According to tweet “On April 10th, our father, Orenthal James Simpson, succumbed to his battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren. During this time of transition, his family asks that you please respect their wishes for privacy and grace. -The Simpson Family”
Sylvester Stewart (born March 15, 1943), better known by his stage name Sly Stone, is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer who is most famous for his role as frontman for Sly and the Family Stone, playing a critical role in the development of funk with his pioneering fusion of soul, rock, psychedelia and gospel in the 1960s and 1970s. AllMusic stated that “James Brown may have invented funk, but Sly Stone perfected it,” and credited him with “creating a series of euphoric yet politically charged records that proved a massive influence on artists of all musical and cultural backgrounds.” Crawdaddy! has called him “the founder of progressive soul”.
Born in Texas and raised in the Bay Area of Northern California, Stone mastered several instruments at an early age and performed gospel music as a child with his siblings (and future bandmates) Freddie and Rose. In the mid-1960s, he worked as both a record producer for Autumn Records and a disc jockey for San Francisco radio station KDIA. In 1966, Stone and his brother Freddie joined their bands together to form Sly and the Family Stone, a racially integrated, mixed-gender act. The group would score hits including “Dance to the Music” (1968), “Everyday People” (1968), “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” (1969), “I Want to Take You Higher” (1969) “Family Affair” (1971) and “If You Want Me to Stay” (1973) and acclaimed albums including Stand! (1969), There’s a Riot Goin’ On (1971) and Fresh (1973).
By the mid-1970s, Stone’s drug use and erratic behavior effectively ended the group, leaving him to record several unsuccessful solo albums. In 1993, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the group. He took part in a Sly and the Family Stone tribute at the 2006 Grammy Awards, his first live performance since 1987.
Stone was born in Denton, Texas, on March 15, 1943, before the family’s move to Vallejo, California, in the North Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. He was the second of five children born to K.C. and Alpha Stewart, a deeply religious couple. As part of the doctrines of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), to which the Stewart family belonged, the parents encouraged musical expression in their middle-class household. Sylvester and his brother Freddie, along with their sisters Rose and Loretta, formed “the Stewart Four” as children, performing gospel music in the Church of God in Christ and even recording a single local release 78 rpm single, “On the Battlefield” b/w “Walking in Jesus’ Name”, in August 1956. Only their eldest sister Loretta did not pursue a musical career; the others, including youngest sister Vaetta (“Vet”), would later adopt the surname “Stone” and pursue musical interests.
Sylvester was identified as a musical prodigy. By the time he was seven, he had already become proficient on the keyboards, and by the age of eleven, he had mastered the guitar, bass, and drums as well. While still in high school, Sylvester had settled primarily on the guitar and joined a number of high school bands. One of these was the Viscaynes, a doo-wop group in which Sylvester and his friend Frank Arellano—who was Filipino—were the only non-white members. The fact that the group was integrated made the Viscaynes “hip” in the eyes of their audiences and would later inspire Sylvester’s idea of the multicultural Family Stone. The Viscaynes released a few local singles, including “Yellow Moon” and “Stop What You Are”; during the same period, Sylvester also recorded a few solo singles under the name Danny Stewart. With his brother, Fred, he formed several short-lived groups, like the Stewart Bros. After high school Stone studied music at the Vallejo campus of Solano Community College.
The nickname Sly was a common one for Sylvester throughout his years in grade school. Early on, a classmate misspelled his name “Slyvester,” and ever since, the nickname followed him.
In the mid-1960s, Stone worked as a disc jockey for San Francisco, California, soul radio station KSOL, where he included white performers such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in his playlists. During the same period, he worked as a staff record producer for Autumn Records, producing for predominantly white San Francisco-area bands such as The Beau Brummels, The Mojo Men, Bobby Freeman, and Grace Slick’s first band, The Great Society.
In the mid-1960s, Stone worked as a disc jockey for San Francisco, California, soul radio station KSOL, where he included white performers such as The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in his playlists. During the same period, he worked as a staff record producer for Autumn Records, producing for predominantly white San Francisco-area bands such as The Beau Brummels, The Mojo Men, Bobby Freeman, and Grace Slick’s first band, The Great Society.
Stone was influential in guiding KSOL-AM into soul music and started calling the station K-SOUL. The second was a popular soul music station (sans the K-SOUL moniker), at 107.7 FM (now known as KSAN). The current KSOL has a different format and is unrelated to the previous two stations. While still providing “music for your mind, body, and your soul” on KSOL, Sly Stone played keyboard for dozens of major performers including Dionne Warwick, Righteous Brothers, Ronettes, Bobby Freeman, George & Teddy, Freddy Cannon, Marvin Gaye, Dick & Dee Dee, Jan & Dean, Gene Chandler, and many more, including at least one of the three Twist Party concerts by then chart topper Chubby Checker held at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in 1962 and 1963. The concerts were put together by “Big Daddy” Tom Donohue and Bobby Mitchell from the then infamous KYA 1260 AM radio station and largely choreographed by Jerry Marcellino and Mel Larson who went on to produce many Motown artists including Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, and some of the top artists of the day.
