Whats Buzzing in the Streets – Page 39

Millie Jackson

Mildred Virginia Jackson (born July 15, 1944) is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter and former model. Beginning her career in the early 1960s, three of Jackson’s albums have been certified gold by the RIAA for over 500,000 copies. Jackson vocal performances are often distinguished by long, humorous, and explicit spoken sections in her music, which she started doing on stage to get the attention of the audience. She recorded songs in a disco or dance music style and occasionally in a country style.

Occasionally, Jackson refers to herself as other have toted as the “mother of hip-hop,” or of rapping itself. According to the cataloguing site WhoSampled.com, her songs have appeared in 189 samples, 51 covers, and six remixes revealing the appeal of her proto-typical rapping style of delivery.

Born in Thomson, Georgia, Jackson is the daughter of a sharecropper. Her mother died when she was a child and subsequently, she and her father moved to Newark, New Jersey. By the time Jackson was in her mid-teens, she had moved to Brooklyn to live with an aunt. She occasionally worked as a model for magazines like JIVE and Sepia.

Dared by a $5 bet back in 1964, Millie sang at a club in New York City that led her to be discovered. She appeared in a “string of one nighters” as a result.

Though she was a poet, her onstage banter would become the selling point in her stage act. Banter that initially stemmed from being unsure of what to do in front of the crowd.

Written by Dianne Washington

August Wilson

August Wilson (April 27, 1945 – October 2, 2005) was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Each work in the series is set in a different decade, and depicts comic and tragic aspects of the African-American experience in the 20th century.

Wilson was born Frederick August Kittel, Jr. in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the fourth of six children. His father, Frederick August Kittel, Sr., was a Sudeten German immigrant, who was a baker/pastry cook who never lived with his family. His mother, Daisy Wilson, was an African-American cleaning woman, from North Carolina. Wilson’s maternal grandmother walked from North Carolina to Pennsylvania in search of a better life. Wilson’s mother raised the children alone until he was five in a two-room apartment above a grocery store at 1727 Bedford Avenue; his father was mostly absent from his childhood. Wilson later wrote under his mother’s surname. The economically depressed neighborhood where he was raised was inhabited predominantly by black Americans and Jewish and Italian immigrants. Wilson’s mother divorced his father and married David Bedford in the 1950s, and the family moved from the Hill District to the then predominantly white working-class neighborhood of Hazelwood, where they encountered racial hostility; bricks were thrown through a window at their new home. They were soon forced out of their house and on to their next home.

In 1959, Wilson was one of fourteen African-American students at the Central Catholic High School, from which he dropped out after one year. He then attended Connelley Vocational High School, but found the curriculum unchallenging. He dropped out of Gladstone High School in the 10th grade in 1960 after his teacher accused him of plagiarizing a 20-page paper he wrote on Napoleon I of France. Wilson hid his decision from his mother because he did not want to disappoint her. At the age of 16 he began working menial jobs, where he met a wide variety of people on whom some of his later characters were based, such as Sam in The Janitor (1985).

Wilson made such extensive use of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh to educate himself that it later awarded him an honorary high school diploma, the only diploma it has ever bestowed. Wilson, who had learned to read at the age of 4, began reading black writers at the library when he was 12 and spent the remainder of his teen years educating himself through the books of Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Arna Bontemps, and others.

Wilson knew that he wanted to be a writer, but this created tension with his mother, who wanted him to become a lawyer. She forced him to leave the family home and he enlisted in the United States Army for a three-year stint in 1962, but left after one year and went back to working various odd jobs as a porter, short-order cook, gardener, and dishwasher.

Frederick August Kittel, Jr. changed his name to August Wilson to honor his mother after his father’s death in 1965. That same year, he discovered the blues as sung by Bessie Smith, and he bought a stolen typewriter for $10, which he often pawned when money was tight. At 20, he decided he was a poet and submitted work to such magazines as Harper’s. He began to write in bars, the local cigar store, and cafes—longhand on table napkins and on yellow notepads, absorbing the voices and characters around him. He liked to write on cafe napkins because, he said, it freed him up and made him less self-conscious as a writer. He would then gather the notes and type them up at home. Gifted with a talent for catching dialect and accents, Wilson had an “astonishing memory”, which he put to full use during his career. He slowly learned not to censor the language he heard when incorporating it into his work.

Malcolm X’s voice influenced Wilson’s life and work (such as The Ground on Which I Stand, 1996). Both the Nation of Islam and the Black Power spoke to him regarding self-sufficiency, self-defense, and self-determination, and he appreciated the origin myths that Elijah Muhammad supported. In 1969 Wilson married Brenda Burton, a Muslim, and converted to Islam to sustain the marriage. He and Brenda had one daughter, Sakina Ansari-Wilson, and divorced in 1972.

In 1968, he co-founded the Black Horizon Theater in the Hill District of Pittsburgh along with his friend Rob Penny. Wilson’s first play, Recycling, was performed for audiences in small theaters, schools and public housing community centers for 50 cents a ticket. Among these early efforts was Jitney, which he revised more than two decades later as part of his 10-play cycle on 20th-century Pittsburgh. He had no directing experience. He recalled: “Someone had looked around and said, ‘Who’s going to be the director?’ I said, ‘I will.’ I said that because I knew my way around the library. So I went to look for a book on how to direct a play. I found one called The Fundamentals of Play Directing and checked it out.”

In 1976 Vernell Lillie, who had founded the Kuntu Repertory Theatre at the University of Pittsburgh two years earlier, directed Wilson’s The Homecoming. That same year Wilson saw Sizwe Banzi is Dead at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, his first professional play. Wilson, Penny, and poet Maisha Baton also started the Kuntu Writers Workshop to bring African-American writers together and to assist them in publication and production. Both organizations are still active.

