Multidisciplinary artist Lex Marie has gone viral on TikTok and Instagram for her artwork confronting discipline within Black households.
At Lex Marie’s art studio, a belt is no longer just a belt.
I met the multidisciplinary artist in Washington, D.C., at the American University’s Katzen Arts Center.
She led me to her studio, where some belts are stretched across a canvas in meticulously organized rows and columns.
Others are used as a tool. Marie dips them in paint and swings them like a brush, leaving thick, violent marks across a white canvas.
Marie says each piece of work carries a story about childhood, discipline, survival and the complicated ways love can be expressed.
She is building a body of work that confronts a topic many families know well but rarely discuss openly: corporal punishment in Black households.
“I’m critiquing discipline in Black households specifically,” Marie says. “But I’m trying to tackle the history behind discipline in black households, behind spankings and whippings, and speak to the difference in how millennials are raising their children as well.”
The work is personal for her. Marie is 33 and the mother of an eight-year-old boy. As her son continues to grow, she says the questions that shape her art often come directly from her parenting.
“Through motherhood, I’m starting to think about my own childhood, and I’m comparing and contrasting it. So some of these works are just speaking from my experiences with spankings, and they’re also going from the perspective of how I feel.”
One of the larger works in the series is called “Watch Your Tone.” The six-by-six-foot piece is composed entirely of belts — dozens of them — arranged carefully across the canvas. They are an assortment of different shades of brown, black and pink to represent the color of flesh.
The title of the piece echoes a phrase many children hear growing up: “Watch your tone when talking to me.”
But Marie says the belts also represent something deeper.
She explains that she created this piece to convey multiple meanings. The different skin tones help her explain the different ways punishment is tied to American history.
For some historians and scholars, the conversation around corporal punishment in Black American households cannot be separated from the legacy of slavery. During enslavement, physical violence, such as being beaten with whips, was used to control Black bodies. Over generations, those discipline practices have evolved into modern parenting practices.
Yohuru Williams, founding director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas, believes that the link between corporal punishment and African Americans is rooted in slavery.
“This idea of whipping, this idea that black bodies require extreme punishment — that there’s something about the constitution of blackness that requires excessiveness in terms of discipline — has deep roots. Roots that extend beyond slavery. But it [was] really reinforced by the enslavement of Africans. And then once they come to the United States, you have this adoption of punishment systems within slavery that continue after slavery; that continue that process with that practice of brutalization of … black and brown bodies,” he said.
“Because I Love You, another piece in Marie’s series, highlights the physical act of enforcing punishment.
Marie painted a wooden panel white, dipped a belt in acrylic paint and struck the surface again and again, leaving marks scattered across the piece like scars and welts.
“I spent hours just kind of beating the same thing over and over,” she said.
The process left her physically sore the next day.
The piece’s title comes from a phrase many children hear after a whipping: “This hurts me more than it hurts you” or “I’m doing this because I love you.”
Marie explains how making this work has been cathartic and difficult. When the videos of her art began circulating online, the reactions were immediate.
Thousands of people commented on her post, sharing their own childhood stories. Some were painful and defensive, while others were grateful the topic was being discussed.
But Marie stands firm that the goal of this work isn’t to accuse or shame. It creates space for a conversation that is often buried.
Williams says that in order to have these discussions, Black families have to reimagine how they think about discipline.
“I think a lot of parents — black parents — struggle with this because there is this inherent knowledge that this is the way that we came up. And there is this belief that, well, you know, … maybe we’re more stable, maybe we’re more durable, maybe we’ve been able to endure more. We’ve developed a particular type of grip because of this experience,” Williams said.
Williams says it’s time to have an “honest” conversation about the historical legacy of corporal punishment within the Black community. “That would be far more communal and affirmative of human dignity and the dignity of black life,” he said. “Coming out of the Black Lives Matter movement, you kind of look back at this, and you go, ‘We understand it from a historical standpoint.’ But from a humanistic and community-centered, restorative justice practices standpoint, there’s something that just doesn’t sit right with me about this practice. And I think we owe it to ourselves as a community to revisit that.”