In 1966, Sly was performing with his band Sly and The Stoners which included Cynthia Robinson on trumpet. His brother Freddie was working with his band called Freddie and the Stone Souls with Greg Errico and Jerry Martini. One night, the two stood in a kitchen making the decision to fuse the bands together adding Larry Graham, who had studied music and worked in numerous groups. Working around the Bay Area in 1967, this multiracial band made a strong impression. Later, in 1968, Rose Stone joined the band.
After a mildly received debut album, A Whole New Thing (1967), Sly & The Family Stone had their first hit single with “Dance to the Music”, which was later included on an album of the same name (1968). Although their third album, Life (also 1968), also suffered from low sales, their fourth album, Stand! (1969), became a runaway success, selling over three million copies and spawning a number one hit single, “Everyday People”. By the summer of 1969, Sly & The Family Stone were one of the biggest names in music, releasing two more top five singles, “Hot Fun in the Summertime” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”/”Everybody Is a Star”, before the end of the year and appearing at Woodstock. During the summer of 1969, Sly and the Family Stone also performed at the Summer of Soul concerts in Harlem and received an enthusiastic response from the large crowd.
After the group began touring following the success of Dance to the Music, The Family Stone drew praise for their explosive live show, which attracted black and white fans in equal measure. When Bob Marley first played in the U.S. in 1973 with his band The Wailers, he opened on tour for Sly and The Family Stone.
With the band’s newfound fame and success came numerous problems. Relationships within the band were deteriorating; there was friction in particular between the Stone brothers and Larry Graham. Epic requested more marketable output. The Black Panther Party demanded that Stone make his music more militant and more reflective of the black power movement, replace Greg Errico and Jerry Martini with black instrumentalists and replace manager David Kapralik.
After moving to the Los Angeles area in fall 1969, Stone and his bandmates became heavy users of illegal drugs, primarily cocaine and PCP. As the members became increasingly focused on drug use and partying (Stone carried a violin case filled with illegal drugs wherever he went), recording slowed significantly. Between summer 1969 and fall 1971, the band released only one single, “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)”/”Everybody Is a Star”, in December 1969. This song was one of the first recordings to employ the heavy, funky beats that would be featured in the funk music of the following decade. It showcased bass player Larry Graham’s innovative percussive playing technique of bass “slapping”. Graham later said that he developed this technique in an earlier band in order to compensate for that band’s lack of a drummer.
“Thank You” hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1970. The single also peaked at No. 5 on the R&B chart, selling over a million copies.
Having relocated to Los Angeles with his girlfriend Deborah King, later Deborah Santana (wife of Carlos Santana from 1973 until filing for divorce in 2007), Stone’s behavior became increasingly erratic. Epic was anticipating new material in 1970, but with nonforthcoming, finally released Greatest Hits that November. One year later, the band’s fifth album, There’s a Riot Goin’ On, was released. Riot featured a much darker sound, and most tracks were recorded with overdubbing as opposed to the Family Stone all playing at the same time as they had done previously. Stone played most of the parts himself and performed more of the lead vocals than usual. This was one of the first major label albums to feature a drum machine.
The band’s cohesion slowly began to erode, and its sales and popularity began to decline as well. Errico withdrew from the group in 1971 and was eventually replaced with Andy Newmark. Larry Graham and Stone were no longer on friendly terms, and Graham was fired in early 1972 and replaced with Rustee Allen. The band’s later releases, Fresh (1973) and Small Talk (1974), featured even less of the band and more of Stone.
Live bookings for Sly & the Family Stone had steadily dropped since 1970, because promoters were afraid that Stone or one of the band members might miss the gig, refuse to play, or pass out from drug use. These issues were regular occurrences for the band during the 1970s and had an adverse effect on their ability to demand money for live bookings. In 1970, 26 of 80 concerts were cancelled, and numerous others started late. At many of these gigs, concertgoers rioted if the band failed to show up, or if Stone walked out before finishing his set. Ken Roberts became the group’s promoter, and later their general manager, when no other representatives would work with the band because of their erratic gig attendance record. In January 1975, the band booked itself at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The famed music hall was only one-eighth occupied, and Stone and company had to scrape together money to return home. Following the Radio City engagement, the band was dissolved.
Rose Stone was pulled out of the band by Bubba Banks, who was by then her husband. She began a solo career, recording a Motown-style album under the name Rose Banks in 1976. Freddie Stone joined Larry Graham’s group, Graham Central Station, for a time; after collaborating with his brother one last time in 1979 for Back on the Right Track, he retired from the music industry and eventually became the pastor of the Evangelist Temple Fellowship Center in Vallejo, California. Background vocalist trio Little Sister was also dissolved; Mary McCreary married Leon Russell and released recordings on Russell’s Shelter Records label. Andy Newmark became a successful session drummer, playing with John Lennon, Roxy Music, B. B. King, Steve Winwood and others.