He then became involved in the civil rights movement, describing himself as a Black Nationalist. He moved to Minneapolis and began to write, clearly using speech patterns and rhythms that were familiar to him from Black neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. His writing was also strongly influenced by the blues and artist Romare Bearden. In 1968 he founded and directed the Black Horizon Theater Company in Pittsburgh in a predominantly Black neighborhood referred to as “the Hill”. In 1972 he began writing a play, Jitney, about a Gypsy cab station, which was produced in 1978 at Black Horizon and in 1982 at the Eugene O’Neill Center’s National Playwright Conference.

Wilson also founded the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. Shortly after, he wrote Fullerton Street, which was not as well received as Jitney. His first commercial success was Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which was developed at the Playwrights Center in 1983, Yale Repertory Theater in 1984 and Broadway where it enjoyed 275 performances and won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. The play was set in a movie studio and Charles Dutton played the character of Levee.

Wilson’s next play was Fences. It presented a slice-of-life in a Black tenement in (Pittsburgh?) set in the late 1950s through 1965. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone opened at the Yale Repertory Theater in late 1986 and moved to New York in early 1988. It won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. Two Trains Running opened in 1992 and starred Laurence Fishburne and Cynthia Martells. Seven Guitars opened at the Goodman Theater, Chicago in 1995. The play has since moved to Broadway with a successful run. Set in Pittsburgh, it’s about the blues and how they mean different things to Blacks and to Whites.

In 1978 Wilson moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, at the suggestion of his friend, director Claude Purdy, who helped him secure a job writing educational scripts for the Science Museum of Minnesota. In 1980 he received a fellowship for The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. He quit the Museum in 1981, but continued writing plays. For three years, he was a part-time cook for the Little Brothers of the Poor. Wilson had a long association with the Penumbra Theatre Company of St. Paul, which premiered some of his plays. He wrote Fullerton Street, which has been unproduced and unpublished, in 1980. It follows the Joe Louis/Billy Conn fight in 1940 and the loss of values attendant on the Great Migration to the urban North.

In 1987, St. Paul’s mayor George Latimer named May 27 “August Wilson Day”. He was honored because he is the only person from Minnesota to win a Pulitzer Prize.

In 1990 Wilson left St. Paul after getting divorced and moved to Seattle. There he developed a relationship with Seattle Repertory Theatre, which became the only theater in the country to produce his entire 10-play cycle and his one-man show How I Learned What I Learned.

Though he was a writer dedicated to writing for theater, a Hollywood studio proposed filming Wilson’s play Fences. He insisted that a black director be hired for the film, saying: “I declined a white director not on the basis of race but on the basis of culture. White directors are not qualified for the job. The job requires someone who shares the specifics of the culture of black Americans.” The film remained unmade until 2016, when Denzel Washington directed the film Fences, It starred Washington and Viola Davis. It earned Wilson a posthumous Oscar nomination.

Wilson received many honorary degrees, including an honorary Doctor of Humanities from the University of Pittsburgh, where he served as a member of the University’s Board of Trustees from 1992 until 1995.

Wilson maintained a strong voice in the progress and development of the (then) contemporary black theater, undoubtedly taking influences from the examples of his youth, such as those displayed during the Black Arts Movement. One of the most notable examples of Wilson’s strong opinions and critiques of what was black theater’s state in the ’90s, was the “On Cultural Power: The August Wilson/Robert Brustein Discussion”—being just one of the times where Wilson spoke plainly for the progression of black theater. Here, Wilson engages in a somewhat heated discussion with Robert Brustein. Neither truly came out ‘right’; however, both helped in calling attention to the issue and shedding light on the poor state the form was in. Undeniably, Wilson left an everlasting imprint on Black Theater’s development.

Wilson’s drama, King Hedley II opened at the Virginia Theater on Broadway in April 2001, and it starred Brian Stokes-Mitchell and Leslie Uggams. Currently Wilson ended his 10-work cycle of plays at the theater where his first debuted more than 20 years ago. “Radio Golf” premiered at the Yale Repertory Theater, Timothy Douglas directing the staging through May 14, 2005.

Wilson was married three times. His first marriage was to Brenda Burton from 1969 to 1972. They had one daughter, Sakina Ansari, born 1970. In 1981 he married Judy Oliver, a social worker; they divorced in 1990. He married again in 1994 and was survived by his third wife, costume designer, Constanza Romero, whom he met on the set of The Piano Lesson. They had a daughter, Azula Carmen Wilson. Wilson was also survived by siblings Freda Ellis, Linda Jean Kittel, Donna Conley, Barbara Jean Wilson, Edwin Kittel and Richard Kittel.

Wilson reported that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer in June 2005 and been given three to five months to live. He died on October 2, 2005, at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, and was interred at Greenwood Cemetery, Pittsburgh, on October 8, 2005, aged 60.

Written by Dianne Washington

Gregory Ellis “Greg” Mathis born on April 5, 1960 in Detroit, Michigan, the fourth of four boys to Charles and Alice Lee Mathis, a Seventh-day Adventist, nurse’s aide, and housekeeper. After they divorced Alice raised Mathis and his brothers alone. Mathis joined a street gang as a teenager and was arrested numerous times. While he was incarcerated as a juvenile, his mother visited him and told him that she was diagnosed with colon cancer. Mathis was offered early probation because of his mother’s illness. A family friend helped Mathis get admitted to Eastern Michigan University. He became a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, graduated and met his eventual wife, Linda, shortly after his mother’s death. They would go on to have four children together.

