Whats Buzzing in the Streets – Page 57

Joe Budden

Joseph Anthony Budden II (born August 31, 1980) is an American broadcaster, former rapper, and songwriter. Budden’s eponymous debut studio album was released in 2003 and debuted at number 8 on the Billboard 200, selling 95,000 copies within its first week. The album featured the hit single “Pump It Up”, Budden’s most commercially successful solo single. He was formerly signed to major record label Def Jam, but left the label in 2007 and is currently signed to Empire Distribution.

After separating from Def Jam, he began recording and releasing solo mixtapes and albums on independent labels. In 2013, he released No Love Lost; his follow-up EP, “Some Love Lost” was released November 4, 2014. He released “All Love Lost” on October 16, 2015. Most recently, he released “Rage & The Machine” on October 21, 2016. In addition to his solo work, Budden was a member of the American hip hop supergroup Slaughterhouse, alongside fellow rappers Royce da 5’9″, Joell Ortiz, and Crooked I.

Budden currently works as a broadcaster, and was a host of Complex’s Everyday Struggle, alongside Nadeska Alexis and DJ Akademiks in 2017, before leaving the show in January 2018. He currently hosts his own self-titled podcast, which since September 2018 is released twice a week through Spotify.

Written by Dianne Washington

Donald Goines

Donald Goines (pseudonym: Al C. Clark) (December 15, 1936 – October 21, 1974) was an African-American writer of urban fiction. His novels were deeply influenced by the work of Iceberg Slim.

Goines was born in Detroit, Michigan on December 15, 1936. His parents were a middle-class black couple that ran a laundry business, with his mother Myrtle Goines telling Goines that her family was descended from Jefferson Davis and a slave. Donald was the middle child of three, and the only son.

At age 15, Goines lied about his age to join the Air Force and fought in the Korean War.

During his stint in the armed forces, Goines developed an addiction to heroin that continued after his honorable discharge in the mid-1950s. In order to support his addiction, Goines committed crimes including pimping, larceny, robbery, illegal liquor manufacturing and theft. He resided in several cities, including Kansas City, Missouri and Junction City, Kansas, but mostly in his native Detroit. He was sentenced to prison several times, both state and federal.

He began writing while serving a sentence in Michigan’s Jackson Penitentiary. Goines initially attempted to write Westerns, but he decided to write urban fiction after reading Robert “Iceberg Slim” Beck’s autobiography Pimp: The Story of My Life.

Goines continued to write novels at an accelerated pace in order to support his drug addictions, with some books taking only a month to complete. His sister Joan Goines Coney later said that Goines wrote at such an accelerated pace in order to avoid committing more crimes and based many of the characters in his books on people he knew in real life. He completed 16 books.

In 1974 Goines published Crime Partners, the first book in the Kenyatta series under the name Al C. Clark. Holloway House’s chief executive Bentley Morriss requested that Goines publish the book under a pseudonym in order to avoid having the sales of Goines’s work suffer due to too many books releasing at once. The book dealt with an anti-hero character named after Jomo Kenyatta that ran an organization similar to the Black Panthers to clear the ghetto of crime. In his book The Low Road, Eddie B. Allen remarks that the series was a departure from some of Goines’s other works, with the character of Kenyatta symbolizing a sense of liberation for Goines.

Inner City Hoodlum, which Goines had finished before his death, was published posthumously in 1975. Set in Los Angeles, the novel was about heroin, money and murder.

On October 21, 1974 Goines and his common-law wife Shirley Sailor were discovered dead in their Highland Park, Michigan apartment. The police had received an anonymous phone call earlier that evening and responded, discovering Goines in the living room of the apartment and Sailor’s body in the kitchen. Both Goines and Sailor had sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the chest and head. Although the identity of the two gunmen is unknown, as is the reason behind the murders. Popular theories involve Goines being murdered due to his basing several of his characters on real life criminals as well as the theory that Goines was killed due to his being in debt over drugs.

At his funeral, a relative placed a book with Goines in his casket, but it was stolen.

Written by Dianne Washington

Nancy Wilson

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Grammy-winning jazz and pop singer Nancy Wilson has died earlier this evening

Her manager Devra Hall Levy tells The Associated Press late Thursday night that Wilson died peacefully after a long illness at her home in Pioneertown, a California desert community near Joshua Tree National Park. She was 81.

Influenced by Dinah Washington, Nat “King” Cole and other stars, Wilson covered everything from jazz standards to “Little Green Apples” and in the 1960s alone released eight albums that reached the top 20 on Billboard’s pop charts.

Nancy Wilson died Friday December 14 2018

Rest in Paradise Ms. Nancy Wilson.

Written by Dianne Washington

Jamie Foxx

Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), known professionally as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer, songwriter, producer, and comedian. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor, BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, for his portrayal of Ray Charles in the 2004 biographical film Ray. The same year, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the crime film Collateral. As of spring 2017, Foxx serves as host and executive producer of the new Fox game show Beat Shazam.

