There is a clothing store in America older than the state of Illinois. 🧵 Brooks Brothers opened its doors in New York in April 1818. Illinois joined the Union eight months later. One of them is a state, the other is a shop, and both are still here. That is the quiet magic of American retail. Some of these places outlived the horse and buggy, the telegraph, and even the shopping mall, and they are open for business right now while you read this. 🛒 Macy’s stamps a red star on everything it sells because founder Rowland Macy reportedly carried one as a tattoo from his years aboard a Nantucket whaling ship. It became his personal mark and eventually one of the most recognizable retail symbols in the country. ⭐ Barney Kroger was so focused on quality in 1883 Cincinnati that he began baking bread inside his own grocery store, helping pioneer the idea of producing food under the same roof where it was sold. 🍞 Then there is the little store in Kemmerer, Wyoming, a town of barely a thousand people. James Cash Penney named it The Golden Rule and built the business around treating customers fairly. Years later, a young man named Sam Walton worked behind a JCPenney counter, learned the retail trade from the inside, and opened his first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. 👔 Leon Bean sold 100 pairs of his new hunting boots in 1912. Most were returned after the leather separated from the rubber bottoms. He refunded every customer, redesigned the boot, and built a Maine institution around that commitment to quality. 🥾 Piggly Wiggly changed everyday shopping more than almost any name here. Before 1916, customers usually handed a list to a clerk, who gathered the groceries from behind a counter. The Memphis store is widely credited with introducing the modern self-service grocery model, allowing shoppers to walk the aisles and choose products for themselves. 🐷 Best Buy was originally called Sound of Music. After a tornado damaged one of its largest stores in 1981, the company held a major sale to clear the surviving inventory and promoted some of the “best buys” in town. The success of that event helped inspire the Best Buy name, which the company adopted in 1983. 🎵 Home Depot’s first Atlanta stores were so short on inventory that the founders reportedly stacked empty boxes on the upper shelves to make the aisles appear fuller. 📦 One remarkable year, 1962, gave America both Walmart and Target within nine weeks of each other. Every name here started with one store, one idea, and someone willing to risk everything on it. 💡 #AmericanRetail #RetailHistory #AmericanBrands #USHistory #VintageAmerica

Did you know that Cuba had a policy to "Whiten" the African population? This is a very deep article that deals with 5 Countries that deliberately brought Europeans into their country to lighten the complexion of the people in many cases. Many of us don't know this aspect of history. "After the trans-Atlantic slave trade was officially abolished toward the end of the 19th century, many whites felt threatened and feared free Blacks would become a menacing element in society. The elites spent a great dealing of time mulling over how best to solve the so-called Negro problem. A popular solution that emerged during this period was the ideology of racial whitening or “whitening"." "Supporters of the “whitening” ideology believed that if a “superior” white population was encouraged to mix with an “inferior” Black population, Blacks would advance culturally, genetically or even disappear totally, within several generations. Some also believed that an influx of immigrants from Europe would be necessary to successfully carry out the process." Although both ideologies were driven by racism and white supremacy, whitening was in contrast to some countries that opted for segregation rather than miscegenation, ultimately outlawing the mixing of the races. This, however, was just a different means to the same end as these nations also imported more Europeans while slaughtering and oppressing the Black population. SOURCE: https://atlantablackstar.com/2014/03/10/5-black-nations-that-imported-europeans-to-whiten-the-population/ #Africa #AfricanHistory #Cuba #Slavery #TheAHNShow #BlackHistoryMonth #BlackHistory

"Dope Don't Sell Itself" is the 7th studio album by #Atlanta based rapper #2Chainz. ▪️It was released through T.R.U. and #DefJam Recordings on February 4, 2022. ▪️The album features guest appearances from #MoneybaggYo, BeatKing, #LilBaby, #RoddyRicch, #42Dugg, #YoungBoyNeverBrokeAgain, #LilDurk, Sleepy Rose, Swae Lee, #StoveGodCooks, #Symba, Major Myjah, and Jacquees. ▪️Producers, with major contributions from #BuddahBless, #HitBoy, #MannieFresh, LilJuMadeDaBeat, WomaticTracks, and #BeatKing. Other key producers included FKi 1st, G. Ry, Smash David, and Turn Me Up Josh.