Greg Mathis is a retired Michigan District Court judge and syndicated television show arbiter on the long-running reality courtroom show Judge Mathis. Produced in Chicago, the program has been on the air since 1999 and is currently into its 17th season. Mathis has the longest reign of any black erson presiding as a court show judge, beating out Judge Joe Brown whose program lasted 15 seasons. Mathis is also the second longest serving television arbitrator ever, behind Judge Judy. A spiritually inspired play, Been there, Done that, based on his life toured 22 cities in the U.S. in 2002.

He graduated from the University of Detroit Mercy in 1987. Mathis was denied a license to practice law for several years after graduating from law school because of his criminal past. Mathis was the head of Jesse Jackson’s Presidential campaign in 1988. Mathis also asked for the resignation of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick after Kilpatrick and his top aide, Christine Beatty were indicted on perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct charges. Greg Mathis wrote a novel called “Street Judge”, based on the life of a judge who solves murders. It was co-written by Zane, a well-known erotic series writer of “Zane’s Sex Chronicles”. Mathis also wrote a book entitled “Of Being a Judge to Criminals and Such”.

Mathis began his political career as an unpaid intern, and then became an assistant to Clyde Cleveland, a city council member. It was at this time Mathis took the LSAT and applied to law schools; he was conditionally admitted to the University of Detroit School of Law, which was located in downtown Detroit, walking distance from city hall. He passed a summer course and was officially admitted to the night program which took four years to complete.

Mathis was appointed head of Jesse Jackson’s Presidential campaign in the state of Michigan in 1988. Mathis later became head of Mayor Coleman Young’s re-election campaign and after the victory was appointed to run the city’s east side city hall.

Mathis has continued to be involved in politics after rising to national entertainment prominence through his television show. Urban politics and African-American movements have been his focus. Most recently, Mathis was invited by the Obama administration to be a part of “My Brothers Keeper”, a White House Initiative to empower boys, and men of color.

Mathis asked for the resignation of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick after the Wayne County Prosecutor indicted Kilpatrick and his former top aide, Christine Beatty, on perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office charges. Mathis spoke out after he was falsely named in an Associated Press wire story to have co-founded a legal defense fund for Kilpatrick. The statement released by Greg Mathis stated: “I was contacted Wednesday afternoon by Mayor Kilpatrick. He asked if I could serve on his legal defense committee. I informed him, I support due process, but I could not support him. This is the same type of deceit that has plunged our city into a deep crisis. Not only do I not support him, but I recommend he resign so the city can heal and move forward.”

On June 4, 2011 Motor City drivers lined up for blocks for free gas Friday, courtesy of a grateful Greg Mathis. Mathis offered up to $92 worth of free gasoline apiece to the first 92 drivers to show up at a northwest Detroit Mobil station. He told the Detroit Free Press it was a gift to the people who elected him to District Court despite his youthful criminal record. “LA didn’t elect me judge,” he said. “Chicago didn’t elect me judge. Detroiters took a chance on me. It’s just the right thing to do. And when you’re blessed, you have to look out for the rest.” The giveaway took place near the Mathis Community Center, which he funds. Its activities include self-improvement classes, food and clothing assistance, and training for ex-convicts. “No matter what international fame he’s achieved, he’s still a hometown guy,” said WMXD-FM’s Frankie Darcell, who announced the location on the air. “Everybody’s happy. I’m happy,” said gas station owner Mike Safiedine. “The people need it, especially (because) the price is very high.”

In September 2008, Mathis wrote a novel called Street Judge, based on the life of a judge who solves murders. It was co-written by Zane, a well-known erotic series writer of Zane’s Sex Chronicles. Mathis also wrote a book entitled Of Being a Judge to Criminals and Such.

Written by Dianne Washington

Da Brat

Shawntae Harris (born April 14, 1974), better known by her stage name Da Brat, is an American rapper and actress from Chicago, Illinois. Beginning her career in 1992, her debut album Funkdafied (1994) sold one million copies, making her the first female solo rap act to receive a platinum certification, and the second overall female rap act (solo or group) after Salt-N-Pepa. Brat has received two Grammy Award nominations. Some of her most successful songs/features include, “I Think They Like Me”, “Funkdafied” and “Loverboy”

Born Shawntae Harris on April 14, 1974, in Joliet, Illinois, Brat was raised on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. Born to a Chicago city bus driver, her parents never married. Brat was subsequently raised in two different households. Da Brat lived part of the time with her mother and grandmother and attended an Apostolic church four times a week, where she sang in the choir. Da Brat attended Kenwood Academy during her sophomore and junior year, where she ran track and played basketball. She graduated from the Academy of Scholastic Achievement, a continuation charter school that caters to at-risk students in 1992.

In 1992, Da Brat’s big break occurred when she won the grand prize in a local rap contest sponsored by Yo! MTV Raps. For the prize, she met the young rap duo Kris Kross. They introduced her to their producer, Jermaine Dupri, who signed her to his So So Def label. Dupri cultivated Da Brat’s image as a “female Snoop Doggy Dogg,” and she became one of the first female “reality-based” rappers. Da Brat told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that her stage name was inspired from being “a spoiled only child.” Da Brat’s debut album Funkdafied was released in 1994 and entered the rap albums chart at #11. The album went platinum, making her the first female solo rapper to sell one million copies. The eponymous single reached #1 on the rap singles chart and #6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Her follow-up single from the same album, “Give It 2 You,” reached #26 on the Hot 100.

