Entertainment
Bianca Belair on mental health, diversity and the road to WrestleMania
Courtesy of WWE
Bianca Belair knows what it takes to perform at her best. As the longest reigning WWE Women’s Champion of the modern era, she continues to push the boundaries of conventional body shapes, which in turn has made her certainly one of the most decorated athletes in all sports.
Last month, Belair was featured on the Deluxe Edition box art, making her the first woman of color to ever be featured on the cover of a game. She also stars in a reality show centered round her and her husband Montez Ford as they navigate their lives, loves, and careers as skilled wrestlers. With all of her accomplishments and extra efforts on her plate, it is important for the Knoxville, Tennessee native to remain focused and unwaveringly committed to her training and practice, especially with the mega-event of WrestleMania on the horizon.
“My husband and I exercise all the time,” says Belair. “We’re always in shape, but we’re really starting to push ourselves even harder on the roads WrestleMania. So I used to be on a eating regimen, I used to be training very hard, I used to be going to the ring, I used to be training in the ring. You really just want to put your best foot forward at the table because there shall be over 70,000, 80,000 people in the stadium and tens of millions of individuals shall be watching on TV screens.
Through rigorous training, prioritizing mental health, and using products like C4 Ultimate Energy – which is now the official energy drink of WWE, Belair achieved heights that only just a few could have imagined.
ESSENCE: I wanted to know; How has implementing C4 Ultimate Energy into your training program helped you change into a greater athlete?
Bianca Belair: C4 may be very necessary to me. I actually used C4 even before I joined WWE. I encountered this once I was doing CrossFit. So everyone knows that being in WWE, we do not have an off-season. We are consistently on the road, not only playing matches and shows, but in addition performing. I even have a schedule that’s unlike every other, even when I’m not the champion, I even have a championship schedule, so I still need energy. And C4 is my favorite energy drink and it’s really cool to be a component of this collaboration now that C4 has change into the official energy drink of WWE. But I implement all of it the time, even with their Smart Energy, where I take advantage of it by sewing my very own gear.
I do not sleep until 3 a.m., so I sew using Smart Energy. I take advantage of it when I’m on my way from city to city. I take advantage of Ultimate lots when I’m figuring out because we’re flying, we’re landing, we’re searching for a gym, and you are flying at 6 a.m. so I would like to energize myself for training. I even have a show later that night, so C4 is healthy for me. It’s zero carbohydrates, zero sugar, no artificial flavors. Helps me get through training. This is really my favorite energy drink.
You talked about your schedule and what you do and your training plan and stuff like that. How do you stay motivated in such an unforgiving occupation?
I feel prefer it just has to be a component of you and you’ve gotten to love what you do. If you do not love what you do, you only keep doing things. But I actually have a passion for wrestling and a passion for WWE. It helps that my husband also works on this business, so we are able to share these amazing moments together. I feel like I can take my family on this journey. They come to WrestleMania, they arrive to every show, so I can see the excitement in them. But it also creates a legacy. I’ve done a lot and created a lot history, I even have the legacy of being undefeated at WrestleMania and I can pass that legacy down from generation to generation. It’s an inspiration. Representation may be very necessary to me. I do know I’m where I’m due to my role models.
So I try to do the same for other people and invite them on stage. And I’m enthusiastic about WrestleMania season because I at all times try to use it as a possibility to bring myself to the stage and my culture to the stage in a roundabout way. Last 12 months it was necessary to me to bring Divas of Compton, a dance group made up of Black girls ages 7-12. They occur to be a dance group and I need them to see themselves in me and see themselves on that stage. So I can do things like that. I give purpose to what I do. This is the goal that drives me.
I wanted to work on WrestleMania a bit of bit. I’m sure you train the same way all 12 months round, but WrestleMania is just different. It’s just such an enormous event. What is Bianca Belair doing to prepare for the big event that’s WrestleMania?