Marie sees her art as a pathway to discuss extremely difficult and triggering conversations about childhood trauma, especially for people who might struggle to find the words themselves — just like her.
The project will continue to grow over the next year as Marie develops more pieces for a planned exhibition this fall. The series has nearly 20 pieces, and she has even sold two to filmmaker Spike Lee, who is known for his films Do the Right Thing and Malcolm
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Lex Marie has a solo show at The Bishop gallery in Brooklyn, New York this fall which will feature this series.
For Marie, the most important outcome isn’t agreement. It’s recognition.
This story was edited by Olivia Hampton and produced by Nia Dumas. The digital story was written by Nia Dumas.

Marlon Wayans is on a roll …. he has a megahit with “Scary Movie 6,” and his ex is no longer dragging him to court for a custody battle over their daughter.
According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Marlon’s ex, Brittany Moreland, filed papers to dismiss the child custody case she brought against him.
In her initial suit, filed in 2024, Brittany asked for primary custody of their young child, Axl July Ivory, with the actor getting visitation. Marlon quickly opposed the request and asked for joint custody.
The case has had no updates in over a year. It appears the two have worked out any issues they may have had.
As TMZ first reported, Marlon and Brittany recently had their daughter appear in a movie titled “Hudson Avenue,” where she earned a daily rate of $1,246.

Jelly Roll has filed for divorce from wife Bunnie XO after nearly a decade of marriage, first reported by
The filing was made on May 18 in Williamson County, Tennessee, according to court documents obtained by Billboard and first reported by TMZ. The decision has been described as mutual and a private family matter, according to TMZ. The couple will continue co-parenting their two children — Bailee, 15, and Noah, 7, both from previous relationships.
Jelly Roll and Bunnie XO met in 2015 and married in a secret Las Vegas courthouse ceremony in August 2016, without telling friends or family. They renewed their vows at the same Las Vegas chapel in August 2023. The relationship was not without turbulence — the couple separated in 2018 after Bunnie XO discovered Jelly Roll had been unfaithful, an episode she later wrote about in her memoir Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic.
Jelly Roll publicly acknowledged the affair in October 2025 on the Human School Podcast, calling it “one of the worst moments of his adulthood.” Bunnie XO defended her decision to return to the marriage at the time, saying: “It actually takes a stronger woman to confront pain directly, put in the effort, and rebuild with the man she loves.”
In February 2026, Bunnie XO shared on Instagram that she was hoping to have twins via surrogate. Hours before the divorce news became public on June 15, she posted a mysterious Instagram photo with the caption “She’s getting her sparkle back.” At the 2026 Grammy Awards, Jelly Roll publicly credited Bunnie XO for helping him turn his life around.
Jelly Roll has become one of country music’s most commercially successful crossover stories of the past three years. His 2022 single “Son of a Sinner” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and crossed into the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, while “Need a Favor” topped the Hot Country Songs chart in 2023. His album Whitsitt Chapel debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 in 2023, and he won the CMA Award for New Artist of the Year the same year. He has received multiple Grammy nominations and has collaborated with artists including Lainey Wilson, Cardi B and Tech N9ne. Bunnie XO is a podcaster and content creator whose show Dumb Blonde has built a significant following.
Neither Jelly Roll nor Bunnie XO have made public statements. Billboard has reached out to representatives for both for comment.

Jelly Roll and Bunnie Xo are ending their marriage. According to divorce records obtained by People, the country music singer and the adult-content-creator-turned-podcaster are divorcing after 10 years of marriage. TMZ first reported the news.
According to the court records, Jelly Roll — real name: Jason DeFord — filed for divorce from Bunnie Xo, f.k.a. Alyssa DeFord, in May in Williamson County, Tennessee. Jelly Roll is originally from the Nashville suburb of Antioch, a rough-around-the-edges town that the former rapper has made a key component of his origin story.