In 1996, Da Brat released her second full-length album, Anuthatantrum, which included the single “Ghetto Love” featuring T-Boz of TLC. During the rest of the 1990s, Da Brat came to be known more for her “featured” appearances on other rappers’ and R&B singers’ albums rather than for her own solo work. Da Brat was also featured with Kris Kross on the title track of their album Da Bomb (1993) as well as on their third album Young, Rich and Dangerous (1996). She contributed a rhyme to the hip hop remix of Mariah Carey’s hit, “Always Be My Baby” (1996). She also made her feature film debut that year in Kazaam (1996) with Shaquille O’Neal. During the summer of 1997, Da Brat appeared along with Dupri on a remix of Carey’s “Honey (So So Def mix)” (1997) and recorded the hit remix of “Ladies’ Night (Not Tonight)” (1997) with Lil’ Kim, Left-Eye of TLC, Angie Martinez, and Missy Elliott. Also in 1997, she was featured on “Sock It 2 Me,” a track on Missy Elliott’s debut album, Supa Dupa Fly. In 1999, she appeared, alongside Krayzie Bone, on the remix to Mariah Carey’s cover of Brenda K. Starr’s “I Still Believe” (1998). She also appeared as a guest artist with Elliott on Carey’s remix of “Heartbreaker” (1999), and on the remix of Brandy’s “U Don’t Know Me (Like U Used To).” That year, she was also featured on a remix of the Destiny’s Child single “Jumpin’, Jumpin'”

In early 2000, Da Brat released her third full-length album Unrestricted, which produced the moderately successful singles “That’s What I’m Looking For” (U.S. #56) and “What Chu Like” (U.S. #26), featuring soul singer, Tyrese. The album was not well-received compared to Brat’s earlier work. However, the new album and new millennium did inspire an image makeover for Da Brat. Abandoning her “gangsta” persona, she decided to follow the trend in popular music and attempted to add to her sex appeal. In 2001, Brat continued her trend of being featured on other artist’s remixes, reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles chart along with rapper Ludacris on the main remix of Mariah Carey’s “Loverboy” and being featured artist on Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” remix. Da Brat also appeared as Louise in Carey’s 2001 movie Glitter. In 2003, Brat released her fourth album, titled Limelite, Luv & Niteclubz, and appeared on the 4th season of VH1’s The Surreal Life.

In 2005, she made a comeback of sorts when she was featured on the remix of the song “I Think They Like Me,” by Dem Franchize Boyz, which also featured Bow Wow and Jermaine Dupri. The song peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip Hop Singles chart and No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2006, she was an onstage guest on Mariah Carey’s The Adventures of Mimi Tour in Atlanta, New York City, Long Island, Washington, DC, Chicago, and Los Angeles performing her rap verses on the “Heartbreaker” and “Honey” remixes. She was also featured on Kelly Rowland’s “Gotsta Go,” a bonus track from her 2007 album Ms. Kelly and is also featured on “4real4real”, a bonus track from Carey’s E=MC². She also co-wrote a song with Carey called “O.O.C.” which appears on E=MC² and contributes backing vocals on the track. In 2007, she participated in the fifth season of the VH1 reality series Celebrity Fit Club. In 2011, she did a remix with Kelly Rowland called “Motivation” featuring Lil Wayne. Following her release from prison, she launched a web series about life after the experience titled “Brat Chronicles: In Transition” on YouTube. She released her new single “Is It Chu?” on iTunes and other digital services on July 2, 2013. She now works for the Rickey Smiley Morning show as a co-host (July 2015 – present) and is part of the Dish Nation cast out of Atlanta. Since 2016, Da Brat has appeared on the reality TV series The Rap Game, as a mentor to young talent. In 2017 Da Brat joined the reality TV series Growing up Hip Hop: Atlanta which follows around Atlanta legends and children of Atlanta legends.

In 2001, Da Brat pleaded guilty to misdemeanor reckless conduct after she had battered a woman with a rum bottle during a dispute over VIP seating in an Atlanta nightclub in 2000. The victim in that incident received six stitches for a head wound. Da Brat ended up serving a year’s probation, performed 80 hours of community service, and paid a $1,000 fine. On October 31, 2007, Da Brat was involved in an altercation that ended in assault at a Halloween party held at Studio 72 nightclub in Atlanta. Da Brat initially argued with a hostess, and when the hostess walked away to talk to her manager, Da Brat attacked her from behind, striking her in the face with a rum bottle. The waitress was rushed to an area hospital, and police arrested and jailed Da Brat. In court, Da Brat plead guilty to aggravated assault charges. She was sentenced to three years in prison, seven years of probation, 200 hours of community service. In May 2010, she was temporarily released from prison as part of a work-release program, after serving 21 months. On February 28, 2011, Jermaine Dupri announced that Da Brat was officially released from prison, completing her sentence. Her civil trial stemming from the 2007 altercation commenced on February 24, 2014. On February 28, 2014, a civil trial jury awarded ex-NFL cheerleader Shayla Stevens, the assault victim, $6.4 million to cover her injuries and past/future loss of earnings.

Da Brat is the younger half–sister of actress and former model LisaRaye McCoy through her father.

On March 26, 2020, Da Brat confirmed that she is in a relationship with hair product mogul Jesseca Dupart.

Written by Dianne Washington

KARINE SHO-TIME THORNTON

From Battle Rapper to media Sho-Time has it covered, not only that there is a movie in the works. Once the quarantine is over, there will be many goals back in motion for example, the Reality show with KAL DAWSON, and a few industry surprises. Karine has grown And wants more for himself, there will be a whole new re-branding. Most importantly the way he marketed in the past, will be will be Totally different moving forward. There are great things to come and I’m excited, to see what’s next log on to SHO-TIMETV on The website and Instagram and it will be nothing but content relating to celebrity media and Battle Rapper culture!

