Sugar High

We say “out with the old, in with the new”, especially when the “new” that we speak of is intensely attractive, immensely talented and flaunts it with the confidence of ease of any high-brow Hollywood veteran.

We’ve stalked this rising star and brought him to our pages, because if we didn’t, you wouldn’t trust our taste in recognizing amazing talent and our ability to determine what becomes legends most. Ladies and gentlemen, meet your new people’s champ, KOFI SIRIBOE.

- Satchel Jester

They say you only get one chance to make a first impression and as evident by our strikingly handsome choice of cover subject for this issue, when that initial meeting goes well, opportunity opens up even when you’re the new kid on the block. You may recognize kofi Siriboe from television roles on CSI, Lincoln Heights and Awkward, or on the big screen in Whiplash and from hugging the block in Straight Outta Compton, but you’ve never seen or known him like you will after the premiere of Oprah Winfrey Network’s Queen Sugar and Focus Films’ Kicks this month.

Here’s the story: I’m in New Orleans awaiting talent interviews in a media packed press room during an annual festival. Hustle and bustle is at an all-time high as the journalists are insatiable for information and the talent is determined to be seen. A rush that is the cast of Queen Sugar enters the room and camera flashes are immediately ablaze, recorders are rolling and voices are screaming, “Ava. Rutina. This way!” My eyes scanned the uprising and locked in on a stunning, 6’2”, model-type gent clad casually in a chic, multicolored shirt, unbuttoned for effect of course, and tailored black trousers. He had the power, but his cool didn’t confirm his conviction of it. I interrupted the publicist for the personality rundown, but an announcer beats her to the punch and says, “And this is kofi Siriboe.”