A rep for Jelly Roll did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
Jelly Roll married Bunnie Xo in Las Vegas in the summer of 2016. In her recent memoir Stripped Down: Unfiltered and Unapologetic, she recounted their love story, including how they supported and accepted each other’s difficult pasts (Bunnie was candid about her past drug use, and Jelly Roll was in and out of jail on charges that included drug possession, dealing, and aggravated robbery).
her life, including tales of drug abuse, a past abortion, and various romantic relationships, before meeting her future husband.
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“When you are with somebody for a long time, you are going to have to love them at their lowest. And I truly believe that true love is not about so much as accepting things that you shouldn’t, but I do think that everybody deserves a second chance,” Bunnie Xo told People earlier this year. “Loving somebody at their lowest is one of the most beautiful things you can do, especially if they bloom and they blossom like my husband has.”

Bunnie Xo and Jelly Roll’s love story began in Las Vegas.
As she recalled on Bussin’ With The Boys, she met the singer in August 2015 when he performed at the Las Vegas Country Saloon. This was before Jelly Roll was famous. At the time, he was living in a van, and he estimated about 20 people were at the show.
Instead, their spark took center stage.
“When I met him, I tell everybody it’s the most f–king cliché s–t, but literally my soul was like, ‘There you are,'” Bunnie said on the podcast in 2023. “And he’s not my type. I’m not his type. He loves Taylor Swift. That’s his type.”
Still, a romance didn’t form right away. Bunnie was in an unhealthy relationship, she continued, and Jelly Roll was doing his own thing. But in October 2015, they reconnected. And as Bunnie put it, she was “just smitten.”
After her ex went to prison, she added, she told a friend to give Jelly Roll her phone number. Bunnie said the musician would call and text her for advice on his daughter Bailee from a previous relationship.
However, Bunnie noted her bond with Jelly Roll shifted from platonic to romantic in July 2016 when he returned to Vegas to film some videos and they slept together.
“We’re like s–t-faced drunk,” she remembered. “I’m trying to get it up, get it in, get it on and get it out, and this guy was like, ‘What’s your five-year plan?'”
So, they discussed their goals, and Bunnie recalled Jelly Roll saying, “OK, cool. Let’s do it.”
And they did.
“We got married a month later,” Bunnie added on Bussin’ With The Boys, sharing she wed Jelly Roll at Las Vegas’ Stained Glass Wedding Chapel in August 2016, “and f–kin we did the five-year plan. Literally finished it all the way through to the fifth year. The last thing was buying our own house.”
Another one of Bunnie’s goals was to launch her own podcast.
“When she came out of the sex working industry, I’m sitting down with her and I’m like, ‘Well, what are you passionate about?’ Jelly Roll said on The Howard Stern Show in June 2024. “She’s like, ‘I’d love to do some kind of a talk show.'”
Bunnie left the sex work industry in 2019 and debuted the Dumb Blonde podcast later that year. And she used the money she had made to help fuel Jelly Roll’s dreams.
“I invested in his [2017] Addiction Kills album,” Bunnie said on Sofia Franklyn’s podcast Sofia with an F. “I helped him with that. He needed custody of his daughter, I helped him with that.”
Jelly Roll’s daughter Bailee was born in 2008.
At the time, he was in prison for drug dealing.
“My daughter saved my life,” Jelly Roll said in his 2023 documentary Jelly Roll: Save Me. “She wasn’t old enough to even know it.”
Bailee said in the doc her dad entered her life when she was 2, when he was in the early stages of his music career and living in his van. And while Jelly Roll admitted he was a “very less-than-present father” at the time, that changed when he sought full custody of Bailee amid her mother’s battle with addiction.
Though Jelly Roll and Bunnie were in the early stages of their romance, he revealed on the Bussin’ With the Boys podcast that she paid for a lawyer and “bankrolled the whole s–t.” The two also re-evaluated their lives.
“Who was I, us, to take her from her mom and bring her into our house if we’re over here just popping pills and doing the same thing? What makes us better?” Bunnie said in the doc. “I was just like, ‘This is it. I’m done.’ And I literally never touched a pill again.”
She also stepped into a maternal role.