Other acting roles include Staff Sergeant Sykes in Jarhead (2005), record executive Curtis Taylor, Jr. in Dreamgirls (2006), Detective Ricardo Tubbs in the 2006 film adaptation of TV series Miami Vice, the title role in the film Django Unchained (2012), the supervillain Electro in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), and gangster Bats / Leon Jefferson III in Baby Driver (2017). Foxx also starred in the 1990-94 sketch comedy show In Living Color and his own television show from 1996 to 2001, the sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show, in which he played Jamie King, Jr. Foxx also starred in the 2014 film Annie, in which he played Will Mellor.

Foxx is also a Grammy Award-winning musician, producing four albums which have charted in the top ten of the US Billboard 200: Unpredictable (2005), which topped the chart, Intuition (2008), Best Night of My Life (2010), and Hollywood: A Story of a Dozen Roses (2015).

Foxx was born in Terrell, Texas. He is the son of Louise Annette Talley Dixon and Darrell Bishop; his father sometimes worked as a stockbroker, and changed his name to Shahid Abdula after converting to Islam. Shortly after his birth, Foxx was adopted and raised by his mother’s adoptive parents, Esther Marie (Nelson), a domestic worker and nursery operator, and Mark Talley, a yard worker. He has had little contact with his birth parents, who were not part of his upbringing. Foxx was raised in the black quarter of Terrell, at the time a racially segregated community. As a teenager, he was a part-time pianist and choir leader in Terrell’s New Hope Baptist Church, and had a strict Baptist upbringing.

Foxx began playing the piano when he was five years old. As a second grader, he was so talented in telling jokes that his teacher used him as a reward. If the class behaved, Foxx would tell them jokes. Foxx attended Terrell High School, where he received top grades, played basketball and football as quarterback, and had an ambition to play for the Dallas Cowboys. He was the first player in the school’s history to pass for more than 1,000 yards. He also sang in a band called Leather and Lace. After completing high school, Foxx received a scholarship to United States International University, where he studied classical music and composition. He has often acknowledged his grandmother’s influence in his life as one of the greatest reasons for his success.

Foxx first told jokes at a comedy club’s open mic night in 1989, after accepting a girlfriend’s dare. When he found that female comedians were often called first to perform, he changed his name to Jamie Foxx, feeling that it was a name ambiguous enough to disallow any biases. He chose his surname as a tribute to the black comedian Redd Foxx. Foxx joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991, where his recurrent character Wanda also shared a name with Redd’s friend and co-worker, LaWanda Page. Following a recurring role in the comedy-drama sitcom Roc, Foxx went on to star in his own sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show, from 1996 to 2001.

Foxx made his film debut in the 1992 comedy Toys. His first dramatic role came in Oliver Stone’s 1999 film Any Given Sunday, where he was cast as a hard-partying American football player, partly because of his own football background. In 2001, Foxx starred opposite Will Smith in Michael Mann’s biographical drama Ali. Three years later, Foxx played taxi driver Max Durocher in the film Collateral alongside Tom Cruise, for which he received outstanding reviews and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1994, Foxx released an album (on the Fox record label) entitled Peep This, which was not commercially successful. In 2003, Foxx made a cameo in Benzino’s music video for “Would You”, which features LisaRaye McCoy and Mario Winans.

In 2003, Foxx featured on the rapper Twista’s song, “Slow Jamz”, together with Kanye West, which reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and #3 on the UK Singles chart. His second collaboration with Kanye West, “Gold Digger,” in which Foxx sang the Ray Charles-influenced “I Got a Woman” hook, then went straight to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, remaining there for 10 weeks. In 2005, Foxx featured on the single “Georgia” by Atlanta rappers Ludacris and Field Mob, which sampled Ray Charles’ hit “Georgia on My Mind”.

Foxx would also portray Ray Charles in the biographical film Ray (2004), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor[ and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Foxx is the second male in history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year for two different movies, Collateral and Ray (the only other male actor to achieve this feat being Al Pacino). In 2005, Foxx was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Foxx released his second studio album, Unpredictable, in December 2005. It debuted at #2, selling 598,000 copies in its first week, rising to #1 the following week and selling an additional 200,000 copies. To date, the album has sold 1.98 million copies in the United States, and was certified double Platinum by the RIAA. The album also charted on the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at #9. Foxx became the fourth artist to have both won an Academy Award for an acting role and to have achieved a #1 album in the U.S, joining Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby and Barbra Streisand. Foxx’s first single from the album, the title track “Unpredictable” (featuring Ludacris), peaked in the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 singles and also made the UK Top 20 singles chart; the track samples “Wildflower” by New Birth. The second US single from the album was “DJ Play a Love Song,” which reunited Foxx with Twista. In the UK, the second single was “Extravaganza”, which saw Foxx once again collaborate with Kanye West, although Foxx did not feature in the song’s music video.