Stone’s son Sylvester Jr. was born in late 1973. His mother is Kathy Silva. His first daughter Sylvyette, who now goes by her middle name Phunne, was born c. 1976. Her mother was Stone’s band member Cynthia Robinson. Stone’s second daughter, Novena Carmel, born c. 1982, is a singer and performer, and also a booking agent at the Little Temple club in Los Angeles, now known as The Virgil, and currently a co-host for the popular public radio station KCRW on Morning Becomes Eclectic. She also worked with pop/hip hop musician Wallpaper.
Written by Dianne Washington
Maxwell Dixon (born March 4, 1966), known professionally as Grand Puba, is an American rapper and record producer, best known as one of the members of the group Brand Nubian from New Rochelle, New York.
He made his debut as Grand Puba Maxwell with the group Masters of Ceremony in 1984. Its album Dynamite (1988) was hailed by critics, but because of lack of sales the group soon disbanded and Puba became the lead emcee of Brand Nubian. After their debut album One for All (1990) — covering areas from reggae-influenced hip hop music to new jack swing — Puba left the group after disputes and began a solo career. Around 1997 he rejoined the group, recording a few tracks for various soundtracks leading up to the full-length album Foundation in 1998. In 1992 Sean “Puffy” Combs tapped Grand Puba to collaborate with up & coming R&B singer Mary J. Blige on her debut album “What’s the 411” The title song in which Puba co-wrote was the first time Blige incorporated her own rap technique which proved to be very successful. This was a rap/r&b hit record that went to number one on the R&B charts in the early spring of 1993. In 1999, Grand Puba and Sadat X performed on the track “Once Again” on Handsome Boy Modeling School’s concept album So… How’s Your Girl? Following Brand Nubian’s 2004 record Fire in the Hole, Grand Puba appeared on tracks with Beanie Sigel (“Bread and Butter”, also featuring groupmate Sadat X), Missy Elliott (“My Struggles”, featuring his onetime collaborator Mary J. Blige), and Ugly Duckling (“Something’s Going Down Tonight”).
In 2009, Grand Puba released his fourth solo album, Retroactive, featuring production from Q-Tip, Large Professor, Kid Capri as well as fellow Brand Nubians. Puba also appeared on the heavy posse cut “Fresh” together with Cormega, KRS-One, Big Daddy Kane, DJ Red Alert and PMD.
On the song “Old School” by 2Pac, Grand Puba was sampled and used in the hook. The sample originates from Grand Puba’s verse on the song “Dedication” by Brand Nubian.
Written by Dianne Washington
Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), better known by his stage name Method Man, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. He is a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan, and is half of the hip hop duo Method Man & Redman. He took his stage name from the 1979 film Method Man. In 1996, Method Man won a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for “I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Need to Get By”, featuring R&B singer Mary J. Blige, with whom he currently stars in Power Book II: Ghost, a spin-off of Power.
Method Man has appeared in films such as 187 (1997), Belly (1998), How High (2001), Garden State (2004), The Wackness (2008), Venom (2005), Red Tails (2012), Keanu (2016), and The Cobbler (2014). He and frequent collaborator rapper Redman co-starred on the short-lived Fox television sitcom Method & Red. He has also had recurring roles in three HBO series, as Tug Daniels in Oz, Melvin “Cheese” Wagstaff in The Wire, and Rodney in The Deuce. Method Man also appeared in the TBS comedy series The Last O.G.
Born on March 2, 1971, in Hempstead, Long Island, Smith divided his childhood between his father’s Long Island residence and his mother’s home in the Park Hill section of Clifton, Staten Island, locally known as Killa Hill. Growing up in Hempstead, Smith began playing lacrosse at a young age and continues to be a passionate supporter of the sport. He attended New Dorp High School, where he became friends with Remedy. He has two sisters, Terri and Missy.
Written by Dianne Washington
Jeffrey Bruce Atkins Sr. (born February 29, 1976), better known by his stage name Ja Rule, is an American rapper. Born and raised in New York City, Ja Rule became known as a leading figure in 2000s hip hop for his blending of gangsta rap with commercially oriented pop sensibilities. He signed with Irv Gotti’s Murder Inc Records, an imprint of Def Jam Recordings to release his debut studio album Venni Vetti Vecci (1999), which spawned his first single “Holla Holla”. Ja Rule peaked the Billboard Hot 100 thrice in 2001 with his single “Always on Time” (featuring Ashanti) and his guest appearances on Jennifer Lopez’s “I’m Real (Murder Remix)” and “Ain’t It Funny”. His encompassing singles, “Put It on Me” (featuring Lil’ Mo and Vita), “Mesmerize” (featuring Ashanti), “Livin’ It Up” (featuring Case) and “Wonderful” (featuring R. Kelly and Ashanti) have peaked within the top ten of the chart and spawned from commercially successful album releases.