Lisa Stansfield

Lisa Stansfield (born April 11,1966) is an English singer, songwriter and actress. Her career began in 1980 when she won the singing competition Search for a Star. After appearances in various television shows and releasing her first singles, Stansfield, Ian Devaney and Andy Morris formed Blue Zone in 1984. The band released several singles and one album, but after the success of “People Hold On” in 1989, on which Stansfield was featured, they focused on her solo career.

Stansfield’s first solo album, Affection (1989), and its worldwide chart-topping lead single, “All Around the World”, were major breakthroughs in her career. She was nominated for two Grammy Awards and Affection is currently her best-selling album. In the following years, Stansfield released Real Love (1991), So Natural (1993) and Lisa Stansfield (1997). In 1999, she appeared in her first film, Swing, and also recorded the soundtrack for it. Her next albums included Face Up (2001), Biography: The Greatest Hits (2003) and The Moment (2004). After that, Stansfield took a break from music and focused on her film career. In 2008, she starred in The Edge of Love and in 2014 she appeared in Northern Soul.

Stansfield released her most recent album, Seven, on 31 January 2014. Its lead single, “Can’t Dance”, was digitally released on 16 October 2013. She promoted the new album with the European Seven Tour in 2013 and 2014.

Stansfield has won numerous awards, including Brit Awards, Ivor Novello Awards, Billboard Music Award, World Music Award, ASCAP Award, Women’s World Award, Silver Clef Awards and DMC Awards. She has sold over twenty million albums worldwide, including five million of Affection. In December 2016, Billboard magazine ranked her as the 46th most successful dance artist of all-time.

Stansfield was born on April 11,1966 in Manchester, Lancashire. Her parents are Marion and Keith Stansfield and she has two sisters, Karen and Suzanne. Her family moved to Heywood in 1976, then to Rochdale in 1977. Stansfield grew up listening to soul music and admitted that her mother’s playing of Diana Ross and the Supremes was her first musical influence, with her idols being Barry White and Marvin Gaye.

In 1980, Stansfield won the Search for a Star singing competition at the Talk of the Town nightclub and in 1981 her first single “Your Alibis” was released by the Devil Records. In 1982, she appeared on the television show Bring Me the Head of Light Entertainment on ITV Granada. At the same time, Stansfield signed her recording contract with Polydor Records.

In 1983, Johnnie Hamp produced for ITV Granada a documentary directed by Pete Walker, Born in the Sixties: Lisa Stansfield. It was a monograph of the aspiring singer and it included her comments and those of her mother and sisters and some songs sung by Stansfield. Also in 1983, she co-hosted the children’s television music programme Razzamatazz and appeared on another children’s television series The Krankies Klub. Between 1982 and 1983, Stansfield released her next three singles: “The Only Way”, “Listen to Your Heart” and “I Got a Feeling”. Her early recordings were released on the album In Session in September 1996.

In 1984, Stansfield and former school mates Ian Devaney and Andy Morris formed the band Blue Zone. They wrote some songs, produced a demo, and took it around to record labels. A small indie label, Rockin’ Horse Records signed them in 1985 and one year later it was bought up by Arista Records. After releasing their first two singles in 1986, “Love Will Wait” and “Finest Thing”, Arista issued “On Fire” in October 1987. Just as the single was climbing up the charts (number ninety-nine in the United Kingdom), it was withdrawn by the record company in the wake of the King’s Cross fire. The band’s next single, “Thinking About His Baby” was released in January 1988 and reached number seventy-nine in the UK. Its B-side, “Big Thing” became popular on the radio and in the clubs.

In July 1988, “Jackie” was issued as a single outside the UK and reached number thirty-seven on the Hot Dance Club Songs and number fifty-four on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The release date for Blue Zone’s album, Big Thing which was recorded in 1987, was pushed back many times by the record label. Finally, it was released outside the UK in November 1988 without any further promotion. The album included songs written by Blue Zone, except for “Jackie” written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly. It was produced by Paul Staveley O’Duffy, except for “Perfect Crime” produced by Blue Zone. Ric Wake also co-produced “Jackie” and “Perfect Crime”.

In early 1989, Stansfield co-wrote and recorded “People Hold On” for Coldcut’s album, What’s That Noise?. The single was released in March 1989 and reached number six on the Hot Dance Club Songs in the United States and number eleven in the United Kingdom. On the strength of this hit, Arista Records signed Stansfield as a solo artist. Her debut album, Affection was released on 20 November 1989. Stansfield co-wrote all songs with Ian Devaney and Andy Morris. Devaney and Morris also produced the album, except for “This Is the Right Time” produced by Coldcut. Affection received critical acclaim from music critics and was commercially successful. It reached the top ten on charts around the world, including number one in Austria and Italy, number two in the UK, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, number three in Belgium, number five in New Zealand, number six in the Netherlands and Norway, and number seven in Australia and Canada. In the US, it peaked at number five on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and number nine on the Billboard 200. The album has sold over five million copies worldwide and was certified 3× Platinum in the UK, Platinum in the US, Canada, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, and Gold in France, Finland and Austria.

Affection includes Stansfield’s biggest hit and signature song, “All Around the World”. The track reached number one in many countries, including the UK, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway and Spain. In the US, “All Around the World” peaked at number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs and Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, and reached number three on the Billboard Hot 100. The single was certified Platinum in the US for selling over one million copies and Gold in many other countries, including the UK, Germany, Australia, Sweden and Austria. In the UK, other singles from the album reached numbers ten (“Live Together”), thirteen (“This Is the Right Time”) and twenty-five (“What Did I Do to You?”) on the chart. In the US, “You Can’t Deny It” peaked at number one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, number two on the Hot Dance Club Songs and number fourteen on the Billboard Hot 100. “This Is the Right Time” reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs, number thirteen on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number twenty-one on the Billboard Hot 100.

