50 Fun Facts About Black Pop Culture

Which fictional African kingdom, rich in the metal vibranium, does Marvel's Black Panther rule as king?

Wakanda felt real enough that in 2019 the US Department of Agriculture's website listed it as a free-trade partner, with traded goods that included ducks, donkeys and dairy cows.

Which talk show host surprised 276 studio audience members with a new Pontiac each in 2004?

Oprah Winfrey's giveaway doubled as a launch stunt for the Pontiac G6, and the winners had to collect their cars from local dealerships rather than drive them home.

In the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song, which city was Will Smith's character born and raised in?

Philadelphia is where the lyrics place him, and the writers modeled Will's Bel-Air cousins on the daughters of producer Quincy Jones.

Which drama about a boy growing up in Miami won Best Picture after La La Land was announced by mistake?

Moonlight became the first LGBTQ film to win Best Picture, though only after the wrong title had been read out and corrected a few minutes later.

Which comedian walked away from a $50 million Comedy Central contract in 2005 and flew to South Africa?

Dave Chappelle later told his Ohio neighbors, 'Turns out you don't need $50 million to live around these parts, just a nice smile and a kind way about you.'

Which Long Beach rapper hosted a VH1 dinner-party cooking show alongside homemaking mogul Martha Stewart?

Snoop Dogg turned the odd-couple friendship into a second career in food, publishing the cookbook From Crook to Cook in 2018.

Which Motown star wrote the song 'Happy Birthday' to campaign for a national holiday honoring Dr. King?

Stevie Wonder put it on Hotter than July in 1980, his first platinum-certified album, and the song became the rallying cry of the drive to mark Dr. King's birthday.

Which rapper grabbed the microphone from Taylor Swift during her 2009 MTV VMA acceptance speech?

Kanye West drew a rare presidential rebuke for the stunt, with Barack Obama calling him a 'jackass'.

Which Toronto rapper first found fame playing high schooler Jimmy Brooks on the teen drama Degrassi?

Drake spent seven years on the show before music took over; his character was a basketball star left disabled after being shot by a classmate.

Which 1995 Ice Cube comedy gave the internet the dismissive send-off 'Bye, Felicia'?

Friday was written by Ice Cube and DJ Pooh, who wanted a funny answer to the violent hood films of the day and drew on their own experiences.

Which Jordan Peele horror film traps its hero in a dark mental void called the Sunken Place?

Get Out won Jordan Peele the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and passed $100 million at the US box office within three weeks of release.

Which singer, the first Black woman to headline Coachella, turned her 2018 set into the film Homecoming?

Beyoncé headlined both weekends, the nickname 'Beychella' stuck to the whole 2018 festival, and the documentary arrived a year later alongside a live album.

Which Barbadian singer launched the cosmetics brand Fenty Beauty with luxury group LVMH in 2017?

Rihanna, whose surname is Fenty, built the line around a wide range of foundation shades, and rival brands soon added more inclusive shades of their own.

Which singer first performed the moonwalk on television during the 1983 special Motown 25?

Michael Jackson unveiled the move during 'Billie Jean', which was also the only non-Motown song performed on the whole special.

Which singer recorded Dolly Parton's 'I Will Always Love You' for the 1992 film The Bodyguard?

Whitney Houston's version was certified diamond, and the soundtrack album it led won her the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Which actress, known as Storm in the X-Men films, was the first Black woman to win Best Actress?

Halle Berry won for Monster's Ball and dedicated the Oscar to 'every nameless, faceless woman of color that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.'

Which filmmaker dresses up to play Mabel 'Madea' Simmons, a tough elderly woman, in his own movies?

Tyler Perry first played Madea on a Chicago stage in the 1999 play I Can Do Bad All by Myself, and he also portrays her brother Joe.

Which sitcom character, written for one appearance, made 'Did I do that?' a catchphrase?

Steve Urkel of Family Matters was played by Jaleel White, who took the part at age 12 and broke out as the most popular character on the series.

Which rapper's 'Old Town Road' went viral on TikTok before Billboard pulled it from a country chart?

Lil Nas X estimated he made about 100 memes to promote the song himself before the #Yeehaw Challenge carried it across the app in early 2019.

Which 1970s sitcom about the Evans family in a Chicago housing project made 'Dy-no-mite!' a catchphrase?

Good Times began as a spin-off of Maude and was television's first African-American two-parent family sitcom.

Which singer, the first woman in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, made Otis Redding's 'Respect' an anthem?

Aretha Franklin reworked the song with an interlude that spells out its title, and her version was later hailed as a civil rights and feminist anthem.

Which Compton rapper's album Damn was the first work outside classical and jazz to win the Pulitzer for Music?

Kendrick Lamar, who started out in high school under the stage name K.Dot, took the prize in 2018.

Which former Love & Hip Hop: New York cast member topped the Hot 100 in 2017 with 'Bodak Yellow'?

Cardi B became the first female rapper of the 21st century to top the Hot 100 with a solo song, and the track was later certified diamond.

Which film tells the story of three Black women mathematicians who worked at NASA during the Space Race?

Hidden Figures is loosely based on a 2016 book by Margot Lee Shetterly and stars Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monáe.

Which comedian played Prince Akeem and several other characters in the 1988 comedy Coming to America?

Eddie Murphy and co-star Arsenio Hall each took on several roles of different races and genders, while the prince himself went to work at a McDonald's knock-off called McDowell's.

Which dance show, created and hosted by Don Cornelius, ran in national syndication from 1971 to 2006?

