homework ain't nobody got time for that

Whatever Happened To Sweet Brown?

Kimberly Wilkins — better known to the world as Sweet Brown — was in the right place at the right time to become an internet sensation. When her apartment complex caught fire back in 2012, Sweet Brown theatrically recollected the chain of the events that followed in an interview with KFOR-TV, and in the process birthed her now famous line: "Ain't nobody got time for that!" It was enough to make her viral, garnering millions and millions of views on YouTube.

Surprisingly, the Oklahoma City resident never saw it coming. I didn't think it was gon' blow up like this, just by my character, how I look and my catchphrase," she said in a conversation with KAMR-TV ."I didn't think people was gon' take it a far like that." Having that many people watching you is life-changing, and Sweet Brown rode the wave while it lasted. More than a decade has gone by since she became famous. What changed in her life? Keep scrolling to find out.

She sued Apple

Business Insider reported that Sweet Brown's journey to fame all started in 2012, when "The Bob Rivers Show" took her now-infamous news clip and turned it into a song called "I Got Bronchitis." Not only was the show using her own catchphrases without her prior knowledge, they also sampled her clips, reusing both her voice and her likeness.

Sweet Brown filed a lawsuit, claiming "The Bob Rivers Show" was making a profit from her despite her never giving consent for the clip to be used — even though the radio station claimed that she had. Brown was looking for $15 million in damages, but even from the outset, her claims against Apple, at least, were doubtful. Since Apple removed the song immediately after the complaint was filed, they were protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and that just left the radio show itself.

Six months after news of the lawsuit broke, NewsOK reported that the charges were dismissed. At the time, they said that it was done without prejudice — which meant the suit could be refiled — because Brown failed to provide documents to the court when asked. There are no other details on the contents of the requested documents, but the dismissal came after her lawyers removed themselves from the case and left her and her co-complainant, Sparkell Adams, to fend for themselves.

She's been making commercials

Despite the hiccups with the lawsuit, Sweet Brown made the most of her popularity after she went viral by starring in a series of local television commercials. Among the things that she did find time for were video advertisements for an attorney named Brian Loncar ; getting her toothache fixed by Shortline Dental ; and pitching in on an advertisement for 18002SellHomes .

They were all small, local commercials, but Sweet Brown's popularity as an internet sensation clearly had some impact: the now-deleted original commercial for 18002SellHomes gained more than half a million views since it was posted to YouTube on May 12, 2012; she helped Shortline Dental amass more than 8 million views since their commercial was posted on February 6, 2013; and even though her commercial for the attorney — posted February 27, 2013 — lags with only 90,000 views as of this writing, that's still not too shabby for a local commercial. Cleary, people got time for that!

In January 2016, Sweet Brown got behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Gallardo at a Texan car dealership, and going by the hundreds of thousands of YouTube viewers glued to the screen, people had time for that, too.

She was on Tosh.0

On October 9, 2012, Sweet Brown got the chance to redeem herself, as it were, when she appeared on an episode of Comedy Central's "Tosh.0." She was the feature of the Season 4 Web Redemption segment, during which she passed along what she'd learned from her claim to fame: fire safety. Sweet Brown first extinguished flames on a burning Daniel Tosh, then got surrounded by a bunch of firemen in the nude, before having an in-depth interview about her background and growing popularity at the time.

For a segment that was called "Sweet Brown's Urban Fire Safety Tips, she was dressed in a pretty convincing superhero costume. Sweet Brown had one mission: putting an end to a whole series of fire hazards because, of course, "Ain't nobody got time for that."

She reenacted her viral line at the end of every interception as she stopped kids who were wasting water out of a fire hydrant, put out a fire as two homeless people were warming themselves, poured a bucket of water on a public smoker and took things a bit too far by interrupting two gamers.

She was played by Queen Latifah and quoted by Beyonce

There's not too many people who can say that they've been played by someone as famous as Queen Latifah, and that's exactly what happened to Sweet Brown — thanks to Jimmy Kimmel. In 2014, Kimmel managed to assemble a massively impressive cast of actors to present their take on what would happen if some of the biggest viral videos got turned into serious motion pictures. For her part, Sweet Brown (Queen Latifah) counseled a young Barack Obama to run for president, and when asked why, she declined to answer and said, of course, "Ain't nobody got time for that." The real-life Sweet Brown was also an enthusiastic Obama supporter. Ahead of the 2012 general elections, she shared that she'd be casting a vote in favor of the former POTUS in an interview with Blog Talk Radio .