Stansfield also toured Europe and North America in 1990 to support her album, and released later Live! All Around the World home video. Thanks to Affection and “All Around the World”, she received many awards, including: Brit Award, Billboard Music Award, World Music Award, ASCAP Award, Ivor Novello Awards, Silver Clef Awards and DMC Awards. Stansfield was also nominated for two Grammy Awards in categories Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Shortly after her success, she did two charity recordings. In December 1989, Stansfield became a part of the Band-Aid II, a charity supergroup founded to raise money for anti-poverty efforts in Ethiopia and recorded “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” which topped the UK Singles Chart for three weeks. Later, she covered “Down in the Depths” for the AIDS charity compilation, Red Hot + Blue released in September 1990, and also filmed a music video for it.

In 1991, Stansfield recorded her second studio album, Real Love and released it on 11 November 1991. She co-wrote all the songs with Ian Devaney and Andy Morris, who also produced the album. Real Love received positive reviews from music critics and reached top ten on the charts in various countries, including number three in the United Kingdom, number five in the Netherlands, number nine in Germany and number ten in Belgium. In the United States, it peaked at number six on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and number forty-three on the Billboard 200. Real Love was certified 2× Platinum in the UK and Gold in the US, Canada, Germany and Switzerland. The first single, “Change” became a hit peaking within the top ten in Italy, Belgium, Spain, Netherlands, Canada and the UK. In the US, it reached number one on the Hot Dance Club Songs, number twelve on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs and number twenty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100.

The second single from the Real Love album, “All Woman”, peaked inside the top forty in various European countries, including number twenty in the UK. It was successful on the US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart topping it in April 1992. On the Billboard Hot 100, “All Woman” reached number fifty-six. Next two singles released in Europe included “Time to Make You Mine” and “Set Your Loving Free”, which peaked at numbers fourteen and twenty-eight in the UK. The last US single, “A Little More Love” reached number thirty on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. In 1992, Stansfield toured Europe, Asia and the United States, and released Live at Wembley home video. In late 1992, she co-wrote and recorded “Someday (I’m Coming Back)” for the successful The Bodyguard: Original Soundtrack Album. The song was released as a single in Europe in December 1992, after “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston, and reached top ten in the UK. She also wrote a song for Dionne Warwick Friends Can Be Lovers which was produced by Ian and Andy along with another song written by Diane Warren Much To Much and Lisa sang background vocals on both tracks they can be found on the 1993 Dionne Warwick CD Friends Can Be Lovers.

n April 1993, George Michael released his charity EP, Five Live. It included “These Are the Days of Our Lives” recorded with Stansfield and Queen during The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in April 1992. Five Live was successful and reached number one in the United Kingdom for three weeks. During the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, which was also released on VHS, Stansfield performed “I Want to Break Free” as well. In early 1993, she co-wrote and recorded “In All the Right Places”, theme song from the Indecent Proposal drama film starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. The single was issued in May 1993 and reached number eight in the UK and Ireland. It was later included on Stansfield’s third studio album, So Natural released on 8 November 1993.

So Natural garnered positive reviews from music critics and performed moderately on the charts, reaching number six in the UK and receiving Platinum certification. It also peaked within the top forty in Italy, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Netherlands. The album was promoted by two singles, “So Natural” and “Little Bit of Heaven” which reached numbers fifteen and thirty-two in the UK. So Natural was not released in North America. In 1994, Stansfield toured Japan and the UK. In late 1994, she released two singles in the United States: “Make It Right” from Beverly Hills 90210: The College Years soundtrack and “Dream Away” (duet with Babyface) from The Pagemaster movie. Stansfield also recorded the following cover songs: “Friday’s Child” for No Prima Donna: The Songs of Van Morrison (1994), “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” for The Glory of Gershwin (1994), “Just to Keep You Satisfied” for Inner City Blues: The Music of Marvin Gaye (1995) and “Take Me Away” (duet with Aska) for One Voice: The Songs of Chage & Aska (1996).

In May 1999, Stansfield made her film debut. She played Joan Woodcock in the Nick Mead-directed movie, Swing, also starring Hugo Speer, and recorded songs for the soundtrack. The album, full of jazz and swing tracks was released on 10 May 1999. Swing: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack received positive reviews from music critics and peaked at number six on Billboard’s Top Jazz Albums chart. In July 1999, Stansfield’s duet with Barry White, “The Longer We Make Love” was released as a single from his album, Staying Power.

In late 2000, she recorded two cover songs: “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” for the Motown Mania album (released in December 2000) and “Somewhere My Baby Waits for Me” for The Wedding Planner soundtrack (released in January 2001).

In February 2002, she made her stage debut in The Vagina Monologues at the Arts Theatre in West End of London together with Anita Dobson and Cecilia Noble.

In 1987, Stansfield married the Italian designer Augusto Grassi, whom she met during a holiday in Tunisia. A ceremony was held in the Sacred Heart Church in Rochdale. The couple moved to Zagarolo in Italy but their marriage lasted only four months. Following the end of the marriage Stansfield came back to Britain. After many years of friendship and engagement, she and Ian Devaney married on 25 July 1998. The minimalist ceremony was held in New York City and the only guests were her parents and his mother.

In 2008, Stansfield sold her six-bedroom Victorian house “Mount Henry” on Torca Road in Dalkey, Ireland, for €6 million to Yorkshire business tycoon Ed Clark (originally asking for €8 million in May 2007).

