If I Ruled the World by Amy DuBois Barnett | Ambition, Culture & Taking Up Space

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Hey, loves and welcome back to Culture Lit, the podcast where

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black women's stories, bold voices, and

unapologetic power take center stage.

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I'm your host, Octavia Marie, and today

we're stepping outside the romance aisle,

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but staying fully in our lane to talk

about a book that kept me reading until

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3:00 AM texting the other PR girlies

from that era of my career and digging

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through old boxes, looking for my vibe.

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Back issues we're talking about.

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If I ruled the world by Amy

Dubois Barnett, now I know

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what you're thinking, Octavia.

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This isn't a romance and you're right.

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But it's absolutely a love story.

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A love story between a young

black woman and her voice

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between ambition and integrity.

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Between the culture we came from and

the world we're trying to build, and

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honestly, that kind of love story might

be the most important one we tell.

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Picture this, it's 1999.

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Nikki Rose holds the title of editor

at a prestigious fashion magazine,

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the kind with vogue level, status

and influence, and every single day

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she's reminded that she's an outsider.

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After enduring yet another conversation

about how black girls don't sell

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covers, she does the unthinkable.

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She walks away and not just walks away.

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She accepts the challenge of rescuing

sugar, a hip hop magazine on life

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support with barely six months

to turn things around six months.

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The audacity, what unfolds is a

visceral portrait of late nineties

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New York City media culture.

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The glamor and the grit, the

power plays and the politics, the

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endless nights and enormous egos.

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The relentless pressure of being

young, black, and exceptional in

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spaces designed to exclude you.

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When I tell you this book

transported me, I mean it completely.

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Amy and I are the same age.

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We were both navigating this industry at

the exact same time I was reading Vibe

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and Honey Magazine, religiously Nelson.

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George's cultural criticism shaped

how I understood the intersection

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of race, music, and media.

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This era didn't just influence

my career, it defined it.

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And Amy captured that moment with

precision and care, the brilliance

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of it, alongside the brutality.

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Now, let's talk about Nikki.

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She's imperfect in ways

that might frustrate you.

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She places her trust in the wrong people.

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She makes questionable romantic decisions.

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She overestimates her readiness

in some situations while doubting

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herself unnecessarily in others.

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She's complicated and that

complexity felt completely authentic.

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She's navigating her late twenties

and early thirties, ambitious, driven,

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but still learning who she is outside

of other people's expectations.

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She's facing down powerful men

in an industry that actively

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works against her success.

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And she's doing all of this as a

biracial black woman in environments

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that constantly question her

blackness and her belonging.

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If she arrived fully formed, completely

self-assured, never making mistakes, we'd

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lose what makes her journey so powerful.

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We'd miss the truth of what it

actually looks like to come into

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your power when you're still

discovering what that power is.

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Nikki endures workplace abuse, sexual

harassment, and constant dismissal.

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She experiences the particular

violence of being simultaneously

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hypervisible and completely unseen,

tokenized for diversity, while

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having her contributions minimized.

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But here's what matters.

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She doesn't just survive it.

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She transforms it.

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She uses her platform to amplify voices

that the industry would rather silent.

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She builds something meaningful in

spite of every obstacle that evolution.

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That's what made me root for her,

even when I wanted to shake her.

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Something I deeply appreciated

about this book is Amy's approach to

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depicting actual figures from that era.

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When you're writing about hip hop

journalism in: 1999

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can't be erased from the narrative.

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Their impact shaped everything, the

sound, the business, the culture itself.

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But Amy acknowledges their influence

without glorifying them, which felt

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important to me, especially considering

what many of us now understand

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about the abuse and exploitation

that existed behind the scenes.

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And when Nelson George appeared in

the story, I literally stopped reading

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and sent a voice note to my girls.

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Nelson.

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George's contributions to hip

hop journalism were foundational.

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His work in vibe, his books,

his cultural analysis.

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He gave us language for understanding

black music as more than entertainment, as

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cultural production with political weight.

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Seeing him referenced felt like honoring

everyone who was documenting our culture

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when it was still considered disposable.

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This book didn't name

drop for credibility.

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It understood the ecosystem.

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It respected the creative output while

maintaining space for acknowledging harm.

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The innovation alongside the misogyny.

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The groundbreaking work

alongside the toxicity.

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Let's talk about the

tax of being singular.