WrestleMania is like our Super Bowl. This is the biggest time for preparation. Everyone’s goal is to get to WrestleMania. Everyone wants to perform at WrestleMania. This is where you will see the best stories, the best views, the best fights, the best equipment, the best entrances and the best all the things. So you would like to show up in your best shape. So I’m at all times someone who… I at all times like to be prepared. I at all times say I’m ready, so I do not have to prepare because, like I said, we do not have an off-season. You have to be ready all 12 months round and ready for any occasion. But when WrestleMania season rolls around, you only raise the bar.
What is your favorite WrestleMania moment and why?
Well, my favorite WrestleMania moment that I used to be a component of, after all, my WrestleMania essential event, went down in history. I used to be certainly one of the first black women to essential event WrestleMania. I won the title on this match. I also won the ESPYs on this match. It modified the entire trajectory of my profession. This moment was so beautiful. Even should you watch the first minute of this match, I’m in tears standing in the ring where I’m supposed to be fighting. I’m in tears. So that moment was beautiful. My favorite WrestleMania moment aside from myself would probably be KofiMania. I remember watching him win and us jumping up and down and screaming and clapping and laughing and feeling like that was the moment we were a component of it. And also when it was the first-ever women’s WrestleMania match with Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey, because that was history being made.
You are an athlete in excellent physical condition, but I need to talk to you about what you do to maintain your mental health at the right level?
Mental health is all the things. I feel everyone focuses a lot on the physicality. You go to the gym, you train, you’re employed hard, and you’re feeling pain. You be ok with yourself. But mental health is equally necessary. For me, my mental health means getting loads of rest because I’m consistently on the go. I’m still very focused, I’m consistently grinding, I’m consistently performing; whenever you go on the market and smile and meet the fans and put smiles on the fans’ faces, sometimes you tend to ignore yourself and change into mentally exhausted or give an excessive amount of of yourself to the world. When you get to your house life, where you’ve gotten family members, the ones who really matter and who shall be there even when all is claimed and done, you’ve gotten nothing for them. You don’t have anything for yourself. That’s why I’m just mentally exhausted because I’m physically exhausted.
So I even have to remember to rest. I even have to remember to do things that make me glad. I feel mental health and self-care sometimes get a misperception where people think it’s an extravagant thing where you’ve gotten to go to a spa, buy cucumbers, put them on your eyes and get a massage. Sometimes I just need to sit and loosen up, lie in bed and take pleasure in some guilty pleasure, eat in bed and watch all my shows. But also finding a hobby that does not really have any purpose aside from pleasure. Sometimes people turn their hobby into… I would like to earn cash from this hobby. I really like sewing, but I sew lots for wrestling gear. So I’ll sew something random – a dress, a shirt, I really like reading. That’s once I first got into WWE, I used to be there for a 12 months and a half, and I noticed I hadn’t picked up a book. I really like reading because these books take me on journeys and calm my mind. It’s really nearly relaxing and finding things that make you glad.
Entertainment
Angelina Jolie’s disturbing performance in new interview sparks criticism Years after health problems caused her face to sag
Angelina Jolie promotes her next film, “Maria”, in which she plays the role of the famous opera singer Maria Callas.
However, for some fans, the press was more about Jolie’s health and appearance than her work in film.
On November 21, Jolie sat down with Michael Strahan for an interview on “Good Morning America” to discuss her fear of using her real voice to sing opera for the role and the enjoyment of motherhood. However, in the course of the chat, some fans claimed they noticed Jolie’s face looked different than usual.
One person was cited by Express US for this story he said“It looks rough.”
Another commentator on Page Six he wrote“Ok, I just read that her face looks different because she stated that she developed hypertension and Bell’s palsy, a condition that she said caused her face to droop to one side. I assumed she looked like she had a stroke, in order that explains it.
Debates about Jolie’s sickly appearance erupted when fans noticed visibly large veins on her arms during separate red carpet appearances. Even those that knew her health were still shocked and anxious by her photos.
Jolie first revealed that she had the disease in 2017. In an interview with Vanity Fair she said he said she discovered she had hypertension and Bell’s palsy in 2016, the identical yr she filed for divorce from Brad Pitt.
So when she was diagnosed with the disease, she said she wasn’t sure what could have caused it. “I can’t tell if it’s menopause or if it’s just the year,” said Jolie, then 42. “Sometimes women in families put themselves last until it manifests itself in their own health.”