Written by Dianne Washington

NEW MOVIE ALERT!

A TEENAGE STORY

Noel Washington is a high school student who wishes to become a famous rapper. His father, on the other hand, wants him to forget the world of Hip Hop and aim to become a lawyer instead. Following in the footsteps of his grandfather, who was a legendary rapper, Noel learns that the path to fame is not an easy one. Join Noel in his journey as he uncovers family secrets, endures tragedy, and finds love in this coming-of-age movie “A Teenage Story.”

Starring La Sunshine, Grandwizzard Theodore, Stevie D and introducing Justin Hines as Noel

Movie will air online for free on youtube

Black Sheep is an American hip hop duo from Queens, New York, United States, composed of Andres “Dres” Vargas Titus and William “Mista Lawnge” McLean. The duo was from New York but met as teenagers in Sanford, North Carolina, where both of their families relocated. The group was an affiliate of the Native Tongues, which included the Jungle Brothers, A Tribe Called Quest, and De La Soul. After getting together in 1989, Black Sheep debuted in 1991 with the hit song “Flavor of the Month” and later released its first album, A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing, which gained them praise and recognition in the hip-hop community for the album’s unique rhythms and intelligent often humorous lyrics. After six years together, Black Sheep disbanded in 1995, citing creative differences.

Black Sheep was formed in 1989 by Andres “Dres” Vargas Titus and William “Mista Lawnge” McLean. Black Sheep was the first hip-hop act to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno after the departure of Johnny Carson.

A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing charted three times on the Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart in 1992 with “The Choice Is Yours (Revisited)” (#9), and “Strobelite Honey” (#1). Black Sheep was also featured on the remix of Vanessa Williams’s single “Work to Do” (#8). The group’s relationship with its label, Mercury/PolyGram, allowed Dres to establish a boutique label through which he could sign his own acts. Mercury distributed the imprint, which was called One Love, through PolyGram’s Independent Label Sales division rather than PolyGram Group Distribution. However, only one full-length title was ever released, the only album by affiliated act the Legion, titled Theme + Echo = Krill (One Love/Mercury/PolyGram Records 124 029), from 1994.

The group’s second album, Non-Fiction, was released later that year. Because of virtually no promotion and a generally poor reception, the album managed only lackluster sales.

Dres was featured on the second Handsome Boy Modeling School album White People, on the track “First…and Then.” In 2006, Dres released an online-only album titled 8WM/Novakane. 8WM stands for Women with Women with Weed with Wine with Me. According to AllHipHop.com, Mista Lawnge has changed the spelling of his name to Mr. Long. He also released a solo project called “The Class of 89” in 2006. Dres appeared on the 1990s remix of Nas’ February 2007 song “Where are They Now?”

In 2008, the single “The Choice is Yours (Revisited)” was ranked number #73 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Hip Hop Songs. The song was featured in a commercial for the 2010 Kia Soul.

Written by Dianne Washington

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer and songwriter. Franklin began her career as a child singing gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, where her father, C. L. Franklin, was minister. In 1960, at the age of 18, she embarked on a secular career, recording for Columbia Records but only achieving modest success.

Following her signing to Atlantic Records in 1967, Franklin achieved commercial acclaim and success with songs such as “Respect”, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman”, “Spanish Harlem” and “Think”. By the end of the 1960s decade she had gained the title “The Queen of Soul”. Franklin eventually recorded a total of 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries and twenty number-one R&B singles, becoming the most charted female artist in the chart’s history. Franklin also recorded acclaimed albums such as I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, Lady Soul, Young, Gifted and Black and Amazing Grace before experiencing problems with her record company by the mid-1970s. After her father was shot in 1979, Franklin left Atlantic and signed with Arista Records, finding success with her part in the film The Blues Brothers and with the albums Jump to It and Who’s Zoomin’ Who?. In 1998, Franklin won international acclaim for singing the opera aria “Nessun dorma”, at the Grammys of that year replacing Luciano Pavarotti. Later that same year, she scored her final Top 40 recording with “A Rose Is Still a Rose”. Franklin’s other popular and well known hits include “Rock Steady”, “Jump to It”, “Freeway of Love”, “Who’s Zoomin’ Who”, “Chain Of Fools”, “I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” (with George Michael), and a remake of The Rolling Stones song “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”.

Franklin has won a total of 18 Grammy Awards and is one of the best-selling musical artists of all time, having sold over 75 million records worldwide. Franklin has been honored throughout her career including a 1987 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in which she became the first female performer to be inducted. She was inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In August 2012, Franklin was inducted into the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Franklin is listed in at least two all-time lists on Rolling Stone magazine, including the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time; and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Franklin was born in Memphis and grew up in Detroit, where her father, the Rev. C. L. Franklin, was the pastor at the New Bethel Baptist Church. She began singing church music at an early age, and recorded her first album, The Gospel Sound of Aretha Franklin, for the Checker label at age 14. Her early influences, however, included secular singers like Dinah Washington, Sam Cooke, LaVern Baker, and Ruth Brown. Franklin signed with Columbia Records in 1960, yet her tenure at Columbia was open to doubt and found her dabbling in pop and jazz styles.

Columbia’s white ideals misunderstood her brilliance. With her switch to Atlantic Records in 1966, Aretha helped usher in an era of fresh, straightforward soul music. It began with her first single for the label; I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Loved You). Her next achievement was Respect, a fervent reworking of an Otis Redding song. Working with producer Jerry Wexler, engineer Tom Dowd, and arranger Arif Mardin, Franklin rewrote the book on soul music in the late Sixties with a string of smash crossover singles that included Chain of Fools, Think and A Natural Woman (You Make Me Feel).

