See what he did there with the homophone?

Despite his investigation of hip-hop culture being scholarly and even severe at times, Questlove is often playful with language, much like the freewheeling linguistic play of MCs.

Read the annotated column here.

Columbia University historian Eric Foner calculates the immense value of Southern slaves at $10 trillion in today’s dollars, or, in 1860, “worth more than all the banks, factories, and railroads in the country put together.”

Currently playing with Chelsea in the English Premier League, Eto'o is a star Cameroonian soccer player and the highest scoring striker in that country’s history.

Wait, why is a West African in China?

China has moved into Africa heavy. In the same way a growing United States empire saw Latin America as a source of natural resources and cheap labor and a market for US-made products, China has landed in Africa to exploit that vast continent for its economic value. Africa is home to 12% of the world’s oil reserves, 40% of its gold, and 60% of the globe’s underutilized arable land.

China has built schools, universities, ports, hospitals and infrastructure all over the continent. Even the new $200 million African Union complex was designed, built, and paid for by the Chinese, gaining it the name “China’s gift to Africa.” Right, China is in the gift-giving business, not the exploitation racket. OK, whatever you say.

Says a West African political commentator:

[The complex is an] insult to the AU and to every African that in 2012 a building as symbolic as the AU headquarters is designed, built and maintained by a foreign country.

The AU building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

In a phone call with a man identifying himself as Njong, DNAinfo learned that the prisoner was arrested for fraud in 2011 while teaching English in Shenzhen.

After the arrest, Njong spent 10 months in a detention facility while he waited for a government-supplied lawyer. He was allowed no contact with the outside world during the government-run trial.

Njong was eventually released in 2013 and flown back to Cameroon where his family, having been kept in the dark, believed him to be dead.

http://imgur.com/pJw8gLO

Despite the ban, Sterling “will not be selling” the Clippers, according to Fox News' Jim Gray, who spoke with Sterling before the press conference.

Nathaniel “Sweetwater” Clifton was the second player to be drafted by an NBA team (behind Chuck Cooper) and the second to play, just four days after pioneer Earl Lloyd. Clifton was drafted from the Harlem Globetrotters.

Clifton gained his nickname due to his love for soda:

I got the name when I was a kid, because all I ever wanted to drink was soda pop. You know, sweet water.

Cooper was the first black player to be drafted by an NBA team when he was selected by the Boston Celtics in the second round of the 1950 draft.

While Cooper was the first black player drafted, Earl Lloyd was the first to actually play.