Queen Latifah at the <i>PAPER</i> magazine party at the New York Public Library in New York City on Tuesday
Photo: Bryan Bedder/ Getty Images

NEW YORK — Paper magazine celebrated its 25th anniversary Tuesday evening with a party at the New York Public Library. Kanye West, Kid Cudi and Janelle Monae were all in attendance as Queen Latifah, the Virgins, DJ Mark Ronson and Liza Minnelli performed.

The Virgins opened the loosely enforced black-tie affair, which mixed a crowd of fashionistas, musicians and socialites. Lead singer Donald Cummings hit the stage with his face covered in what looked like black ink that had dripped from his scalp. He asked the crowd to forgive the band for not sound-checking as they proceeded to jump straight into their set.

The downtown dance-rock outfit performed a variety of songs — some of which have appeared on "Gossip Girl" — from their self-titled debut album.

Queen Latifah hit the stage next, dressed in all black with yellow Reebok Classics. The legendary MC began listing off various fellow famous New Jersey artists, including the Jonas Brothers and Bruce Springsteen, before she performed "The Light" off of her new hip-hop album, Persona.

Latifah raised the tempo with the album's first single, "Fast Car," and continued with mostly new material, though she did perform her classic "U.N.I.T.Y," much to the crowd's liking.

Broadway legend Liza Minnelli closed the show, but not before Andrew W.K. could invite Paper founders Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovits onstage. The pair thanked everyone for their support, as they brought out a cake and asked the crowd to sing "Happy Birthday" to their magazine.

• Kanye West, Amber Rose, Queen Latifah Celebrate Paper Magazine's 25th Anniversary

• Queen Latifah
• The Virgins
• Janelle Monae
• Mark Ronson
• Kid Cudi

Afro-Punk band Blood Sugar
Photo: www.bashirawebb.com

James Spooner, like a lot of kids growing up in Southern California in the 1990s, was into punk rock.

But unlike most of the kids in the scene, he's black. Sometimes, this posed a problem.

"I was in this tiny desert town that was pretty much all white, and the punk scene was very racist," he recalled. "You would go to shows and it was blatantly white power, swastikas, all of that."

But when he moved to New York during high school, Spooner found "a gang of black kids" just like him. For the first time in his life, "I could be who I wanted to be," he said. "[They] made it OK for me, you know?"

The fundamental contradiction of black kids feeling left out of rock — which from its very beginning was based on black music — has played a large role in the creation of Afro-Punk. And while there have been many black artists who have been embraced by white rock fans, from Little Richard to Sly and the Family Stone to the Bad Brains, the Afro-Punk movement has found fans bonding and creating communities, organizing shows and shooting films in a whole new way.

Afro-Punk has gone from the name of a message board to a movement in less than five years — and the scene just keeps growing.

Before the 2000s, Spooner said, "there were no black bands in the mainstream doing anything alternative." Sure, bands like the Bad Brains, Fishbone and Living Colour had set an example for the younger generation — and the Black Rock Coalition was formed during the 1980s — but the success of the mostly black group TV on the Radio has crashed the door open for the movement.

Now, British rockers the Noisettes and singers Santogold and Janelle Monáe are poster children for the movement, even though the artists in the scene sound completely different.

When we checked in with Afro-Punk promoters Kaos Blac and Rape Whistle, they rattled off a mind-spinningly diverse list of bands. It includes:

Game Rebellion
Brooklyn rockers who meld punk, metal and hip-hop with a rudeboy 'tude.

The Apes
A Washington, D.C., psych-rock foursome who masters a balance between goofiness and raw power.

Ebony Bones
This former UK TV star makes truly danceable post-punk electro-pop and loves comics as much as we do.

Whole Wheat Bread
An old-school-style punk band that has worked with Rancid and Lil Jon.

VV Brown
A British songstress who mixes doo-wop and pop, and whose latest video is for her song "Crying Blood."

Tamar Kali
A hardcore-tinged rocker who's become a favorite on New York's downtown music scene, her debut LP, Black Bottom, will be released next summer.

