movie “Karate Kid”).

What do you think of the two covers?

SOURCE

In a new interview with the UK’s Telegraph, Erykah Badu shed light on issues related to dating, happiness, infidelity, and men – including the men who brought her three beautiful babies.

Excerpts are as follows:

On the relationship she has with the fathers of her children:

Is it tough to raise the children alone? Does she wish the fathers were around?

“The fathers are present a lot,” she says. “No one chooses to raise children alone. When you’re in a relationship you want it to work. My parents did, I did. But we are not taught how to make it work. We don’t know how to perform in relationships. I did maths, science, English but we weren’t taught about human interaction, about relations with the opposite sex.” Is she suggesting schools give boyfriend lessons? “No, compassion lessons,” she says.

Whether infidelity is a deal breaker for her in relationships:

With all those rap-star lovers, is it infidelity that has caused her heartaches? “No. Infidelity is not a deal-breaker for me. We’re all born sexual beings. I myself am not someone with a very high libido. I don’t require sex for happiness – I need companionship. I need a partner I can depend on, that I can love and grow with. But I do understand the nature of these men I’ve been with, and men in general. They have a need to chase.”

On tolerating cheating:

“In my own kind of way. I’m having to recondition my brain, ’cos the first thing I got was a doll named Barbie and she had Ken and that’s how it was supposed to be. You’re conditioned to think that way, and when it doesn’t happen you feel you’re a failure. What we have in common, me and the brothers I’ve known, is that we are all trying to evolve.

On the solution to male cheating:

“We talk a lot about things that men want. Because I want them to be happy and the more I see how the male of the species behaves, the more I understand, and the less I blame him. It’s just who he is. Is there a solution?” She smiles for the first time in 45 minutes. “Honesty is it. It will get you everywhere. Mind you, I have friends who are in polygamous relationships – they’re no more happy or sad than we are. But at least the bitches know what’s comin’ next!”

Source

God help the children! Rihanna, Cassie, Keyshia Cole, Kelis, etc’s half-bald hair do has trickled down to little ones!

Last Thursday, December 11, 2009, little Willow Smith, 9, accompanied her parents Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith and brother Jaden Smith, 11, to the Noble Peace Prize Ceremony in Norway, honoring President Obama.

The youngest Smith took to the stage with her family to sing at the concert that followed, and she looked like she was following in the footsteps of some of today’s pop singers with half her head shaved with the rest in a short comb-over. Now,  I know Jada can be a eccentric (she’s rocked some interesting hair-dos herself while leading her rock group Wicked Wisdom and it looks like she let Jaden  jack his hairstyle from Erykah Badu!) but I’m not sure that I’m feeling this for a child!

See more pictures below, what do you think?

After a two-year hiatus, the Soul Train Awards will return to the BET-launched channel Centric TV on November 29. In the meantime, we’ve got a few exclusive photos of the event which was taped last night in Atlanta, Georgia at the Georgia World Congress Center.  There’s much more action to come: Beyonce, Maxwell and Keri Hilson lead the nominations for the awards, hosted by Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson. Performers like Trey Songz, Chrisette Michelle, Erykah Badu and Brian McKnight, among others will take the stage. Keep your dancing shoes on deck and be sure to tune in to watch later this month. Love, Peace and Soul!

Terrence Howard

Mario

MC Hammer

Brian McKnight

Contributor: Runteldat

A lot of people have criticized Erykah Badu for having children with multiple fathers. As long as I don’t have to pay child support for any of them, she can do what she pleases with her uterus.

But, one thing I wouldn’t mind learning a little bit about is what exactly she does to the men she dates.

During her VH1 Storytellers set last year Erykah said, “Don’t listen to the tabloids, they’re not always true, but what they say about me and the men? Yeah, that’s true.”

You see, she acknowledges that she’s behind André 3000 dressing like seven decades ago. And now she’s contemplating writing a book about it.

As fun as her Twitter page is, there’s only so much you can say in 140 characters or less. Wouldn’t a book themed around how she turns everyone out make for a good read?

I’d much rather read that than Karrine Steffan’s upcoming book on how to seduce a man…and get death threats from his wife.

Erykah Badu and her boyfriend, rapper Jay Electronica, welcomed a baby girl on Sunday.

It’s the third kid for the Gramy winning singer — she also has 10-year-old son, Seven, with Andre “3000″ and a four-year-old daughter, Puma, with rapper, Tracey “The D.O.C.” Curry.