Category: Whats Buzzing in the Streets

Rick James (born James Ambrose Johnson Jr. February 1, 1948 – August 6, 2004) was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in his teen years. He was in a number of various bands and groups before entering the U.S. Navy to avoid being drafted in the early 1960s. In 1965, James deserted to Toronto, Canada, where he formed the rock band the Mynah Birds, who eventually signed a recording deal with Motown Records in 1966. James’s career with the group halted after military authorities discovered his whereabouts and eventually convicted James on a one-year prison term related to the draft charges. After being released, James moved to California where he started a variety of rock and funk groups in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

After forming the Stone City Band in his hometown of Buffalo in 1977, James finally found success as a recording artist after signing with Motown’s Gordy Records, releasing the album, Come Get It!, in April 1978. It’s from this album where the hits “You & I” and “Mary Jane”, were released, helping the album go platinum and selling over two million records. This was followed with three more successful album releases. James released his most successful album, Street Songs, in 1981, which included career-defining hits such as “Give It to Me Baby” and “Super Freak”, the latter song becoming his biggest crossover single, mixing elements of funk, disco, rock and new wave. James was also known for his soulful ballads such as “Fire & Desire” and “Ebony Eyes”. In addition, James also had a successful career as a songwriter and producer for other artists including Teena Marie, the Mary Jane Girls, the Temptations, Eddie Murphy and Smokey Robinson.

James’s mainstream success had peaked by the release of his album Glow in 1985 and his appearance on the popular TV show, The A-Team. James’s subsequent releases failed to sell as well as their predecessors. Rapper MC Hammer sampled James’s “Super Freak” for his 1990 hit, “U Can’t Touch This”, and James became the 1991 recipient of a Best R&B Song Grammy for composing the song. James’s career was hampered by his drug addiction by the early 1990s. In 1993, James was convicted for two separate instances of kidnapping and torturing two different women while under the influence of crack cocaine, resulting in a three-year sentence at Folsom State Prison. James was released on parole in 1996 and released the album, Urban Rapsody, in 1997. James’s health problems halted his career again after a mild stroke during a concert in 1998 and he announced a semi-retirement.

In 2004, James’s career returned to the mainstream after he appeared in an episode of Chappelle’s Show, in a Charlie Murphy True Hollywood Stories-style segment that satirized James’s wild lifestyle, resulting in renewed interest in James’s music and that year he returned to perform on the road. James died later that year from heart failure at age 56.

Paul Gladney (born August 4, 1941), better known by the stage name Paul Mooney, is an American comedian, writer, social critic, and television and film actor. He is best known for his appearances on Chappelle’s Show and as a writer for comedian Richard Pryor.

Mooney was born in 1941 in Shreveport, Louisiana, and moved to Oakland, California, seven years later. His parents are George Gladney and LaVoya Ealy. Mooney was raised primarily by his grandmother Aimay Ealy, known among the family as “Mama”. Ealy coined the nickname “Mooney” after the original Scarface (1932) actor Paul Muni.

Mooney became a ringmaster with the Gatti-Charles Circus. During his stint as ringmaster, he always found himself writing comedy and telling jokes, which later helped Mooney land his first professional work as a writer for Richard Pryor.

Mooney wrote some of Pryor’s routines for his appearance on Saturday Night Live, co-wrote his material for the Live on the Sunset Strip, Bicentennial Nigger, and Is It Something I Said albums, and Pryor’s film Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling. As the head writer for The Richard Pryor Show, he gave many young comics, such as Robin Williams, Sandra Bernhard, Marsha Warfield, John Witherspoon, and Tim Reid, their first break into show business.

Mooney also wrote for Redd Foxx’s Sanford and Son and Good Times, acted in several cult classics including Which Way Is Up?, Bustin’ Loose, Hollywood Shuffle, and portrayed singer/songwriter Sam Cooke in The Buddy Holly Story.

He was the head writer for the first year of Fox’s In Living Color, inspiring the character Homey D. Clown, played by Damon Wayans. Mooney later went on to play Wayans’ father in the Spike Lee film Bamboozled as the comedian Junebug.

