Tobe Nwigwe Graces First-Ever Digital Cover of Newly Relaunched ‘Ebony’ Mag

Tobe Nwigwe Graces First-Ever Digital Cover of Newly Relaunched ‘Ebony’ Mag

ICONIC EBONY MAGAZINE today relaunched its website with a new look — and a special digital cover featuring Houston rapper Tobe Nwigwe, who graced the cover of CityBook's Music Issue in 2017. Ebony has been a leading voice in Black culture for 75 years.


The cover shoot, featuring Nwigwe and his wife Fat along with their producer LaNell Grant, took place at the Houston Botanical Gardens, which happens to be the setting for Nwigwe's new music video for "Tundah Fivah." The shoot also served as a sneak peek of Nwigwe's new clothing line, Chukwu, as all three subjects donned mint-green attire from the forthcoming release. On set, Houstonians Cary Fagan, who has also collaborated with Solange, and videographer Justin Stewart helped produce.

Inside the digital edition, Nwigwe and Fat, parents to two young daughters, reveal that their third child — whose expected arrival was announced in a viral video a few weeks ago — will be a son. "Surely he'll be just like his daddy," the Nigerian-American rapper told Ebony. Writer Miles Marshall Lewis also got Nwigwe chatting about artistic expression and Black love; other highlights include further exploration of Houston's "burgeoning Black creatives scene" and "how independent artists are becoming the future of the industry."

"In recognizing [our brand's] milestone moment as well as Black Music Month and Father's Day, we wanted to make sure that the June cover encapsulates the celebration of Blackness and innovation," said Marielle Bobo, Editor-in-Chief and Senior Vice President of Programming, in a statement. "Tobe Nwigwe is one of the most exciting artists that we have come across in decades. He is the embodiment of Black creativity and expression, Black unity and the importance of the Black family."

Art + Entertainment

Rachel Willis-Sorensen (photo by Olivia Kahler)

THIS WEEKEND, ON June 1 and 2, the Houston Symphony celebrates the work of Richard Strauss with a concert of two very different works: An Alpine Symphony (Eine Alpensinfonie), an epic tone poem completed by Strauss in 1915 that depicts a dawn-to-dusk Alpine mountain ascent and includes subtle references to the music of his close friend Gustav Mahler, who died in 1911; and Four Last Songs, which Strauss completed in 1948 at age 84 and was destined to be the composer’s final completed work. HGO Studio alum Rachel Willis-Sørensen, now one of the world’s most in-demand operatic sopranos, joins Music Director Juraj Valčuha for a performance of these majestic, sublime compositions for voice and orchestra.

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment

Októ will have a lively bar like the one at Doris Metropolitan, pictured here. (photo by Kirsten Gilliam)

AFTER YEARS OF operating solid, Israeli-influenced concepts — Doris Metropolitan on Shepherd, and Badolina and Hamsa in Rice Village — Sof Hospitality is set to debut its latest concept in Montrose Collective this summer. Surprise, this time it’s Mediterranean cuisine!

Keep Reading Show less
Food