On "Jimmy Kimmel Live!," she showed up to interrupt a Matt Damon sketch with her famous line, adding fuel to a longstanding Damon-Kimmel rivalry. It was a year after Damon had taken over Kimmel's show, and no late-night host worth his salt forgets something like that.

In addition to the star-studded acts, Sweet Brown also got a mention by none other than Beyoncé. When Extra was interviewing the pop star and asked about the power outage that followed her Super Bowl halftime show, the response was a viral video-inspired, "Lord Jesus, it's a fire!" (via 97.9 The Box ).

She was a brief celebrity spokesperson

In addition to making appearances on some small-time local television commercials, Sweet Brown also did some work as an official celebrity spokesperson, albeit briefly. Business Insider reported that she was hired by WePay, a small startup company that made her their spokesperson in February 2013. According to the publication, the company aimed to compete with giants like PayPal, and used Sweet Brown's catchphrase to try to emphasize just how much faster their service was compared to their competitors.

The viral video sensation was reportedly being formally represented by Sparkell Adams, who was also involved in her lawsuit against Apple. Unfortunately for her, her career as a company spokesperson seemed to be short-lived, as there were no more mentions of any more similar work in the years that followed. Nevertheless, Sweet Brown, who formerly worked in a daycare with a relative until she became famous, found other ways to capitalize on her fame.

She was cast in a Tyler Perry movie

Fame definitely has its perks, and for Sweet Brown, that's included an IMDb page with credits for appearances on TV shows, such as the miniseries "When Life Gives You Lemons." While she was in demand for simply being herself after stepping into the limelight, Brown's biggest credit is in Tyler Perry's "A Madea Christmas" — as herself.

When she spoke with the Grio about her experience with the director in 2013, it was a full year after the video that made her into a viral sensation. Asked about what it was like to get a debut on the big screen, Brown had nothing but good things to say about Perry. "Tyler is so awesome," she told reporter Chris Witherspoon. "He's just very awesome. I would love to work with him again. He just makes you feel at home."

They also talked a bit about a planned reality television show, which was going to be called "The Sweet Browns." At the time, the show was reportedly already in production, and she had also gotten a role in what was described as a female version of "The Hangover." Since the May 2014 interview, there's been no word on Sweet Brown's role in either project. It's safe to say that they fell by the wayside.

She tried starting a BBQ sauce company

Like her film career, Sweet Brown's foray into merchandising foodstuffs seems to have fallen by the wayside, too. In 2013, she created the company Sweet Brown Foods LLC, and started a now-defunct Facebook page to promote what was going to be the Sweet Brown's Lord Jesus It's a Fire BBQ

The last post was in July 2013, though, and with only a handful of likes and a link to a web page that also no longer exists, it seems as though this was another business opportunity that was extinguished quickly. A glance at the page reveals there were only a few posts spanning several days, and the few likes they garnered seemed to indicate that people weren't as ready to jump on the BBQ sauce bandwagon as she might have hoped.

When Brown spoke with KAMR-TV in Amarillo, Texas, she had a whole host of projects that she was working on in addition to her BBQ sauce. She also pitched a clothing line, as well as an organization dedicated to fighting obesity, bullying, anxiety, postpartum depression, and everything else that people just didn't have time for. According to the interview, her sauce was due to hit shelves at Walmart and Kroger, and while there's little sign of it as of this writing, her intentions were pure. "I'm trying to use it for good," she said. "I'm not trying to do something crazy, I'm trying to put something positive out there."

She appeared in an unreleased will.i.am music video

In January 2013, former Black Eyed Peas rapper will.i.am released "#willpower," a 15-track album featuring star collaborators like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and Chris Brown. Before the album's release, Sweet Brown, who'd been trending for the better part of 2012, revealed that she'd worked with the "Scream & Shout" rapper. "Me and my son, we did a video a video with will.i.am.It's a new song that's coming out," she disclosed to Hot 97. "We did, like, a little special appearance of me reenacting of what I did on television."