Mooney initially appeared in the sketches “Ask a Black Dude” and “Mooney at the Movies” on Comedy Central’s Chappelle’s Show. He later appeared as Negrodamus, an African American version of Nostradamus. As Negrodamus, Mooney ad-libbed the “answers to life’s most unsolvable mysteries” such as “Why do white people love Wayne Brady?” (Answer: “Because Wayne Brady makes Bryant Gumbel look like Malcolm X.”) Mooney was planning to reprise his role as Negrodamus in the third season of the Chappelle’s Show, before Dave Chappelle left the show due to stress, and it ended suddenly.

In 2006, Paul Mooney hosted the BET tribute to Black History Month titled 25 Most @#%! Moments in Black History. In this show, he narrated some of the most shameful incidents involving African Americans since 1980. The top 25 moments included incidents involving Marion Barry, Terrell Owens, Wilson Goode, Michael Jackson, Flavor Flav, Whitney Houston, and Tupac Shakur.

In 2007, Mooney released his first book, the memoir Black is the New White.

In November 2014, Paul’s brother announced that Mooney has prostate cancer. Mooney still continues to tour, performing his stand-up comedy act.

Lupita Amondi Nyong’o (born March 1, 1983) is a Kenyan-Mexican actress. The daughter of Kenyan politician Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o, she was born in Mexico City where her father was teaching and was raised in Kenya from the age of one. She attended college in the United States, earning a bachelor’s degree in film and theater studies from Hampshire College.

Nyong’o began her career in Hollywood as a production assistant. In 2008, she made her acting debut with the short film East River and subsequently returned to Kenya to star in the television series Shuga (2009–2012). Also in 2009, she wrote, produced and directed the documentary In My Genes. She then pursued a master’s degree in acting from the Yale School of Drama. Soon after her graduation, she had her first feature film role as Patsey in Steve McQueen’s historical drama 12 Years a Slave (2013), for which she received critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She became the first Kenyan and Mexican actress to win an Academy Award.

Nyong’o made her Broadway debut as a teenage orphan in the critically acclaimed play Eclipsed (2015), for which she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. Following a motion capture role as Maz Kanata in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Nyong’o starred as Nakia in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Black Panther (2018).

In addition to acting, Nyong’o supports historic preservation. She is vocal about preventing sexual harassment and working for women and animal rights. In 2014, she was named the most beautiful woman by People. Nyong’o is a 2019 Hollywood Walk of Fame honoree.

It’s been 8 years today since Amy Winehouse left this Earthly plane. Sleep on sis.

Amy Jade Winehouse (September 14,1983 – July 23, 2011) was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul (sometimes labelled as blue-eyed soul and neo soul), rhythm and blues, and jazz. Winehouse’s debut album, Frank (2003), was a critical success in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize. Her follow-up album, Back to Black (2006), led to five 2008 Grammy Awards, tying the then record for the most wins by a female artist in a single night, and made her the first British woman to win five Grammys, including three of the General Field “Big Four” Grammy Awards: Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year.

Winehouse won three Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers, and Authors: in 2004, Best Contemporary Song for “Stronger Than Me”; in 2007, Best Contemporary Song again, this time for “Rehab”; and in 2008, Best Song Musically and Lyrically for “Love Is a Losing Game.” She also won the 2007 Brit Award for Best British Female Artist, having been nominated for Best British Album, with Back to Black.

Winehouse was plagued by drug and alcohol addiction. She died of alcohol poisoning on July 23, 2011 at the age of 27. After her death, her album Back to Black became, for a time, the UK’s best-selling album of the 21st century. It is also listed as one of the best-selling albums in UK chart history.

Danny Glover was born on this date in 1946. He is an African American actor and director and an activist.

Danny Lebern Glover was born in San Francisco. He is a graduate of San Francisco State University. As a young man he was a member of the Black Panther Party.

At the University, he met and married his wife, Asake Bomani, in 1975; they have one child named Mandisa.