However, she also said that she is trying to pay more attention to her health. “I actually feel more like a woman because I make wise choices, I put my family first and I am responsible for my life and health. I think that’s what makes a woman complete.”
Last yr, the “Maleficent” star opened up again about her condition, revealing that it was caused by the stress of ending her relationship with Pitt.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, she said he said“My body reacts very strongly to stress. My blood sugar levels go up and down. Six months before the divorce, I suddenly developed Bell’s palsy.
According to National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke“Bell’s palsy is a neurological disorder that causes paralysis or weakness on one side of the face. It occurs when one in every of the nerves that control the facial muscles becomes damaged or stops working properly, which may cause the facial muscles to droop or sag.
Entertainment
“The Honorable Shyne” is a hit. This is why I wanted to tell this story. — Andlandscape
One of the primary reasons Andscape culture author Justin Tinsley and I were tapped to co-executive produce was our backgrounds as music journalists. The documentary chronicling Moses “Shyne” Barrow’s rise to fame, imprisonment, and re-emergence as a political leader suits firmly into our wheelhouse, as his best rap years got here within the early 2000s – right at the center of our hip-hop fandom. I donated my time helping with the documentary, which was a top ten show in its debut week on Huluas a likelihood to help tell the story of hip-hop. I got here away from the project with an understanding of a man in conflict, at odds with himself and his past, and wanting to forge a path forward.
Shyne’s story illustrates the American dream: a poor black immigrant comes to America and from nowhere becomes one in all the largest rap stars. It is also a story about how the American criminal justice system and music industry chew up and spit out so many young Black people. To carelessly follow Shyne’s story is to consider him as just one other young black man who fell into a bad situation and never recovered. After all, his rap profession was effectively derailed when in 2001 he was sentenced to ten years in prison for the 1999 shooting at Club New York in Manhattan. But what inspired me about Shyne’s story was his refusal to let this devastation define him.
In 2021, I hung out in New Orleans with former No Limit rapper McKinley “Mac” Phipps, who had just been released from prison after spending 21 years in prison for a murder he denied committing. As I listened to Shyne’s story, I considered Mac. Both were avatars of a system that tested rap as much because it tested individual men. Mac’s story was about how hip-hop lyrics may be used to accuse someone within the face of overwhelming evidence of their innocence. Similarly, Shyne’s trial created a sensation about hip-hop’s relationship to violence in a city hungry for head on a plate.
Both Shyne and Mac emerged from prison as completely different people than once they entered. In Mac’s case, it was the period of time he spent at home, during which he transformed from a teenage rapper into a man after 20 years spent in confinement. For Shyne, his transformation got here from faith when he converted to Orthodox Judaism in prison. When I have a look at people like Shyne and Mac, I wonder how they’ll survive being locked in a cage, and their answers are inspiring.
While Shyne’s rap stories are what drew me to this project, it’s his journey as a man that makes me proud to help tell his story. And we actually get to see that journey after he raps the ultimate bars of his rap profession.
Shyne got here to the film wanting to discuss his lowest moments – the time after his release from prison in 2009, when he lashed out, frustrated at seeing a latest crop of rap stars emerge within the void left by his absence. He was rudderless. As rudderless as anyone may be who has lost a decade to a prison system that wanted to destroy him. And much more, since it was closed when the superstar’s fame was on the tip of his fingers.
The raspy-voiced rapper could have let these mishaps define him, but that is where Shyne’s story resonates with everyone, whether or not they’re a rap fan or not. Shyne’s second act, the one through which he finds purpose in community and family, where he uses his innate charisma and true genius to turn out to be a political leader and motivational speaker.
I cannot discuss Shyne’s reappearance without mentioning Sean “Diddy” Combs. Combs, the disgraced hip-hop mogul who signed Shyne to his label Bad Boy Records and helped launch his profession, is the elephant within the room throughout the documentary and in Shyne’s life. So lots of the artists who emerged under Diddy – from G Depp and Mase to The Notorious BIG – suffered terrible consequences. Shyne’s name was all the time on the list because he spent ten years in prison. And yet, Shyne’s approach to healing and moving forward is as inspiring as his ability to overcome what he sees because the sabotage of his life and profession.