Sweet Brown added that the rapper had reached out to her agent to set the collaboration up. The resulting encounter, she said, was pleasant and surreal, since she'd watched will.i.am on television one too many times."When I seen him in person, I'm like 'Wow!' I mean, he's [an] ordinary guy just like us, you know? And he's cool. He's very cool. I loved working with him," she shared. At the time of writing, Sweet Brown's project with will.i.am is yet to see the light of day.

Sweet Brown's famous catchphrase still lives on years later

In 2022, Sweet Brown's original interview turned a decade old. While a lot of time has passed, the phrase clearly still lives in the hearts of many internet users and applies to a ton of real-life scenarios."I really hope it doesn't snow this winter, cause ain't nobody got time for all that," one December 2023 tweet read, while another simply recounted Sweet Brown's tagline . "If you can love me out loud, and publicly, we ain't gon work...nobody got time for that," a different X (formerly Twitter) user wrote on 24, December 2023.

It's clear that there's still some love out there for Sweet Brown, given her numbers on YouTube. In her interview with KAMR-TV, she said that her favorite version of the video was the Autotune Remix, and it seems to be the internet's favorite version, too, having garnered 70 million views as of January 2024. Many autotune remixes have cropped up since, and each has commanded a viewership of between 60,000 to 23 million.

You can still follow her on social media... sort of

While most of her ambitious projects sadly fell through, Sweet Brown is still on X (formerly Twitter), albeit dormantly. At the time of writing, her final post on the social media platform — about hacking — dates back to December 2016. On her profile, there is still contact information for anyone who is interested in booking her for an appearance, but given the lack of activity, it's difficult to tell just what's going on in Sweet Brown's world these days. Her Instagram handle with a following in the neighborhood of 16,000 remains private.

Although much of her life changed after finding fame, it's possible Sweet Brown could still be the girl next door after all. According to a December 2012 interview with HOT 97 , she never moved out of the place that made her a household name. "I'm still in the same apartment...same old Sweet," she told the radio station."It ain't gon' change."

Education, Liberation & Black Radical Traditions for the 21st Century

Carmen kynard's teaching & research site on race, writing, and the classroom, black language matters: “i ain’t got no time for that,” sweet brown, & other black rhetorics.

There are times when talking to my poet-friends is just so difficult. You’ll say something and it will remind them of a memory or a line they had in their heads, so they will just interrupt the conversation and start writing. You can be in the middle of dinner, talkin about sumthin real intense too, and then, all of a sudden, BAM, they stop cold-turkey and write in their notebooks. I suppose I annoy people too, because I am always delighted by and stop dead in my tracks for African American language patterns. I can get as enthralled by the content as the language and start crackin up at the ways my friends say things, not because it’s funny, per se, but because of their cleverness and verbal dexterity. I can’t help but trace the deep, sociological specificity of how, when, why, and where a term or expression is used. “I ain’t got time fa dat”/ “I ain’t got NO time fa dat” is one of my favorite expressions, interchangeable with: “aint nobody got time fa dat” or “ aint nobody got time fa you” (a few expletives might also come.) This expression is certainly not new since I have heard elders use it for as long as I can remember, so I suspect that my age and current circumstances correspond to its new frequency in my discursive toolkit.

Sweet Brown from a White Perspective

For many non-Black folk, the first time they noticed this expression was from the now infamous, internet-sensation Sweet Brown in early 2012. When Sweet Brown escaped an apartment fire in Oklahoma City, she told the local news that she left, without shoes or clothes, and ran for her life. After then explaining that she has bronchitis and the smoke was getting to her, she proclaimed: “Ain’t nobody got time for that.” From that point on, the memes and remixes ridiculed her, circulating her last words seemingly endlessly, with of course, an incessant focus on her headscarf . Ironically, with all that arrogance and surety that she was saying something simple, none of these folk were smart enough to actually know what Sweet Brown was articulating: about the apartment building, about her life, about her health, and about her social circumstances as a black woman. The time spent on caricaturing her voice and look was appalling, though she SAID she ran out the house unable to even put on shoes. And, true to white appropriation, not a single meme used the expression correctly. Most of these folk even thought Sweet Brown INVENTED the expression. Unfortunately, not enough black folk saw the light either.