Venni Vetti Vecci (1999) was met with critical and commercial success, receiving platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA); it was followed by his second and third albums Rule 3:36 (2000) and Pain Is Love (2001), both of which topped the US Billboard 200. Selling over 15 million combined units, both also received triple platinum certification by the RIAA and remain his bestselling albums. He followed up with his respective fourth, fifth and sixth albums The Last Temptation (2002), Blood in My Eye (2003), and R.U.L.E. (2004); The Last Temptation received platinum certification while R.U.L.E. received gold certification. Ja Rule has been nominated for two American Music Awards and four Grammy Awards with respective collaborators Lil’ Mo, Vita, Ashanti and Case. As of 2018, Ja Rule has sold 30 million records worldwide.
Outside of music, Ja Rule was met with scrutiny for his involvement in the fraudulent Fyre Festival, which he co-founded with con artist Billy McFarland. In November 2019, he was cleared of any legal wrongdoing from his role in the festival. Earlier that year, he joined the main cast of WeTV’s Growing Up Hip Hop: New York.
Ja Rule was born Jeffrey Bruce Atkins on February 29, 1976, to Debra and Will in Hollis, a section of the Queens borough of New York City. Jeffrey’s father left the family when he was very young. Atkins was raised as an only child, as his younger sister, Kristen, died in the womb when Atkins was 5. His mother, Debra, was a healthcare worker, and due to the amount of time she spent working, Atkins was largely raised by his grandparents as a Jehovah’s Witness. Atkins’ mother left the Jehovah’s Witness religion when he was 12. Soon after, Atkins began selling drugs in Hollis.
Atkins began his rap career in 1994 with the hip hop group Cash Money Click alongside members Chris Black and O-1. He took the stage name “Ja Rule”, telling MTV News that the name came from a friend who addressed him by that name; other friends simply called him “Ja”. Together they worked with producer DJ Irv to produce a number of songs, releasing their debut single “Get Tha Fortune” independently in 1994. After the group signed with TVT Records, the song was re-released through the label later that year as the B-side to their second single, “4 My Click”. “4 My Click” featured Mic Geronimo and became popular on pirate radio, eventually receiving airplay on Yo! MTV Raps. Plans for the release of the group’s eponymous debut studio album were brought to a halt in 1995 after Chris Black was sentenced to five years in prison and the group was dropped from TVT, which led to their third single “She Swallowed It” never officially being released, however it was later bootlegged. With no label, the group disbanded shortly after being dropped.
After being dropped from TVT, Ja Rule maintained a close relationship with DJ Irv, who was working as an executive producer for Def Jam at the time. DJ Irv, now known as Irv Gotti, was hired as an A&R for the label and was able to get Ja Rule a contract with Def Jam. In 1995, he made his first solo appearance on Mic Geronimo’s “Time to Build” alongside Jay-Z and DMX, who were also in their early stages of their careers. He later appeared on the song “Usual Suspects” from Mic Geronimo’s second album Vendetta in 1997, alongside The Lox, DMX and Tragedy Khadafi. He also had a brief cameo in the video for “Walk In New York” by Queens hardcore rap group Onyx. Later in 1997, Irv Gotti was granted his own imprint from Def Jam, known as Murder Inc. Records. Ja Rule was promoted as the label’s flagship artist, and he continued to make guest appearances on songs by other artists, including Method Man, Redman, Nas, DMX, LL Cool J and Dru Hill. He later appeared on Jay-Z’s 1998 hit single “Can I Get A…”, for which he wrote the hook. It was originally planned to be Ja Rule’s debut single until Jay-Z heard the track and requested it for himself. During this time, he rapped under the slightly modified stage name Jah.
Returning to the Ja Rule name, his debut single Holla Holla was released in March 1999 and became a hit, peaking at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100.[16] Fueled by the success of Holla Holla, Ja Rule’s debut album, Venni Vetti Vecci, was released in 1999, peaking at #3 on the Billboard 200 with 184,000 copies sold in its first week. It eventually reached platinum status in the US due to the popularity of “Holla Holla”. A remix of “Holla Holla” was later released, featuring Jay-Z, Vita, Cadillac Tah, Black Child, Memphis Bleek and Busta Rhymes.
Ja Rule’s second single, “Between Me and You”, featuring Christina Milian, was released in June 2000 as the first single from his second studio album and became his first major crossover hit, earning Top 40 airplay and reaching #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album’s next single, “Put It on Me”, featuring Vita and Lil’ Mo, was released in December 2000 and became one of the biggest hits of 2001, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming the first top 10 hit for both Ja Rule and Vita. The video for “Put It on Me” also topped the MTV Video Countdown for a week and became the first music video to be retired on BET’s 106 & Park after spending more than 60 days on the countdown. The video also ranked #1 on BET’s Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2001.