Atlanta rapper Cash Out just got hit with LIFE + 70 YEARS. His mom got 30 YEARS too. Whole family caught up in the RICO.

In the mid-2000s, Atlanta rappers T.I. and Shawty Lo clashed publicly over street credibility and neighborhood ties. Shawty Lo, a member of D4L and a native of Bankhead, Atlanta, accused T.I. of falsely claiming the Bankhead neighborhood and questioned his status as “King of the South.” This sparked a series of diss tracks, most notably Shawty Lo’s “Dunn Dunn” and “Foolish,” and T.I.’s pointed responses. Their feud escalated during the 2008 BET Hip Hop Awards, where entourages clashed backstage. Over time, however, both artists matured and put their differences aside. By 2011, they publicly squashed the beef — T.I. invited Shawty Lo to perform at Club Crucial, his own venue, symbolizing unity. They were later seen together at events, showing mutual respect and solidarity as influential figures in Atlanta hip hop. Shawty Lo tragically passed away in 2016, and T.I. paid tribute to him, acknowledging his legacy and the peace they made before his death.

🚨"T.I. vs. T.I.P." is the 5th studio album by #Atlanta based rapper #TI., released on July 3, 2007 through Grand Hustle Records, Asylum Records and Atlantic Records. ▪️Production was handled by several record producers, including Kannon "Caviar" Cross, #JustBlaze, #MannieFresh, Lil' C, #WyclefJean, Jerry 'Wonder' Duplessis, Sedeck "All Hands on Deck" Jean, Keith "Lil' Wonda" Duplessis, Kevin "Khao" Cates, #Timbaland, Bao Quoc Pham, Steve Holdren, Nate "Danja" Hills, The Runners, Tony Galvin, #Eminem, Jeff Bass, and Keith Mack, among others. ▪️Notably, it is also his first album not to feature production from his frequent collaborator DJ Toomp❗️

Steve Harvey's massive home in Atlanta, Georgia! It was built by Tyler Perry and features 34k square feet of living space, 7 bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, movie theater, infinity pool, tennis court and so much more!

TLC was Jermaine Dupri's group at first. Left Eye lived/slept in his bedroom closet after she first moved from Philly to Atlanta. She was the inspiration behind the signature backwards clothing of Kris Kross. ⁣ ⁣ Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes came into his life as a solo artist from Philadelphia, who had nowhere to stay, so she used to sleep in his closet which had been transformed into a vocal booth. She moved with a small keyboard and $750 ($1,556 today), with hopes of joining a girl group. ⁣ ⁣ TLC was my group before they got signed to LaFace,” he said. “Left Eye was living at my house when I found Kris Kross. The backward clothes came after we started getting more and more songs. The backward clothes actually came from being around Left Eye. Cause Left Eye was around here trying to cut her sleeves off of every shirt and she had me— I shaved my whole eyebrow off. I only had one eyebrow and I was walking around doing wild shit. I had a nose ring. We was just doing whatever we could do to get somebody’s attention.”⁣ ⁣ He regrets not taking them on. “I regret not trying to do TLC at the same time as Kris Kross,” he said. “I was only 19 years old at the time and didn’t believe in myself as a person, as someone having the bandwidth to have both artists.”⁣ ⁣ He continued, “I was putting so much energy into Kris Kross, and I was only giving TLC maybe 30 to 40 percent, not even 50 percent. I felt I was spreading myself thin by trying to provide both of these groups what they needed to become the success they eventually both grew to become. So I eliminated myself from TLC being a group that I actually introduced to the world.”⁣ ⁣ Although he wasn’t quite ready to sign TLC in the early 90’s, he continued to play a big role in their sound, producing on their first three studio albums.⁣ @jermainedupri 🖤

T.I. posted up with some of his fans at the Trap Cafe in Atlanta.