These are lessons I didn’t expect to learn from the stories in regards to the hip-hop star from my childhood. These are inspiring moments that can be of interest to those that haven’t yet turn out to be inquisitive about the Brooklyn, or somewhat Belizean, rapper featured within the documentary. These are the points that make me proud to be a a part of telling Shyne’s story.
Entertainment
Kendrick Lamar Releases Surprise Album ‘GNX’; group chats are going crazy
There are few things more exciting than receiving an infinite barrage of text messages at the very same time in numerous group chats. This normally implies that something vital has happened in popular culture. Well, the exact same thing happened about noon on November 22, within the yr of our Lord two thousand and twenty-four. Kendrick Lamar Duckworth, higher often called Kendrick Lamar, released the album “GNX”, nod towards Buick Grand National Regal GNXa rare muscle automobile released in 1987 – which also happens to be the yr Kendrick was born.
“GNX” is coming to the tip of what has been a banner yr for Kendrick Lamar. From epic diss records geared toward Drake, to creating the largest song of his profession (and a Drake diss track) on “Not Like Us”, to the “Pop Out” concert streaming live to tell the tale Amazon Prime, Kendrick won this yr. He even received seven Grammy nominations, mostly for “Not Like Us.” And this victory will proceed in the brand new yr. In September, it was announced that Kendrick would stay Super Bowl 2025 headliner will happen in New Orleans. This announcement sparked some controversy and comments from several New Orleans legends similar to Juvenile and most notably Lil Wayne, who felt disrespected; Kendrick immediately refers to this topic within the opening song of the album (all stylized in lower case), “wacced out murals”.
The thing is, Kendrick didn’t sleep for many of 2024. And then, while the remaining of us were minding our own business, listening to other albums that had just dropped, like Ice Cube’s “Man Down,” I began receiving text after text… and I knew that would only mean that something vital happened.
At this point in my life (and possibly even yours), Kendrick Lamar releases are a drop-everything-and-listen event. I immediately went to the streaming service, launched “GNX” and pressed “Play”.
I need to admit that the primary time I heard the album I used to be a bit confused. Kendrick has probably never been more popular or famous; if there was ever a time to drag a Kanye West and release his own version of “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” – an album largely produced as Kanye’s best and most representative of Kanye’s greatness – now could be the time. “GNX” has a far more modern West Coast vibe and is certainly more for his die-hard fans than anyone who just began gaining attention due to his beef with Drake. Maybe that was the purpose; possibly not.
Either way, I can imagine that folks whose favorite lines are “OV-Ho” won’t be immediately thrilled. I wasn’t immediately blown away (though very amused by how sensitive Kendrick is to what people say about him on social media, well, everyone), but as is all the time the case with Kendrick albums, repeated listens are likely to correct any immediate monotony that I even have about his projects. For example, now that I’ve listened to it just a few times, I can not wait to listen to black college bands playing “tv off” style, which seems like a cousin of “Not Like Us.” The Shoot, Bayou Classic, which also takes place yearly in New Orleans on Thanksgiving Day, stands out as the first time we hear a band playing “TV off.”
Since the album didn’t come out long enough to be reviewed, group chats and social media were abuzz with immediate reactions. This is the a part of music releases I really like, where everyone seems to be listening to the identical thing, offering premature takes that will not even delay the following day. I’m not different; I’m sure I’ll say something about this album that can sound silly by Monday. Shoot, I can have already done it. But that is what happens when great artists release music. We spend time with others after which we refer to them, analyze them, criticize them, praise them, destroy them and let all our prejudices fly free. Love it.
It’s value noting that certainly one of Drake’s diss tracks that did not appear during last summer’s fracas was titled “The Heart Part 6,” and was an apparent try to usurp Kendrick’s pre-album practice of removing a non-album song titled “The Heart.” Well, Kendrick has a song on his recent album called, you guessed it, “The Heart, Pt. 6,” which I feel will probably be released soon Drake. Good job, Kenny.
Argue.
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