Ja Rule’s second album, Rule 3:36, was released on October 10, 2000, and went in a much different stylistic direction from Venni Vetti Vecci, changing his almost trademark hardcore hip-hop sound to mainstream-oriented pop-rap, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200 with 276,000 copies sold in its first week, making it Ja Rule’s first number one album. The album later went on to be certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
The success of Rule 3:36 promoted Ja Rule to international status and made Murder Inc. one of the biggest labels in the United States. The same success followed with his third album, which spawned three top 10 singles, two of them reaching #1. The first, “Livin’ It Up”, featuring Case, was released in July 2001 and reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also achieved success in the United Kingdom, reaching #5 on the UK Singles Chart. The second single, “Always on Time”, was released in October 2001 and marked the first major guest appearance for Murder Inc’s youngest artist Ashanti, and became both Ja Rule and Ashanti’s first song to top the Billboard Hot 100. The remix of Jennifer Lopez’s “I’m Real” featuring Ja Rule was included on the album and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for five non-consecutive weeks, beginning September 8, 2001, and also topped the Hot 100 Airplay chart. The song was a staple of R&B/hip hop and pop radio during the summer and fall of 2001, spending fifteen weeks total in the top five of the Hot 100. In 2009 the single was named the 30th most successful song of the 2000s, on the Billboard Hot 100 Songs of the Decade. The album’s fourth single, “Down Ass Bitch” featuring Charli Baltimore was also successful, reaching #21 on the Hot 100.
Ja Rule released his third studio album, Pain Is Love, on October 2, 2001. Like its predecessor, Pain Is Love topped the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 361,000 copies and is certified triple platinum by the RIAA. The album also received a Grammy nomination in 2002 for Best Rap Album. By 2007, 3.6 million copies of Pain Is Love had been sold.
Atkins earned his GED while in prison in February 2012. In February 2021, Atkins completed an online course at Harvard Business School and shared a photo of his certificate of completion on Twitter.
In April 2001, Ja Rule married Aisha Murray. The couple have three children: Brittney Asja Atkins (born 1995), Jeffrey Jr. (born 2000), and Jordan (born 2003).
Written by Dianne Washington
William Henry Duke Jr. (born February 26, 1943) is an American actor and film director. Known for his physically imposing frame, Duke works primarily in the action and crime drama genres often as a character related to law enforcement. Frequently a character actor, he has starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in Commando and Predator, and has appeared in films like Car Wash, American Gigolo, No Man’s Land, Bird on a Wire, Menace II Society, Exit Wounds, Payback, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Mandy. In television, he is best known as Agent Percy Odell in Black Lightning.
He has directed episodes of numerous television series including Cagney & Lacey, Dallas, Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice, The Twilight Zone, and American Playhouse. He has also directed the crime films Deep Cover and A Rage in Harlem, for which he was nominated for a Palme d’Or, as well as the comedy Sister Act 2.
Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, Duke received his first instruction in the performing arts at Boston University, where he majored in speech and drama. After studying at New York University’s Tisch School of Arts and the AFI Conservatory, Duke began his career behind the camera, directing episodes of several noteworthy 1980s television series, including Hill Street Blues and Miami Vice.
Duke became a familiar face on the screen in Commando and Predator, Action Jackson, Payback, and X-Men: The Last Stand. Other Duke films include Car Wash (1976) and American Gigolo (1980). Returning to the director’s chair, Duke began directing feature-length films in the 1990s with A Rage in Harlem and Deep Cover. He also directed The Cemetery Club and Sister Act 2. Duke continues to act and direct for both the small and silver screens. Duke directed a segment of HBO’s trilogy “America’s Dream,” entitled “The Boy Who Painted Christ Black,” for which he won Cable ACE and NAACP Image Awards for Best Director, and the pilot for the series “New York Undercover.”
As a writer, Duke and Danny Glover created a book of photo essays, Black Light: The African American Hero. He also directed “A Town Hall Meeting: Creating A Sense of Community” for the Los Angeles-based Artists Against Homelessness. Duke also mentors young African Americans aspiring for the performance arts.
Written by Dianne Washington
Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), better known by her stage name Erykah Badu is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter, record producer, activist and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre. She is known as the “First Lady of Neo-Soul” or the “Queen of Neo-Soul”.
Early in her career, Badu was recognizable for wearing very large and colorful headwraps. For her musical sensibilities, she has often been compared to jazz great Billie Holiday. She was a core member of the Soulquarians, and is also an actress having appeared in a number of films playing a range of supporting roles in movies such as Blues Brothers 2000, The Cider House Rules and House of D. She also speaks at length in the documentaries Before the Music Dies and “The Black Power Mixtapes.”