Glover received his dramatic training at the American Conservatory Theatre’s Black Actors’ Workshop. He made his film debut in “Escape from Alcatraz” (1979). In the early 1980s, Glover made his name portraying characters ranging from the sympathetic in “Places in the Heart” (1984) to the menacing in Witness (1985) and “The Color Purple” (1984).

He reached box office gold status with the three Lethal Weapon movies. Glover contributed an amusing cameo in “Maverick”(1994). That same year Glover made his directorial debut with the Showtime channel short film “Override.” In 1998, Glover again had his role for “Lethal Weapon 4,” and that same year gave a stirring performance in the little-seen “Beloved.” He also joined the ranks of actors such as Humphrey Bogart, Elliot Gould, and Robert Mitchum who have portrayed Raymond Chandler’s private eye detective Phillip Marlowe in the episode “Red Wind” of the Showtime network’s 1995 series “Fallen Angels.”

On television, Glover played the title role in “Mandela” (1987), Joshua Deets in the 1989 miniseries “Lonesome Dove,” legendary railroad man John Henry in a 1988 installment of Shelley Duvall’s “Tall Tales,” and the mercurial leading character in the 1989 “American Playhouse” revival of “A Raisin in the Sun.”

In March 1998, he was appointed ambassador to the United Nations Development Program. Among his many awards, he has won five NAACP Image Awards for his achievements as a Black actor. Danny Glover is also chairman of TransAfrica. 

While attending San Francisco State University (SFSU), Glover was a member of the Black Students Union, which, along with the Third World Liberation Front and the American Federation of Teachers, collaborated in a five-month student-led strike to establish a Department of Black Studies. The strike was the longest student walkout in U.S. history. It helped create not only the first Department of Black Studies but also the first School of Ethnic Studies in the United States.

Hari Dillon, current president of the Vanguard Public Foundation, was a fellow striker at SFSU. Glover later co-chaired Vanguard’s board. He is also a board member of The Algebra Project, The Black AIDS Institute, Walden House, and Cheryl Byron’s Something Positive Dance Group. He was charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly after being arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington during a protest over Sudan’s humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

Glover’s long history of union activism includes support for the United Farm Workers, UNITE HERE, and numerous service unions. In March 2010, Glover supported 375 Union workers in Ohio by calling upon all actors at the 2010 Academy Awards to boycott Hugo Boss suits following announcement of Hugo Boss’s decision to close a manufacturing plant in Ohio after a proposed pay decrease from $13 to $8.30 an hour was rejected by the Workers United Union.

In January 2006, Harry Belafonte led a delegation of activists, including Glover and activist/professor Cornel West, in a meeting with President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez.

Glover was an early supporter of former North Carolina Senator John Edwards in the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries until Edwards’ withdrawal, although some news reports indicated that he had endorsed Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich,[27] whom he had endorsed in 2004. After Edwards dropped out, Glover then endorsed Barack Obama.

Glover was an outspoken critic of George W. Bush, calling him a known racist. “Yes, he’s racist. We all knew that. As Texas’s governor, Bush led a penitentiary system that executed more people than all the other U.S. states together. And most of the people who died were Afro-Americans or Hispanics.”

Glover’s support of California Proposition 7 (2008) led him to use his voice in an automated phone call to generate support for the measure before the election.

On April 6, 2009, Glover was given a chieftaincy title in Imo State, Nigeria. Glover was given the title Enyioma of Nkwerre, which means A Good Friend in the language of the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria.

Glover has become an active member of board of directors of The Jazz Foundation of America.[33] Danny became involved with The Jazz Foundation in 2005, and has been a featured host for their annual benefit A Great Night in Harlem[34] for several years, as well appearing as a celebrity MC at other events for the foundation. In 2006, Britain’s leading African theatre company Tiata Fahodzi appointed Glover as one of its three Patrons, joining Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jocelyn Jee Esien opening the organization’s tenth-anniversary celebrations (Sunday, February 2, 2008) at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, London.

Glover is also an active board member of the TransAfrica Forum.