So how did this thriving movement become a scene in the first place? T-Kali knows from joining Spooner on the road, when he was shooting his "Afro-Punk" documentary in 2001. (She's on the cover of the DVD — check her out in our photo gallery, along with some of our favorite Afro-Punk moments here.)

"To this day, I always get messages on MySpace from people saying, 'I saw you!' " she said. "That's a wonderful thing."

Spooner's doc, which debuted in 2003 at the Toronto Film Festival, also featured TV on the Radio as well as bands such as Cipher, in his attempt to document "the other black experience." It continues, five years later, to screen at festivals.

"The film surprisingly has legs that a lot of other films don't," Spooner said. "I just did two screenings last month. The film continues to reach new people."

Part of that reach extends online. "Afro-Punk" the documentary inspired the messageboard AfroPunk.com, and from the fan discussion there, Spooner realized that they could turn the desire for Afro-Punk shows into a music festival, which now happens annually.

One of the first shows Spooner did was an afterparty for one of the documentary screenings, so he reached out to the band Stiffed (the band formerly led by Santi White, who is now known as Santogold) via manager Matthew Morgan, "and he was like, 'No problem — we'll do it for free,' " Spooner said.

As the popularity of Santogold and other artists loosely associated with the scene has grown, Afro-Punk has exploded beyond its musical definition, even including Grammy-nominated Bad Boy recording artist Janelle Monáe, whose music can hardly be considered traditionally punk (she's opened for Nas and has been called "the female version of Prince" by Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz).

"I felt it was my duty as an artist and as a young African-American woman to support Afro-Punk," Monáe told us at the Afro-Punk Festival last summer.

"I think it's very important to let people know that we're not all the same. Diversity needs to be promoted more ... I love being in that environment, and that is something I am trying to promote."

Some of the bands associated with Afro-Punk — like Santogold — helped support the scene and increase its visibility simply by showing up. Others who aren't associated, like Lupe Fiasco, helped out just by singing about subjects like skateboarding.

"Lupe was able to, in one song, propel the idea of black kids skateboarding into a whole new generation," Spooner said. "That's all out of 'Kick, Push.' "

Spooner's since handed off the Afro-Punk torch to Morgan, who has taken the lead in managing the bands, running the Web site and promoting the annual festival. "He had a big vision," Spooner said.

The Afro-Punk brand now plays a key role in events like CMJ and South by Southwest, partnering with those larger festivals with the goal of introducing a lineup of bands to a diverse audience who might not have discovered them otherwise. Morgan plans to make the festival a national one next year, and to tour Africa in 2010.

"A festival in Africa is a really important step for us," he said. "We want to spread that sense of freedom."

Technology has helped, Spooner pointed out. "iPods change the way we listen to music," he said. "[With shuffling,] genre after genre, they all start blending together."

Still, that blending doesn't erase all racial boundaries. Spooner said part of the reason the scene is growing is because the issues addressed in the film are still affecting young people. Punk shows are still mostly white, and black rock fans may not always get the most positive reaction in the black community.

And even with Afro-Punk's growing popularity, some of the bands associated with it don't like to talk about it publicly for fear of losing their white audience, Spooner said. Could that be due to the scene's growing pains as it wavers between DIY and the mainstream? Or does it make Afro-Punk more needed than ever before?

"We will have succeeded when Afro-Punk is no longer relevant," Spooner said. "Clearly we are not there yet, but I'd like to believe that we are on our way. When that day comes, there will no doubt be a 14-year-old kid who flips off Afro-Punk and says, 'I'm starting my own thing,' and that's what they should do. I think that's the nature of scenes, and I wouldn't be mad at them. I would be like, 'Can I come to your show?' "

Photographers Bashira Webb, Richard Louissant and Ed Marshall Photography NYC contributed to this gallery and their sites are great sources for more Afro-Punk photography.

• How Afro-Punk Turned Into A Movement

• Afro-Punk: Five Years Of Rebellion

• Santigold
• TV On The Radio
• Janelle Monae

Janelle Monae, Diddy and MTV News' Sway Calloway
Photo: MTV News

NEW YORK — On her track "Violet Stars Happy Hunting!," new Bad Boy signee Janelle Monáe calls herself an alien from outer space. But the eccentrically gifted artist and Diddy seem to have bonded somewhere around Metropolis, the universe Monáe created as the basis for her debut project of the same title.