Erykah Badu was born Erica Abi Wright in Dallas, Texas on February 26, 1971. Her mother raised her, her brother (Jabbada), and her sister (Nayrok) alone after their father, William Wright Jr., deserted the family early in their lives. To provide for her family, the children’s grandmother often helped looking after them while Erykah’s mother, Kolleen Maria Gipson (Wright), performed as an actress in theatrical productions. Influenced by her mother, Erykah had her first taste of show business at the age of 4, singing and dancing with her mother at the Dallas Theatre Centre. Erykah Badu was the owner of Focal point in Dallas, Texas.
By the age of 14, Erykah was free styling for a local radio station alongside such talent as Roy Hargrove. In her early youth, she decided to change the spelling of her name from Erica to Erykah, as she firmly believed her original name to be her slave name. The term ‘kah’ signifies the inner self. Badu is her favorite jazz scat sound and is also an African name for the 10th born child used for the Akan people in Ghana.
Upon graduating from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Badu went on to study theater at the historically black college Grambling State University. Concentrating on music full-time, she left the university in 1993 before graduating and took on several minimum wage jobs to support herself. She taught drama and dance to children at the South Dallas Cultural Center. Working and touring with her cousin, Robert “Free” Bradford, she recorded a 19-song demo, Country Cousins, which attracted the attention of Kedar Massenburg, who set Badu up to record a duet with D’Angelo, “Your Precious Love,” and eventually signed her to a record deal with Universal Imperial Records.
After 10 years as a vegetarian, Badu became a vegan in 2006:
“Vegan food is soul food in its truest form. Soul food means to feed the soul. And to me, your soul is your intent. If your intent is pure, you are pure.” Badu splits her time between Dallas, Texas and Fort Greene, New York.
In 1995, Badu became involved with rapper André 3000 of OutKast, with whom she had her first child, a son named Seven Sirius Benjamin, on November 18, 1997. Their relationship ended sometime in 1999. Their relationship inspired André 3000 to write the song “Ms. Jackson”.
In 2000, Badu was in a romantic relationship with fellow Soulquarian Common; their relationship ended in 2002. On July 5, 2004, Badu gave birth to a daughter, Puma Sabti Curry; Puma’s father is West Coast rapper The D.O.C., originally from Dallas. On February 1, 2009, Badu gave birth to her third child, a girl named Mars Merkaba Thedford, with her boyfriend of five years, rapper Jay Electronica.
Written by Dianne Washington
Barbara Hale (April 18, 1922 – January 26, 2017) was an American actress who portrayed legal secretary Della Street in the dramatic television series Perry Mason (1957–1966), earning her a 1959 Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She reprised the role in 30 Perry Mason made-for-television movies (1985–1995).
Barbara Hale was born in DeKalb, Illinois, to Wilma (née Colvin) and Luther Ezra Hale, a landscape gardener. She had one sister, Juanita, for whom Hale’s younger daughter was named. The family was of Scottish+Irish ancestry. In 1940, Hale was a member of the final graduating class from Rockford High School in Rockford, Illinois, then attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, planning to be an artist. Her performing career began in Chicago, when she started modeling to pay for her education.
Hale moved to Hollywood in 1943, and under contract to RKO Radio Pictures (later Columbia Pictures), made her first screen appearance (uncredited) in Gildersleeve’s Bad Day. She continued to make small uncredited appearances in films, until her first credited role alongside Frank Sinatra in Higher and Higher (1943) (even singing with him in the film). Hale had leading roles in movies including West of the Pecos (1945) with Robert Mitchum in his second film as the leading man, Lady Luck (1946) — opposite Robert Young in what she described as her first “full stardom” and “her fifth A picture” — and The Window (1949). She received excellent notices for her co-starring performance opposite Larry Parks in the musical biography Jolson Sings Again (1949). She and Parks were teamed for subsequent films.
Her roles in 1950s films such as the adventure Lorna Doone (1951); the comedy The Jackpot (with James Stewart) (also 1951); the drama A Lion Is in the Streets (1953) with James Cagney, and the Westerns Seminole (also 1953) and The Oklahoman (1957) continued Hale’s run of successful movies during that decade. The latter film, co-starring Joel McCrea, would mark Hale’s last leading role in a motion picture. She seldom appeared in film after this time but was part of an all-star cast in the 1970 movie Airport, playing the wife of an airline pilot (played by Dean Martin). Hale’s final appearance in a feature film was in the 1978 drama Big Wednesday as Mrs. Barlow, the mother of the character played by Hale’s real-life son William Katt.
Hale was considering retirement from acting when she accepted her best known role, as legal secretary Della Street in the television series Perry Mason, starring Raymond Burr as the titular character. The show ran for nine seasons from 1957 to 1966, with 271 episodes produced. The role won Hale a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
In 1985, Hale and Burr (by then the only surviving cast members from the original series) reprised their roles for the TV movie Perry Mason Returns. The film was such a ratings hit that a further 29 movies were produced until 1995. Hale continued her role as Della in the four telefilms produced after Burr’s death in 1993, subtitled A Perry Mason Mystery (and starring Paul Sorvino as Anthony Caruso in the first film and Hal Holbrook as “Wild” Bill McKenzie in the remaining three). Hale is thus the only actor to feature in all 30 films.
