Welcome to Hoops, Rap, and Everything Black, a new weekly newsletter about… well, uh, hoops, rap, and everything Black. I’m the author, Curtis “Trey” Rowser.

For today’s column, I’ve written a short piece that peeks into how this newsletter came to light and some of what readers can expect moving forward as we slowly but surely scale this thing out.

But first…

HOOPS,

RAP,

AND EVERYTHING BLACK.

HOOPS, RAP, AND EVERYTHING BLACK.

2024-25 NBA, CBB, and WBB Predictions

With the 2024-25 college basketball season kicking off tomorrow, it’s officially the best time of the year. Here are my predictions for how the NBA and men’s and women’s college hoops seasons will shake up:

NBA

ROY: Zach Edey, Memphis Grizzlies
6MOY: Buddy Hield, Golden State Warriors
MIP: Tre Mann, Charlotte Hornets
DPOY: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs
MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
Champion: Phoenix Suns

CBB

FOY: Cooper Flagg, Duke
NPOY: Mark Sears, Alabama
Final Four: Arkansas, UConn, Houston, St. John’s
National Champion: UConn

WBB

FOY: Sarah Strong, UConn
NPOY: Paige Bueckers, UConn
Final Four: South Carolina, UConn, USC, Notre Dame
National Champion: UConn

Must-watch CBB Games This Week

Ole Miss vs. USC, Nov. 4, 12.00 p.m. [W]
Louisville vs. UCLA, Nov. 4, 2:30 p.m. [W]
Gonzaga vs. Baylor, Nov. 5, 11:30 p.m. [M]
North Carolina vs. Kansas, Nov. 8, 7:00 p.m. [M]
Baylor vs. Arkansas, Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m. [M]
Auburn vs. Houston, Nov. 9, 11:30 p.m. [M]
Duke vs. Maryland, Nov. 10, 1.00 p.m. [W]

What I’m Reading

Shameless plug: I wrote my first cover story for SLAM, about Seattle Storm’s star guard Jewell Loyd. [SLAM]
R.I.P. to “God’s Favorite DJ,” DJ Clark Kent, the man responsible for introducing Jay-Z to The Notorious B.I.G. I had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times over the years; his presence is gonna be missed in our culture. [NYT]
The Athletic’s Joe Vardon speaks with some of Bronny’s former childhood teachers and teammates. If nothing else, Bronny makes it extremely easy to root for him. [The Athletic]
A college professor pens an interesting op-ed about why college students don’t read anymore. [NYT]

What I’m Listening To

The day hip-hop dies is the day the world ends. Rap is alive and well; here’s some recent proof:

This Week’s Release-Anniversaries

Promise — Sade, 11/4/85 (39 years)
In My Lifetime, Vol. 1 — Jay-Z, 11/4/97 (27 years)
Set It Off Soundtrack — Various Artists, 11/6/96 (28 years)
R.U.L.E. — Ja Rule, 11/9/04 (20 years)

Now, for some background on how we reached this point…

The year was, let’s say, 2006. I was in 7th grade, 12 years old. It was about 3 p.m. on a random Wednesday in September, and I had just got dropped off of Stafford County Public Schools bus No. 143 at the corner of Barnum Dr. and Hayes St. I walked in Grandma and Grandaddy’s crib halfway up the block, showed love to my grandparents, ate a lil’ something, and headed upstairs to the office to carry out my daily ritual: turn on the television to watch Rap City in the Basement, 106 & Park, and MTV Jams; and turn on the computer to get lost between DatPiff, MySpace, NikeTalk, Tumblr, ESPN.com, and YouTube. And if/when I wasn’t online, I was scanning the latest SLAM or Eastbay Magazine. Aside from faith and family, this is how I developed the foundation of my worldview.

All these years later, basketball, rap, and editorial are the lenses through which I see the world. As part of my editorial aspirations, I’ve created this newsletter franchise, Hoops, Rap, and Everything Black, which will fuel my ensuing publication (more on that soon).

In many ways, I hope this newsletter bridges the gap between Gen Zers and Gen Xers. But most importantly, I want this newsletter to serve as a foundation for my peers: us millennials, tweeners, who are in love with the true essence of rap, hoops, and hip-hop culture at large, who were raised on mixtape Wayne, Blog Era classics like Friday Night Lights, and had to hit a brick-and-mortar to cop the newest album, hoping it wasn’t sold out yet; those of us who were raised on analysts, journalists, and writers committed to truth in their reporting over engagement farming—the Stuart Scotts, Scoop Jacksons, and Sway Calloways of the world. Niggas like me, whose first childhood crushes were the centerfold models in VIBE, Source, XXL, and Jet’s Beauties of the Week.

So, what do we have here? Each Sunday, I’ll publish an aggregated array of content spanning hoops, rap, and everything Black. Content including, but not limited to: free downloads, album reviews, what I’m reading, a peek at upcoming releases, flashbacks to classic cultural moments, analysis and reporting on relevant news unfolding in our communities, and much more. Many newsletters will include a reported column about a current event, some will include a personal essay, some may include a sort of Q&A, some may include all of the above, and some may include none of the above. In other words, I’m refraining from creating too rigid a structure. I want the spirit to lead me through it all, and I just gotta trust where I land. The root of this is genuine, deep-seated love, passion, and curiosity for rap, basketball, and us—and with that, I feel that there’s no limit to what this can turn into. Alas, my prayer is to create value for whoever takes the time to click on these and read (or skim) through them.

This issue, in particular, is the very first building block of what prayerfully becomes a palace one day. Of course, I have lofty ambitions and detailed intentions, but I’m trying something new that I’ve struggled with for most of my adulthood; I’m choosing to focus on the steps right in front of me instead of the entire staircase. Cheers to getting this monkey off my back.

That’s all I have for you today. Seriously, thank you from the bottom of my heart for reading this. I hope you stay along for the journey. Please, please, please subscribe to this newsletter, and connect with me on your favorite platforms for more content. Don’t hesitate to reach out with any tips, feedback, comments, ideas, etc.

See ya next Sunday,

Curtis “Trey” Rowser

Hoops, Rap, and Everything Black 1 | The Intro