Michael B. Jordan for Vibe Magazine

Michael B Jordan for Vibe Magazine.
An excerpt from his Black Star Rising cover story, Written By Camille Augustin, below:
Michael Bakari Jordan is pressed for time. The photo shoot set he just arrived on knows it, his personal team knows it and he knows it. With an intense press tour ahead of him for his newest film Creed, it’s surprising that this sort of new leading man takes the pressures of a demanding schedule like a rugged veteran. The straight-laced actor’s time is carved into an itinerary reminiscent of an 18-credit syllabus. With his spotlight getting brighter, it becomes more and more apparent that the man of the hour has arrived. It’s a glaring afternoon in Jordan’s summery city of residence when he enters the spacious downtown L.A. studio loft on Cole Avenue. Instagram’s resident #MCM’s presence naturally brightens up the room. Yet the Sun powered light, beaming through the lily-white curtains, competes with the man-made photo bulbs hanging overhead. This allows you to see his flawless face once he greets you with a wide smile. Jordan, athletically built, but slimmer than the many billboards and snipes that are plastered around L.A. with his chiseled body promoting Creed, arrives to the same photo studio where VIBE’s August 2015 Eazy-E cover was shot back in the mid-90s. He’s a little behind schedule after the slotted time, but it feels as if everyone involved in the production of this shoot is no longer concerned with the clock—at the moment. Greeting everyone from the photographer to his stylists with familiarity, Jordan leans towards a la familia energy. The photogenic star’s stylist, Jeff K. Kim has worked with him for a little over two years. “He trusts me,” Kim says while organizing a few outfits for the first look. Designer loafers to Timberlands, button-downs to winter-ready pullovers, personality glasses to minimal jewelry, it’s all for Jordan’s choosing. It’s ironic how his style on camera matches his casual attitude in real life.
An even-tempered persona makes it look seamless to work with him, agreeing to model a sweater that you can tell by his body language that he wants to stray away from. “I don’t know about this one, but I’ll try it,” he says with a foreseeable “I-told-you-so” smirk. The red, white and blue fitted sweater, with an asymmetrical button slant, has Jordan feeling anything less than patriotic. A couple of tepid clicks of the camera and a few tense moves from Jordan is all the persuasion his stylist needs to change clothes. Ever on the clock, the realization of his time, is the only thing MBJ seems to have control over. Probably for a split second, Jordan is learning to capture this moment, which admittedly has been difficult for him to practice in his day-to-day obligations.
“You have moments where you sit back and it really hits you. You might have an outer-body experience where you have to appreciate [the moment]. But then it’s back to work,” he says with a chuckle. Jordan deemed his 20’s to be nothing but a constant grind, and he’s been on that near-decade run of churning out quality roles from 2012’s Red Tails’ inspiring events of the Tuskegee Airmen to the gripping and tragic story of Oscar Grant in 2013’s Fruitvale Station and now, Creed.
Read more at Vibe.com.