“Thank you Papa Roll for giving me the chance to be the mom I never had,” Bunnie wrote for Bailee’s Sweet 16 in 2024. “But most importantly—Thank you to the sweetest, sassiest 16 year old for teaching me the most healing life lessons ever these past 8 years & letting me be your mama.”
In August 2016—about a week before Jelly Roll and Bunnie wed and while he was seeking custody of Bailee—he welcomed son Noah.
“God Bless this Child to be everything I am not!” the “Need a Favor” artist wrote on Facebook after the birth. “Noah Buddy DeFord! I pray he nor Bailee ever have to pay for their father’s sins.”
Over the years, Jelly Roll and Bunnie have kept much of Noah’s life private. However, they’ve shared a few glimpses into his world.
In July 2023, for instance, Bunnie posted a TikTok where she asked Noah questions like what’s his favorite sport (soccer) and what does he like to do at the beach (play in the water)? Still, she made it clear she’d asked his mom for permission before posting the video, writing in the comments “always mama approved first.”
In fact, Bunnie and Jelly Roll are on good terms with Noah’s mother.
“She’s one stand up chick & we couldn’t imagine our lives without her,” she wrote in a 2023 Facebook post, “she holds it down for baby Noah & us especially because we are on the road so much.”
And Bunnie loves being his stepmom.
“Nothing brings me more joy then getting to watch my bonus babies grow up,” she wrote on Instagram in October 2024 after Noah attended one of his dad’s shows. “I’m not one to get emotional but just being in this little boy’s life since the day he was born is such a privilege. Thankful for his mama as well.”
Two years after Jelly Roll and Bunnie wed, they separated. While they haven’t publicly confirmed the reason for their split, he admitted to cheating on her.
“I don’t talk about this publicly at all, but one of the worst moments of my adulthood was when I had an affair on my wife,” Jelly Roll said on the October 2025 premiere episode of the Human School podcast. “Because it was the first time that I was like, ‘I really can’t get this right at all. Like, I know I’m in love with this woman.’ It just really, really, really blew me back.”
Still, the couple determined they wanted to make their relationship work and rekindled their romance later in 2018.
“I did a lot of work to repair that relationship,” he continued. “The repair has been special, man. We’re stronger than we could’ve ever been. I wish our story would’ve went in the way that it never had an affair, and I’m in no way glad it happened, but, man, I’m proud of who we are today.”
And they remain committed to each other.
“Who knew that us breaking up in 2018, me moving back to Vegas & you coming to get me back – would have put us on this wild journey called life,” Bunnie wrote on TikTok in February 2023. “We finally committed to each other & did everything we promised each other the first night in 2016. Our castle in the sand had to crumble so we could rebuild on solid ground. I yuh you so mushhh.”
In 2023, seven years after they first tied the knot, Jelly Roll and Bunnie renewed their vows.
Looking back at their first walk down the aisle, the podcaster recalled in a tribute how the Grammy nominee, “grabbed my hands & looked me straight in the eyes & said, ‘Bunnie, our lives won’t always be like this. You won’t have to do what you do for much longer, we’re going to figure this out. I promise you.'”
And he made good on that promise.
“I had no idea what the world had in store for us, but I didn’t care as long as I had you by my side to conquer it,” Bunnie added in her September 2023 message. “These past 7 years have been a whirlwind dark fairytale. Nothing we have accomplished as lovers & friends was easy. We fought to become the people we are, to break the childhood traumas we were ‘blessed’ with & learn to love in a healthy way. To right all our wrongs & create a home to raise Bailee in that she can be proud of. No matter what life has thrown our way we walked thru the fire together, hand in hand w/ a smile.”
And they’ll continue doing just that.
“You are my missing puzzle piece,” Bunnie noted to Jelly Roll. “My safe space. The man that makes me dance in my feminine energy. My best friend, my hero & the greatest man I’ve ever known. They don’t make ‘em like you anymore Jason DeFord.”
And they continue to live in harmony. In fact, Bunnie has inspired some of Jelly Roll’s songs, including “Woman” and “Kill a Man” to name a few.