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Nikki begins her career at a magazine

that mirrors Vogue's prestige,

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working under an editor named

Lucinda, who treats her terribly.

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She's positioned as their diversity

hire weaponized in meetings and

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referred to as their magical

negro without a trace of irony.

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Yet simultaneously, she receives

promotions, her salary increases,

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her family expresses pride.

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Her relationship seems stable, so when

the opportunity emerges to lead sugar.

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A publication centered on black women in

hip hop culture, she faces an impossible

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question, would, walking away from

everything I've achieved be a betrayal

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of myself, that's the calculation

so many of us have had to make.

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Do I remain in an environment

that's eroding my spirit

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because it offers prestige and

validation that others recognize.

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Or do I risk everything

to create something that

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actually reflects my values?

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Knowing it might fail, knowing people

might not understand, knowing I

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might lose the security I fought for.

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Nikki chooses authenticity.

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She chooses cultural responsibility.

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She chooses the possibility

of creating a publication that

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celebrates black beauty, intellectual

depth, and complex storytelling.

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But that decision invites sabotage,

retaliation, burnout, and the

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exhausting burden of constantly

justifying your existence.

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Much of the narrative unfolds

inside the magazine office

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as Nikki develops each issue.

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Some readers might find the detail

granular, almost like attending

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a masterclass in publishing

alongside experiencing the plot.

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But for me, those specifics

mattered enormously.

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They illustrated the actual labor.

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They showed what building something

from nothing requires when every system

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is designed to ensure your failure.

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Now, I said, this isn't a romance, but

romantic entanglements thread throughout

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Nikki's romantic life is turbulent.

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She begins with a boyfriend

who represents conventional

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success and societal approval.

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Later she becomes involved with jj, a

hip hop mogul whose charm and influence

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come packaged with predictable toxicity.

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But the central love story exists between

Nikki and her purpose, between Nikki and

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her evolving voice between Nikki and the

cultural legacy she's determined to honor.

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That's the romance that kept me engaged

because ultimately this novel explores

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what it means to value yourself enough.

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To leave situations that diminish you

to honor your community enough to fight

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for their representation, to trust your

vision, enough to stake everything on it.

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Here's what made me scream right as

this book prepared for publication News

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broke that if I ruled the world had been

acquired by Hulu for series development

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with Lee Daniels producing Lee.

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Daniels, listen, anyone familiar

with Lee's body of work empire?

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Precious, the butler understands

he doesn't sanitize complexity or

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shy away from difficult truths.

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And I'm beyond ready to see how he

translates Nikki's world to screen

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This story deserves this platform.

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Not merely for nostalgia's sake, but

because the challenges Nikki confronts

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tokenization, harassment, underestimation,

navigating hostile workplace.

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Demanding authentic representation

remain devastatingly current.

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So why am I discussing this

book on a romance podcast?

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Because discovering your voice is

romance, because prioritizing yourself

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is romance, because constructing the

life you deserve according to your

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values on your terms, that's the

most profound love story there is.

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And for black women, that

journey is always intersectional.

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It's always cultural.

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It's always deeply personal

and unavoidably political.

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Amy Dubo Barnett created a

protagonist whose imperfect

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driven, messy and profoundly human.

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She built a world that felt

lived in and legitimate.

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She crafted a narrative that honored

hip hop culture while refusing to

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erase the violence embedded within it.

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And she reminded us that sometimes

claiming sovereignty over your own

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world requires walking away from

systems that were never designed

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to accommodate your full humanity.

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If you grew up reading Vibe in Honey

Magazine, if Nas and Lauryn Hill provided

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the soundtrack to your formative years.

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If you've ever been the sole black woman

in professional spaces and had to choose

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between assimilation and authenticity,

this book speaks directly to you.

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If I ruled The World by Amy

dubois Barnett is available now.

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Read it.

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Absorb it.

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Feel every word, and then come find

me on Instagram or threads at becoming

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Octavia so we can process it together.

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And listen, before you go, make sure you

subscribe to the Culture Lit Newsletter.

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We have some amazing things

coming in: 2026

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want you to miss any of it.

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Head to the show notes for the link or

visit the cultural lit website to sign up.

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Thank you for showing up.

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Thank you for listening.

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Thank you for believing that Black

women's stories, every single one

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of them deserve to be centered.

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Until next time, keep

reading, keep rising.

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And remember, you don't need anyone's

permission to rule your own world.