Saturday Night Social: It’s As Good a Night As Any to Watch Leigh-Anne Pinnock’s Documentary

In case you haven’t been following the Little Mix Extended Universe happenings of late, let me quickly recap: Late last year, Jesy Nelson announced her decision to leave the mega-successful British girl group, citing mental health issues. On Friday, Nelson released her debut solo single, “Boyz” featuring Nicki Minaj, which heavily samples Diddy’s 2001 hit, “Bad Boy for Life.” The music video for the track, which also premiered yesterday, basically rehashes the “Bad Boy for Life” video’s premise whole premise of “urban” (i.e., Black) people crashing a Stepford Wives-esque white suburb, but the conceit doesn’t really work this time, what with Nelson being white and all. Unless it’s like an attempt at a self-aware portrayal of how young white women might approximate Blackness in otherwise all-white spaces for shock value? But I don’t think it is. Sidenote: Everyone go read Lauren Michele Jackson’s White Negroes! It’s a truly excellent anthology of critical essays examining “whiteness thriving at the expense and borrowed ingenuity of Black people.” There’s even a whole chapter about white pop stars doing this very thing in there!