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Touré        

Music Journalist, Cultural Critic, TV Personality, Former Host of "The Cycle"

Toure is a well-known author and arguably the top music journalist in the country as well as one of the most well versed journalist and minds on social justice and race in America. He spent years as a pop culture correspondent at CNN before moving to MSNBC where he hosted daily news program "The Cycle."

Toure is an author, cultural critic, music journalist and television personality best known as co-host of MSNBC’s The Cycle. Prior to that he was CNN's pop culture correspondent and hosted an interview series "On The Record" on Fuse. He 25 years of experience interviewing and writing about hiphop. He is one of the best known and most respected hiphop journalists and one of the key people who have covered the genre. He worked with KRS-One, Nas, and Rakim on their autobiographies. He also wrote the definitive Prince biography "I Would Die 4 You: Why Prince became an Icon". He has more credibility within hiphop than any other media figure.

He was also the host of the Hip-hop Shop at Fuse where he interviewed Jay-Z, Diddy, 50 Cent, Lady Gaga, J-Lo, and many more. He was also the Pop Culture Correspondent at CNN. He’s the author of five books including "I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became An Icon" and "Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?" which was named one of the Most Notable Books of 2011 by the New York Times and the Washington Post. For over a decade he was the main hip-hop writer at Rolling Stone where he did cover stories on Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, DMX, Lauryn Hill, 50 Cent, Migos, and more. His writing has also appeared in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Source, and more.

Speech Topics


How to Become a Pop Star in Modern America

You will understand how people climb the pop culture ladder after this discussion with speaker Toure about the mediums, messages, and branding efforts needed to command the attention of millions and become a pop culture star. This will be examined through the prism of three case studies: Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, and Justin Bieber. Ultimately pop stars are repositories for our dreams they represent who we want to be, either in life or for a night. Fans live vicariously through the star. Toure explores how to build and display a life that people aspire to.

What We Can Learn About Life from Hip-Hop

Hip-hop is a culture that defines America and is defined by America, and no one has interviewed more of hip-hop's most pivotal figures than Toure. With a unique understanding of hip-hop and its power, importance, and place in our lives, he lays out some key life lessons we can take from hip-hop, including those of self-reliance, self-empowerment, fearlessness, making lemonade out of life's lemons, and the value of crowning yourself a king. Toure is one of the ultimate hip-hop authorities and there is no one who can lead a more insightful discussion on hip-hop today.

How Racism Functions Today and Ways to Deal with it to Get Success

Modern racism is far more fluid and subtle than the racism of our parents and grandparents. We often encounter moments where we feel we have received racist treatment but if we tried to explain it to others they would not understand. So what do we do? In this speech, Toure outlines several concrete things we can do to combat racism, based on his interviews with psychologists and sociologists. He explains that racism is not truly a comment on you or your ability, but on the person who is being racist.

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