Hale’s son William Katt played detective Paul Drake, Jr., alongside Hale in nine of the Perry Mason TV movies from 1985 to 1988. Hale in turn guest starred on Katt’s series, The Greatest American Hero in which Katt played the title role, aka Ralph Hinkley; Hale played Hinkley’s mother in the 1982 episode, “Who’s Woo in America”. She also played his mother in the 1978 movie Big Wednesday.
Hale guest-starred in “Murder Impromptu”, a 1971 episode of Ironside, Burr’s first post-Perry Mason series.
Her last on-screen appearance was a TV biographical documentary about Burr that aired in 2000.
Hale’s activity in radio was limited; she appeared in one episode each of Voice of the Army (1947), Lux Radio Theatre (1950), and Proudly We Hail (syndicated), as well as five episodes of Family Theater (1950–1954).
In 1945, during the filming of West of the Pecos, Hale met actor Bill Williams (birth name Herman August Wilhelm Katt). They were married on June 22, 1946. The couple had two daughters, Jodi and Juanita, and a son, actor William Katt.
Hale became a follower of the Baháʼí Faith.
Hale died at her home in Sherman Oaks, California, on January 26, 2017, at age 94 of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Written by Dianne Washington
The birth of Saartjie Baartman in 1789 is celebrated on this date. She was a South African entertainer and objectified Black woman.
Saartjie Sarah Baartman was born in the Gamtoos Valley of South Africa. She was orphaned in a commando raid. Baartman may have been a slave of a Dutch farmer named Peter Cezar near Cape Town, which had recently come under British control. Cezar’s brother, Hendrik took an interest in Baartman while visiting his farm and, together with Alexander Dunlop, a military surgeon with a sideline in supplying showmen in Britain with animal specimens, suggested she travel to England for exhibition. Lord Caledon, governor of the Cape, gave permission for the trip, but later regretted it after he fully learned the purpose of the trip.
She left for London in 1810 in her 20s, an enterprising Dunlop, accompanied by Hendrik Cesars and who sold her in London. She spent four years in Britain being exhibited for her large buttocks under the name Hottentot Venus. At that time, “Hottentot” was the name for the Khoi people, now considered an offensive term and “Venus” in reference to the Roman goddess of love. According to popular history. However, Dunlop discontinued his involvement while Cezar placed her on exhibition in the Egyptian Hall of Piccadilly Circus. She had large buttocks and was rumored to have the elongated labia of some Khoisan women, which were written about by earlier travelers such as François Levaillant.
Her exhibition in London though three years after the passing of the Slave Trade Act 1807, created a scandal. An abolitionist benevolent society called the African Association conducted a newspaper campaign for her release. The showman associated with her exhibition. The African Association took the matter to court and on November 24, 1810 at the Court of King’s Bench the Attorney General began the attempt ‘to give her liberty to say whether she was exhibited by her own consent’. In support he produced two affidavits in court. The first was intended to show persons who referred to her as if she were property had brought Baartman to Britain. The second, by the Secretary of the African Association, described the degrading conditions under which she was exhibited and also gave evidence of coercion. Baartman was then questioned before an attorney in Dutch, in which she was fluent, via interpreters. She stated that she in fact was not under restraint, did not get sexually abused, and that she came to London on her own free will. The case was therefore dismissed.
The publicity given by the court case increased her popularity as an exhibit. She later toured other parts of Britain and visited Ireland and on December 1, 1811 Baartman was christened at Manchester Cathedral. She was sold to a Frenchman, who took her to France where animal trainer, S. Réaux, exhibited her under more pressured conditions for fifteen months. French naturalists, among them Georges Cuvier, head keeper of the menagerie at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, visited her. She was the subject of several scientific paintings at the Jardin du Roi, where she was examined in March 1815: as Saint-Hilaire and Frédéric Cuvier, a younger brother of Georges, reported, she was obliging enough to undress and to allow herself to be painted in the nude. In post-Napoleonic France, sideshows like the Hottentot Venus lost their appeal. Baartman lived on in poverty.
She died on December 29, 1815 of an undetermined inflammatory ailment. Her skeleton, preserved genitals and brain were placed on display in Paris’ Musée de l’Homme until 1974, when they were removed from public view and stored; a cast was still shown until 1976. There were sporadic calls for the return of her remains, beginning in the 1940s. A poem written in 1978 by Diana Ferrus, herself of Khoisan descent, entitled “I’ve come to take you home”, played a pivotal role in spurring the movement to bring Baartman’s remains back to her birth soil.
The case gained worldwide prominence only after Stephen Jay Gould wrote The Hottentot Venus in the 1980s. After the victory of the African National Congress in the South African general election, 1994, President Nelson Mandela formally requested that France return the remains. After much legal wrangling and debates in the French National Assembly, France agreed to the request on 6 March 2002.