She and Diddy even have alter egos in Metropolis. Hers is Cindi Mayweather, a character she created for her EP, Metropolis Suite I of IV: The Chase, which she released independently last year and will re-release June 10 through Bad Boy/ Atlantic Records.

"Cindi Mayweather is one of her kind," Monáe told MTV News last week from Blender Theater before she headlined a showcase for the media. "She's like the James Brown, Judy Garland, you know, Elvis and Janelle Monáe of her day. So she was created, but she was programmed not to love and not to have any feelings. And she [complete with her own MySpace page] falls in love with this human by the name of Anthony Greendown [who has a MySpace too]. And for that, they want to disassemble her. Because the number-one rule is to never fall in love with a human.

"So she and I, we made a pact," Monáe continued. "For me to tell my land about her story and for her to tell her land about my story. And that's what I'm doing."

Monáe, a former protégé of Outkast's Big Boi and now based in Atlanta, admits the concept can be overwhelming. That's why she's releasing her debut as a series of four "suites," which are essentially EPs that include four to five songs. The first suite was released last year on indie label the Wondaland Arts Society, which she co-founded.

Diddy, normally one to see things only his way, is content to live in Monáe's world. "She gonna give it piece by piece, because there's a lot of important things that she wanted to say," he explained of her album rolling out in a series.

"I been to Metropolis," he added, playing along with Monáe. "And my name is LeRoy. And I'm into white women and, you know, I drive a Cadillac and I drink moonshine. And I don't smile in pictures."

Jokes aside, Diddy is clearly enamored with his new ingenue, who manages to mix rock, soul and punk together to create her own sound.

She wowed the audience at her performance with hubris, candor and dance moves that would have made Fonzworth Bentley jealous.

Diddy compares his signing of Monáe to some of his more famous discoveries, including the Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige. The Bad Boy CEO, now more of an elder statesman, said Monáe is a one-of-a kind creative artist that he felt he had to sign.

"I think it's something that I needed to do to show my level of creativity for my legacy as an executive producer and as a label owner," he said of bringing her onboard. "I was looking for things that were different and innovative. Because if you're a leader in this industry you want to be helping to push it forward, and she's an artist that would help to push it forward. ... It's so good that it's not a risk. It's not about the sales, it's not about one particular thing."

"Wow," Monáe exclaimed, seated next to Diddy.

"It's about the whole entire brand," he continued. "It's a gift. It's something that once you see it, you're like, 'If I get a chance to be involved in nurturing this artist, this is more than a business or making money in the music industry, I could be a part of giving a gift to the world of something like Billie Holiday.' That's a gift. Mary J. Blige, I been blessed to be a part of, that's a gift. Biggie, that's a gift. This, to me, is one of my gifts.

"To cut to the chase, she's bad, man," he said with a smile.

Monáe is scheduled to film her first music video, for "Many Moons," soon.

• Diddy Introduces The World To Janelle Monae

• Diddy Presents Janelle Monae At The Blender Theater in New York

• Janelle Monae
• Diddy

Woodie Awards 2009 Nominees

• 3Oh!3
• Alicia Keys
• Amanda Blank
• Animal Collective
• Anjulie

Woodie Awards 2009 Performers And Presenters

• 3Oh!3
• Asher Roth
• Cam'ron
• Clipse
• The Dead Weather

Eminem, Flaming Lips, More Get Freaky At 2009 Voodoo Festival In New Orleans

• Eminem
• The Flaming Lips
• Wolfmother
• Janelle Monae
• Silversun Pickups

Rick Ross, Keri Hilson, Big Boi, More At BMI Awards

• Yung Joc
• Rick Ross (Hip-Hop)
• Keri Hilson
• Janelle Monae
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Diddy Presents Janelle Monae At The Blender Theater in New York

• Diddy
• Janelle Monae