The Seventies brought continued success to Franklin, who has to date, charted more million-sellers than any other woman in recording history did. “Lady Soul” (as she was dubbed) released Spirit in the Dark and Young, Gifted and Black. Her long tenure with Atlantic came to an end in 1980 and she signed with Arista. There, she recorded everything from gospel to dance music, including Freeway of Love and I Knew You Were Waiting (for Me). In 1987, she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Franklin backed out of the spotlight in 1988, the year that her sister Carolyn, her brother, and her manager all died. What followed was a long line of accolades, a performance at President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration, and countless minor projects such as a biography and television special. In 1998, Franklin recorded A Rose Is Still a Rose. Aretha Franklin, the “Queen of Soul,” remains one of the greatest vocalists of the age, a singer of great passion, and control whose finest recordings characterize the term soul music in all its deep, expressive glory. As Atlantic Records co-founder Ahmet Ertegun said, “I don’t think there’s anybody I have known who possesses an instrument like hers and who has such a thorough background in gospel, the blues and the essential black-music idiom.

She is blessed with an extraordinary combination of remarkable inner-city sophistication and of the deep blues feeling that comes from the Delta. The results, maybe she is the greatest singer of our time.” Franklin’s latest CD is called “So Damn Happy.”

Franklin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1979, had her voice declared a Michigan “natural resource” in 1985, and became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. NARAS awarded her a Grammy Legend Award in 1991, then the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. Franklin was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1994, recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999, and was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.

Franklin become the second woman inducted to the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. She was the 2008 MusiCares Person of the Year, performing at the Grammys days later. Following news of Franklin’s surgery and recovery in February 2011, the Grammys ceremony paid tribute to the singer with a medley of her classics performed by Christina Aguilera, Florence Welch, Jennifer Hudson, Martina McBride, and Yolanda Adams. That same year she was ranked among the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time top artists, and ranked first on the Rolling Stone list of Greatest Singers of All Time.

Inducted to the GMA Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012, Franklin has been described as “the voice of the civil rights movement, the voice of black America” and a “symbol of black equality”. Franklin received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1979, had her voice declared a Michigan “natural resource” in 1985, and became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. NARAS awarded her a Grammy Legend Award in 1991, then the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. Franklin was a Kennedy Center Honoree in 1994, recipient of the National Medal of Arts in 1999, and was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.

She retired in 2017 and passed on August 16, 2018.

Written by Dianne Washington

Spike Lee

Spike Lee was born on this date in 1957. He is an African American filmmaker, writer, actor, and producer.

From Atlanta, Georgia, Sheldon Jackson Lee (his name at birth) is the son of jazz composer Bill Lee and was raised in Brooklyn, New York. Lee graduated from John Dewey high school and majored in communications at Morehouse College, where he directed his first Super-8 films. In 1978, he enrolled in New York University’s Graduate Film School. While attending these two schools, he met future collaborators, cinematographer Ernest Dickerson and co-producer Monty Ross.

Lee’s master’s thesis, the short subject Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads earned him the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s Student Award. His first feature film was She’s Gotta Have It (1986), a character study about the love life of a modern Black woman made on a $175,000 budget. Lee wrote, produced, directed, and edited the film and played a key-supporting role, setting up a career-long pattern of his style of involvement. His next film, centered on his experiences at Morehouse, was School Daze (1988).

The well-known Howard Beach incident, in which a Black man was chased and killed by rampaging white youths, was the inspiration for Lee’s third feature, Do the Right Thing (1989). Almost all of his next films dealt with issues of race and racism in the modern United States, sometimes with honest and justifiable fury Jungle Fever (1991) occasionally with magic and ironic humor Crooklyn (1994) and Get on the Bus (1996). With the notable exception of his film Malcolm X (1992), many of Lee’s later works received mixed reviews. Some observers complained about the excessive length of his films.

Others criticized his perpetuation of ethnic stereotypes, especially the Jewish characters in Mo’ Better Blues (1990) and the Italian-Americans in Summer of Sam (1999). Still others have condemned his treatment of his female characters. Lee mentioned what he saw as Hollywood’s anti-Black bias, noting that, while Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X, and his documentary 4 Little Girls (1997) all received Academy Award nominations, he was continually denied an Oscar. His father contributed music to She’s Gotta Have It and Mo’ Better Blues, and others; his sister, Joie, played major roles in several productions; and his brother, David Charles Lee, was the still photographer.

His films are known for his uncompromising, provocative approach to controversial subject matter. His recent films have included directing The Kings of Comedy (2001) Jim Brown, All American, 25th Hour, and Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet (2002) (segment “We Wuz Robbed”). Sucker Free City, (TV) She Hate Me (2004), “Miracle’s Boys,” (mini) TV Series (6 episodes) and “Sucker Free City” (2005) TV Series. currently; The Night Watchman (pre-production) and All the Invisible Children (2006) (filming).

Lee and his wife, attorney Tonya Lewis, had their first child, daughter Satchel, in December 1994. They also have a son, Jackson, born in 1997. Spike Lee is a fan of the American baseball team the New York Yankees, basketball team the New York Knicks, and the English football team Arsenal. One of the documentaries in ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks, focuses partly on Lee’s interaction with Miller at Knicks games in Madison Square Garden.

In June 2003, Lee sought an injunction against Spike TV to prevent them from using his nickname. Lee claimed that because of his fame, viewers would think he was associated with the new channel.

He won an Oscar in 2019 for “Blackkklansmen.”

While Lee continues to maintain an office in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, he and his wife live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

Written by Dianne Washington