Sweet Brown… Through the Fire!

The use of “that” in “I ain’t got time fa dat” is never solely about a specific event you simply cannot attend or that causes an inconvenience for you. “That” means pure foolishness, the kind of mess you should not have to waste your time, essence, energy, and spirit on. If someone asks me if I am going to a certain event and I say, “naw I ain’t got time fa dat,” I am making a criticism of the event, the people involved, the ideas being promulgated, and the social world being maintained. I am NOT talking about a conflict with my schedule, calendar, or date book! On top of that, I am proclaiming the worth of my energy and attention in relation to the sponsoring person, event, or issue. It is a public declaration aimed at re-assessing the worth of the speaker and the listeners who she is trying to define the world for and with. I see black folk everywhere publicly proclaiming who and what they don’t respect with this obvious phrase and yet so many miss the meaning. I mean, really: you can tell folk to their faces that you ain’t feelin em too tough and they will think you are talking about your dayplanner! In the words of James Baldwin: “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is!”

Of course, it goes deeper. It also depends on HOW you say it. We can gender the term too. If you are a love interest (with the interest coming more from your end than mine), and I say “ain’t nobody got time for you” in an annoyed way, look you up and down, and roll my eyes, I am telling you that: a) I am not ever going to be interested in you; b) you are stupid, AND; c) your momma dresses you funny. Yes, all that from 6 words. If I say this about my boss, colleague, or some fool with a title or “authority,” I am calling them stupid and useless to my life, other than as another source of oppression, which I hardly need more of (which was EXACTLY what Sweet Brown was actually saying). Yup, all that from 6 words. This is precisely why translation exercises from Ebonics-to-Standard-English or simplistic contrastive analysis don’t work: the context of Black Language always suffers and loses depth of meaning, hardly a coincide since we live in a world where its speakers are not considered people who produce deep sweet brown meanings either.

It goes deeper still. Since the expression always uses the word time along with any variety of emphatic double negatives, we have to notice how time is configured completely outside of a western norm. The use of time in “I ain’t got time fa dat” does not reference the here-and-now alone. This means we need to turn to all that AfroCentric stuff that white academics and their bourgeois allies of color think is so, so far beneath their high-brow western theories of their western selves. This expression is based on an Africanized notion of time! Time here counters the run-til-you-are-ragged hustle under hyper-consumption and neoliberalism. And yet, the expression also makes time cyclical, non-linear, and, therefore, more of the spirit than of the temporal body (maybe even something like habitual be ). Given its Africanized originary impulse, its place as a marker of oppression, and its circulation in the context of white institutions, it is a markedly black expression, not simply because black people have produced it but because THEIR EXPERIENCE has produced it.

It didn’t surprise me that folk couldn’t see depth into what Sweet Brown was saying and opted for black-face performances instead. Academics/scholars who imagine themselves to study language or rhetoric don’t do much better either. They too, and proudly so, take a white framework and simply apply that to black lives and act as if they have created anything other than the same kind of blackface caricature of the likes of those offensive memes about Sweet Brown. I am not suggesting that black scholars not use white theorists, since that would be stupid. But I have also never forgotten Professor Sylvia Wynter’s warning either: that when you borrow and inform yourself, you must ALWAYS notice when race as an overarching sociogenic code of our present episteme is untheorizable/unseeable in a scholar’s work. I like to use Black Rhetoric to understand those kinds of academic slippages and the slippin’ and slidin’ that academics do in the context of whiteness: I ain’t got no time for that.

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Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That: Tips for Time Management

By Stacia Rosen and Terra Kneeland, Academic Success Coaches

Life is hectic and crazy. That’s a fact. At first glance, schoolwork can seem like a daunting and overwhelming task. Between family, work, children, and school, it’s a juggling act trying to keep everything in the air. We know what you’re thinking. Ain’t nobody got time for that! But, with proper time management skills and realistic expectations, it can be done! Try these helpful tips to keep you on track and the gate keeper of your time!