“She’s the best, man,” the country music star said while speaking about the latter track to Entertainment Tonight. “I have attempted to write 1,000 love songs, and I thought all of them were a little corny. So I was like, ‘How do I write a love song and keep my manliness but I also can completely open myself to how in love I am?'”
He added, “I don’t see any other woman on Earth but her, and I wanted to write a song that reflected that and was vulnerable.”
Jelly Roll and Bunnie also co-starred in the music videos for “Wheels Fall Off” as well as “Lonely Road” featuring Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox.
Whether in the audience or at home, Bunnie is always cheering for Jelly Roll.
“My sweet husband the visionary. The maestro of misfits,” she wrote in a tribute in honor of his 2024 CMT Music Awards. “You are not an overnight success story, this has been 20 years in the making.”
That journey, Bunnie continued, has included “days where we thought no one was listening to the music, & nights that turned into filled arenas.”
“I’ve watched you pour your soul into a pen & write therapeutic hymns for the broken only for those hymns to pour straight into their hearts,” she added. “Therapeutic music that kisses the cracks of their souls & even if just for that moment- they kno [sic] they are understood & seen.”
And their commitment to each other through it all is music to fans’ ears.
“Papabear your voice is an instrument of healing & the world is your choir,” Bunnie continued. “I LOVE YOU IN THIS LIFETIME & EVERY OTHER ONE IM LUCKY TO BE BY YOUR SIDE IN.”
Of course, Jelly Roll roots Bunnie on, too.
“Watching what you have built on social media and with your podcast is amazing,” he wrote in part of a message for their eight anniversary. “To see the way you inspire people especially other women makes my heart want to explode with joy.”
But make no mistake, Bunnie Xo isn’t going to send hugs and kisses if you come for her man.
The social media star slammed hurfult online comments Jelly Roll received about his weight before his more than 200-pound loss.
“My husband got off the internet because he’s so tired of being bullied about his f–king weight,” she said on an April 2024 episode of Dumb Blonde. “And that makes me want to cry because he is the sweetest angel baby.”
And while Bunnie said Jelly Roll doesn’t show how these comments affect him, she noted they do take a toll.
“The internet can say whatever the f–k they want about you, and they say, ‘Well, you’re a celebrity. You’re supposed to be able to handle it,'” she continued. “No, the f–k we’re not.”
Bunnie then reminded listeners that this type of behavior is never OK.
“Don’t bully people,” she said, “because you never know where they are mentally.”
And Bunnie made it clear she won’t let bullies’ remarks slide.
“I’m sorry, I’m going to stand up for all the f–king underdogs,” she noted. “You’re never gonna bully me. You’re never gonna lie about me and my family, and I’m going to fight ’til the end.”
Her husband, meanwhile, has continued to be nakedly honest about his journey, revealing he was struggling with low testosterone and other health concerns. As he put it on a December 2025 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, “I could feel myself dying.”
Jelly Roll and Bunnie have been open about their efforts to grow their family.
After the “Son of a Sinner” star revealed they’ve discussed having a baby, his wife shared the steps they’ve taken.
“We had planned on doing this privately, but decided our IVF journey needed to be shared because we’ve always been so open,” Bunnie wrote in a June 2024 Instagram post, “And w/ all odds stacked against us, it’s already been hard & we have only just begun.”
Still, they remain hopeful.
“We have been meeting w/ IVF doctors & exploring all our options to add to our family,” she continued. “J & I are SO excited & scared all at the same time. We genuinely never thought we’d want to add to our family but something changed this year & we both just want a piece of us together to add to our already perfect family with Bailee & Noah.”
And they’ve spoken about their experience with surrogacy. “We don’t have a surrogate for any other reason besides the fact that I just cannot carry a child myself,” Bunnie said on a March 2025 episode of her podcast Dumb Blonde. “There’s too much risk.”
The road has definitely been a challenge, “but at the same time it’s like, you just put it in God’s hands,” Bunnie said on a November 2025 episode of her Dumb Blonde podcast. “If it’s meant to be it’s meant to be. And if not, we can always adopt.”