Her remains were repatriated to the Gamtoos Valley, on May 6, 2002 and they were buried on August 9, 2002 on Vergaderingskop, a hill in the town of Hankey over 200 years after her birth. Baartman, She was one of the most famous Khoikhoi women who, due to their large buttocks. She is icon in South Africa as representative of many aspects of the nation’s history. The Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children, a refuge for survivors of domestic violence, opened in Cape Town in 1999. South Africa’s first offshore environmental protection vessel, the Sarah Baartman, is also named after her.
Written by Dianne Washington
Jenifer Jeanette Lewis (born January 25, 1957) is an American actress. She began her career appearing in Broadway musicals and worked as a back-up singer for Bette Midler before appearing in films Beaches (1988) and Sister Act (1992). Lewis is known for playing roles of mothers in the films What’s Love Got to Do With It (1993), Poetic Justice (1993), The Preacher’s Wife (1996), The Brothers (2001), The Cookout (2004), Think Like a Man (2012) and in the sequel Think Like a Man Too (2014), Baggage Claim (2013) and The Wedding Ringer (2015), as well as in The Temptations miniseries (1998).
Lewis is known unofficially as “The Mother of Black Hollywood” (also the name of her memoir) given her frequent matriarchal film and television roles. She also provided the voice for Mama Odie in Disney’s animated feature The Princess and the Frog (2009), and Flo in Pixar’s Cars series. Additional film roles include Dead Presidents (1995), Cast Away (2000) and Hereafter (2010).
On television, Lewis starred as Lana Hawkins in the Lifetime medical drama Strong Medicine from 2000 to 2006. She also had recurring roles on sitcoms A Different World, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Girlfriends. In 2014, Lewis began starring as Ruby Johnson in the ABC comedy series Black-ish, for which she received two Critics’ Choice Television Award nominations.
Lewis was born in Kinloch, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, to a nurse’s aide mother, Dorothy, and a factory worker father. Lewis is the youngest of seven children. She sang in her church choir at the age of five. She attended Kinloch High School and then college at Webster University in Webster Groves, Missouri. She received an honorary degree from Webster in 2015. After college, Lewis moved to New York.
Soon after she arrived in New York City, Lewis debuted on Broadway in a small role in Eubie (1979), the musical based on the work of Eubie Blake. She next landed the role of Effie White in the workshop of the Michael Bennett–directed musical Dreamgirls, but when the show moved to Broadway, Bennett chose Jennifer Holliday for the role.
Lewis accepted a position as a Harlette, a back-up singer for Bette Midler which led to Lewis’ first TV appearances on Midler’s HBO specials. She acquired her first screen role as a result, appearing as a singer in the Otto Titsling production number in the Bette Midler vehicle Beaches (1988). At the same time, Lewis was developing her nightclub act, The Diva Is Dismissed, an autobiographical comedy and music show in New York City cabarets. She performed the show off-Broadway at the Public Theater.
After Lewis relocated to Los Angeles, she began appearing in television sitcoms, including Murphy Brown, Dream On, In Living Color, Roc, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper and Friends. From 1992 to 1993, she played Dean Davenport in the sixth and final season of the NBC sitcom A Different World. She also had a recurring role as Will Smith’s Aunt Helen in the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from 1991 to 1996. As a series regular, Lewis starred alongside Patricia Wettig in her short-lived legal drama Courthouse in 1995, playing Judge Rosetta Reide, the first main African American lesbian character on television.
In 1992, Lewis was cast as one of the back-up singers to Whoopi Goldberg in the comedy film Sister Act. The following year, Lewis played the mother of Tupac Shakur’s character in the film Poetic Justice, and as Zelma Bullock, Tina Turner’s mother, in the biopic What’s Love Got to Do With It starring Angela Bassett. Lewis has stated that she never auditioned to play Turner, but would have been thrilled to play the iconic singer. Lewis is only one year older than Bassett. For her performance, she received her first NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture nomination. In 1994, she followed with other comedic supporting roles, including Mrs. Coleman, the Unemployment Office lady, in Renaissance Man and as Whoopi Goldberg’s sister in Corrina, Corrina. In 1995, she was cast in maternal roles to Kadeem Hardison in Panther and to Larenz Tate in Dead Presidents.
In 1990, Lewis was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She originally hid her diagnosis, as she felt ashamed, but eventually came to embrace it after 17 years of therapy and 10 years of medication. In a 2014 interview, she said: “You have to look in the mirror… and say—before you can go or grow into anything—you have to say you love yourself.”
Lewis has been married to Arnold Byrd since 2012. She has an adopted daughter named Charmaine Lewis.
In 2015, Lewis was defrauded by a romantic con man which was detailed in a 2022 episode of “American Greed.”
Written by Dianne Washington