Create a Trimester At-a-Glance Calendar

Developing a calendar that lays out the entire trimester can be extremely helpful and can provide a visual for what your next 15 weeks will look like. At the start of each term, refer to your syllabi for due dates for all assignments: discussion boards, readings, quizzes, exams, papers, etc. In addition to your coursework, also be sure to include your outside obligations such as doctor’s appointments, family get togethers, vacations, etc. Including all assignments and activities will allow for advanced planning in your courses.

Create a Weekly Calendar

In addition to a trimester calendar, completing a weekly calendar will assist you in budgeting your time appropriately. Get detailed! Start by adding in what you know. If you work out every morning from 5:00 am to 6:00 am, add it to your calendar! If you know your kids have soccer practice on Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm, add it to your calendar! By including what you know is already scheduled, you can see what time you REALLY do have available to work on your courses. We also recommend setting time aside each day to log into your courses.

Make a Daily To-Do List

Now that you are able to see what your trimester and week will look like, the next step is to generate a daily to-do list. Prioritizing your daily tasks is key! What HAS to get done today? Any high priority items should be moved to the top of your list. Start by checking your due dates. Decide what is urgent and what is important. Figure out how long each item will take. Then, move on to see which items may take an hour or less. This is a quick way to narrow down your list. Lastly, determine when you will do each item during that day. Low priority items can be shifted to the bottom. Your list should include items that can be completed during a single designated work time, such as an hour. Be sure to allot yourself enough time to work on your different tasks. Be realistic with your time. Use your trimester and weekly calendars to help guide your daily to do list. Check out this app, todoist.com, for help starting a to-do list.

Set Realistic Expectations

You work full-time, you coach your son’s soccer team, your daughter has softball practice three times a week, you are on the neighborhood HOA committee and you want to take a full-time course load. Be honest and ask yourself, “Is this realistic?” Everyone wants to reach graduation as quickly as possible, but we would rather see you be successful in your courses instead of overwhelmed and mediocre. For every credit hour you register for, anticipate spending between 2-3 hours per week on coursework. Now, calculate how many hours your other responsibilities take up and remember to add time to sleep! It may or may not be possible to take a full class load and still accomplish everything else. Don’t feel like you need to take a full course load either. Less is more! Take less courses, but spend more time working on each course in order to earn better grades and better understand the course material. Being realistic about your schedule ahead of time will make planning your trimester a much easier task and will allow you to succeed in your courses!

Schedule Time for Yourself

Remember that a happy and healthy you is very important to being a successful student! So, make sure you take some time for yourself when planning your schedule. We all have experienced ‘burn out’ at some point or another in our lives. We know that when we feel burnt out, we do not accomplish our best work or sometimes any work at all. To help prevent this feeling, schedule a day or an afternoon with no schoolwork. It’s up to you to find what time works best to schedule time for yourself; there is no wrong time to take care of YOU!

Plan a Catch-Up Day

You have your whole week planned out down to the last minute. Great! Now, welcome this little thing called life into the picture! We can make a schedule and have every intention set on following it to a tee, but sometimes life doesn’t work like that. Your child gets sick and you spend an afternoon at the doctor’s office, your car breaks down and you spend the afternoon at the auto shop, your dog literally eats your homework and you now have a vet visit and a trip to the store to buy a new computer. The unexpected can and should be expected!

If you have the time, schedule a whole day or afternoon to catch-up; if you don’t, find your lightest workload day and use it as your catch-up day. You’ll find that some weeks you need that time while in other weeks you can use it to get ahead! It’s all about balance.

Reach Out for Help

Last, but certainly not least, know that we are here for you. If you find yourself drawing a blank as to where to even start, reach out! We love to assist students with any additional support that may be needed. Along with time management skills, your Academic Success Coach can assist you with test taking strategies, goal setting, and study tips! We can also provide guidance to access other beneficial resources on campus such as the Writing Center, tutoring, and our Student Care Manager.

Now that you are a savant of your time, put it to use! Time management: everyone got time for that! We hope you found these tips beneficial and worth your time.

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