Soul Train began as a local Chicago broadcast, and its famous dance line had dancers strutting one after another down an aisle between two rows.

Which comedian played both a Detroit disc jockey and the character Sheneneh Jenkins on a 1990s Fox sitcom?

Martin Lawrence's Sheneneh later inspired the 2013 song and dance craze 'Drop That #NaeNae' by the group We Are Toonz.

Which tennis champion won the 2017 Australian Open, a 23rd major singles title, while already pregnant?

Serena Williams revealed that April that she was 20 weeks pregnant, and the win carried her past Steffi Graf's Open Era mark for major singles titles.

Which 1977 miniseries, adapted from an Alex Haley novel, follows Kunta Kinte from The Gambia into slavery?

Roots earned 37 Primetime Emmy nominations and won nine, and its finale drew ratings that were unprecedented at the time.

Which 1990s streetwear label did Daymond John launch after mortgaging his home for $100,000 in seed money?

FUBU stands for 'For Us, By Us', and half of John's house was rebuilt as the brand's factory while the other half stayed living space.

Which former Fugees frontwoman won the Album of the Year Grammy in 1999 for her debut solo album?

Lauryn Hill broke the records that night for the most Grammy nominations and wins by a woman at one ceremony, and that same month became the first rapper on the cover of Time.

Which Brooklyn rapper, raised in the Marcy Houses, was the first rapper in the Songwriters Hall of Fame?

Jay-Z co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records to put out his own early albums when no major label would sign him, and in 2019 his business ventures made him the first hip-hop billionaire.

Which rapper, killed in 1996, appeared as a 'hologram' on stage at Coachella in 2012?

Tupac Shakur's image was technically a projection rather than a true hologram, and it 'performed' two of his songs alongside Dr. Dre.

Which actor won the Best Actor Oscar for playing corrupt detective Alonzo Harris in Training Day?

Denzel Washington had already won a supporting Oscar for playing a Civil War soldier in Glory, so Training Day brought him his second Academy Award.

Which EGOT winner earned her Oscar as psychic Oda Mae Brown in Ghost and later starred in Sister Act?

Whoopi Goldberg was only the second Black woman to win an acting Oscar, and her salary for the Sister Act sequel made her the highest-paid actress of the time.

Which crisis manager leads a team of 'gladiators in suits' on the ABC political drama Scandal?

Olivia Pope is loosely based on Judy Smith, a deputy press secretary under George H. W. Bush who later represented Monica Lewinsky.

Which creator and star of the FX series Atlanta took his rap name from a Wu-Tang Clan name generator?

Donald Glover records as Childish Gambino, and his 2018 song 'This Is America' debuted at number one and won all four Grammys it was nominated for.

Which Brooklyn teenager becomes Spider-Man in the 2018 animated film Into the Spider-Verse?

Miles Morales is the son of a Black American father and an Afro-Puerto Rican mother, and the film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

Which New York City borough is home to 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, where DJ Kool Herc helped start hip hop?

The Bronx became the Jamaican-born DJ's home in 1967, and the back-to-school party he played in the building's recreation room on August 11, 1973 is credited with helping to launch a whole culture.

Which Atlanta trio topped the Hot 100 with 'Creep', 'Waterfalls', 'No Scrubs' and 'Unpretty'?

TLC has sold over 60 million records worldwide, and every song released from the album CrazySexyCool reached the top five of the Hot 100.

Which actress became the first Black Oscar winner for playing Mammy in the 1939 epic Gone with the Wind?

Hattie McDaniel accepted the award at a ceremony where she had been seated at a segregated table at the side of the room.

Which Bahamian-American star of Lilies of the Field became the first Black winner of the Best Actor Oscar?

Sidney Poitier went on to star in three films about race relations in 1967 alone, among them Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night.

Which 1990s Fox sitcom starring Queen Latifah followed six friends sharing a Brooklyn brownstone?

Living Single made her Khadijah James, editor and publisher of the fictional magazine Flavor, who shares an apartment with her cousin Synclaire and childhood friend Régine.

Which Star Trek actress was talked out of quitting her role as Lieutenant Uhura by Dr. King?

Nichelle Nichols had already handed in her resignation letter, and she later spent decades helping NASA recruit some of its first female and minority astronauts.

Which fictional school do Denise Huxtable and Whitley Gilbert attend on the sitcom A Different World?

Hillman College took center stage in a Cosby Show season finale titled 'Hillman', which served as the pilot for the Virginia-set spin-off.

Which actor, the first Muslim to win an acting Oscar, won again as pianist Don Shirley in Green Book?

Mahershala Ali took both awards for supporting roles, which made him the first Black actor to win two Oscars in the same category.

Which Spike Lee collaborator became the first African American to win the Oscar for Best Costume Design?

Ruth E. Carter won for a Marvel superhero film after earlier nominations for Malcolm X and Amistad, then won the same award again for the sequel.

Which Master of None writer became the first Black woman to win the Emmy for comedy series writing?

Lena Waithe won in 2017 for the episode 'Thanksgiving', loosely based on coming out to her own mother, and went on to create the Showtime drama The Chi.

Which R&B singer earned Oscar nominations for acting and songwriting for the 2017 drama Mudbound?

Mary J. Blige became the first person nominated for acting and songwriting in the same year, for her supporting role and the song 'Mighty River'.

Which Boyz n the Hood director became, at age 24, the first African American nominated for Best Director?

John Singleton was also the youngest nominee the category had ever seen, and the film he both wrote and directed was his feature debut.