On January 13, 2010, Glover compared the scale and devastation of the 2010 Haiti earthquake to the predicament other island nations may face as a result of the failed Copenhagen summit the previous year. Glover said: “…the threat of what happens to Haiti is a threat that can happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations… they’re all in peril because of global warming… because of climate change… when we did what we did at the climate summit in Copenhagen, this is the response, this is what happens…”In the same statement, he called for a new form of international partnership with Haiti and other Caribbean nations and praised Venezuela, Brazil, and Cuba, for already accepting this partnership.

On November 1, 2011, Glover spoke to the crowd at Occupy Oakland on the day before the Oakland General Strike where thousands of protestors shut down the Port of Oakland.

Glover is a member of the board of directors of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a think tank led by economist Dean Baker.

Glover wrote the foreword to Phyllis Bennis’ book, Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power.

Evelyn “Champagne” King (born July 1, 1960) is an American singer. She is best known for her hit disco single “Shame”, which was released in 1977 during the height of disco’s popularity. King had other hits from the early through the mid–1980s including; “I’m in Love” (1981) and “Love Come Down” (1982). Evelyn Champagne King

Evelyn King was born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her uncle Avon Long had played the part of Sportin’ Life in the first Broadway revival of Porgy and Bess and worked with Lena Horne at the Cotton Club. Her father sang back-up for groups at Harlem’s Apollo Theater. Her mother managed a group called Quality Red.

She was discovered as a young woman while working with her mother at Philadelphia International Records as an office cleaner. Producer Theodore T. Life overheard her singing in a washroom and began coaching her. She was eventually signed to a production deal with Life’s Galaxy Productions and a recording contract with RCA Records.

King released her debut album, Smooth Talk, in 1977. It included the song “Shame”, which is her only top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #9; the song also reached #7 R&B and #8 on the dance chart. The record was eventually certified gold. Another single from that album, “I Don’t Know If It’s Right”, peaked at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #7 R&B; it would become her second certified gold single. In 1981, the single “I’m in Love” was released from the same-titled album; it reached #1 on the R&B singles chart and dance chart in August of that year; it also peaked at #40 on the pop chart.

In 1982, King released the album, Get Loose. It yielded a top twenty pop and #1 R&B hit with the single, “Love Come Down”. The song also peaked at #1 on the dance chart and reached the UK Singles Chart top ten, peaking at #7 for three weeks. The follow-up, “Betcha She Don’t Love You”, peaked at #2 on the R&B chart and #49 on the pop chart. From the mid- to late-1980s, King would continue to chart on the R&B chart, placing eight singles in the R&B top twenty, with three making it to the top ten.

On September 20, 2004, King’s “Shame” became one of the first records to be inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame at a ceremony held in New York’s Spirit club.

On August 14, 2007, King released her first studio album in 12 years, Open Book. It featured the single “The Dance”, which peaked at #12 on the Hot Dance Club Play Chart.

In 2011, King also collaborated with deep house producer Miguel Migs, on the track “Everybody”, which was included on his album Outside the Skyline. The single for “Everybody” was released on July 19, 2011.

Remembering MAD Magazine:

Mad (stylized as MAD) is an American humor magazine founded in 1952 by editor Harvey Kurtzman and publisher William Gaines, launched as a comic book before it became a magazine. It was widely imitated and influential, affecting satirical media, as well as the cultural landscape of the 20th century, with editor Al Feldstein increasing readership to more than two million during its 1974 circulation peak. From 1952 until 2018, Mad had published 550 regular issues, as well as hundreds of reprint “Specials”, original-material paperbacks, reprint compilation books and other print projects. The magazine’s numbering reverted back to 1 with its June 2018 issue.

The magazine is the last surviving title from the EC Comics line, offering satire on all aspects of life and popular culture, politics, entertainment, and public figures. Its format is divided into a number of recurring segments such as TV and movie parodies, as well as freeform articles. Mad’s mascot, Alfred E. Neuman, is typically the focal point of the magazine’s cover, with his face often replacing that of a celebrity or character who is lampooned within the issue.