At the 2006 Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards, Foxx won Best Duet/Collaboration with Kanye West for “Gold Digger” and tied with Mary J. Blige’s “Be Without You” for Video of the Year. On December 8, 2006, Foxx received four Grammy Award nominations, which included Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for Love Changes featuring Mary J. Blige, Best R&B Album for Unpredictable, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for Georgia by Ludacris & Field Mob featuring Jamie Foxx, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for Unpredictable featuring Ludacris.

Following on from these successes, Foxx went on to appear in the box-office hits Jarhead, Miami Vice and Dreamgirls, which lifted his profile even higher as a bankable star in Hollywood.

Foxx has two daughters: Corinne Bishop (born 1994) and Annalise (born August 2009). Corinne made her formal debut at the Bal des débutantes in November 2014 and was named Miss Golden Globe 2016 on November 18, 2015.

In 2008, Foxx filmed a public service announcement for Do Something to promote food drives in local communities.

Foxx has been involved in feuds with co-stars LL Cool J and Colin Farrell.

On January 18, 2016, Foxx rescued a young man from a burning vehicle that crashed outside his home. The driver, Brett Kyle, was driving his truck “at a high rate of speed” when the truck left the road, traveled into a drainage ditch, and rolled over multiple times. Kyle was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.

Written by Dianne Washington

Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes

Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes were an American R&B/Soul vocal group, one of the most popular Philadelphia soul groups of the 1970s. The group’s repertoire included soul, R&B, doo-wop, and disco. Founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the middle of the 1950s as The Charlemagnes, the group is most noted for several hits on Gamble and Huff’s Philadelphia International label between 1972 and 1976, although they performed and recorded until Melvin’s death in 1997. However, the remaining members of the Blue Notes have reunited twice for two Soul Train Cruises, one in 2013 and another one in 2015, during the fourth sailing. Despite group founder and original lead singer Harold Melvin’s top billing, the Blue Notes’ most famous member was Teddy Pendergrass, their lead singer during the successful years at Philadelphia International. In 2013 and 2017, The group reunited when The Centric Network presented the Soul Train Cruise, and The Blue Notes reunited for both events, although they only performed during the fifth sailing in the 2017 event.

The group formerly known as The Charlemagnes took on the name “The Blue Notes” in 1954, with a lineup consisting of lead singer Franklin Peaker, Bernard Williams, Roosevelt Brodie, Jesse Gillis, Jr., and Harold Melvin. The group recorded for a number of labels without success from its inception into the 1960s. The 1960 single “My Hero” was a minor hit for Val-ue Records, and 1965’s “Get Out (and Let Me Cry)” was an R&B hit for Landa Records. During this period, the group’s lineup changed frequently, with Bernard Wilson leaving the act to start a group called “The Original Blue Notes”, and Harold Melvin bringing in new lead singer John Atkins. In 1970, the group recruited Teddy Pendergrass as the drummer for their backing band. Pendergrass had been a former member of Philadelphia R&B group The Cadillacs (not the New York group that had hits in the late 1950s) and was promoted to lead singer when John Atkins quit the same year.

This line-up of the group, featuring Melvin, Pendergrass, Bernard Wilson, Lawrence Brown, and Lloyd Parks, was signed to Gamble & Huff’s Philadelphia International label in 1972, scoring several major R&B and pop hits including million-selling singles and albums over the next four years. Among the Blue Notes’ most important and successful recordings are love songs such as 1972’s “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” (#1 Billboard R&B, #3 pop), their breakout single, “I Miss You” (#7 R&B, #58 pop), “The Love I Lost” (#1 R&B, #7 pop, 1973) and socially conscious songs such as “Wake Up Everybody” (#1 R&B, #12 pop) and “Bad Luck” (#4 R&B, #15 pop), both in 1975. “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA on November 21, 1972. “Bad Luck” holds the record for the longest-running number-one hit on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart: 11 weeks. A fourth #1 R&B hit for the group was 1975’s “Hope That We Can Be Together Soon” which featured female vocalist Sharon Paige.

A 1976 remake of “Don’t Leave Me This Way” by Motown artist Thelma Houston was a number-one hit on the US pop chart; her version is one of the defining recordings of the disco era. The Blue Notes’ version on the album, “Wake Up Everybody” was not released as a single in the USA at the time, but proved to be the group’s biggest hit in the UK (#5) when released there as a single in 1977. The track was finally issued as a single in the US on 12-inch in 1979, coupled with “Bad Luck”. The group recorded four albums with Gamble & Huff, all of them going gold (over 500,000 copies), according to RIAA, including To Be True (#26, Billboard Top 40 albums) and Wake Up Everybody (#9), both in 1975. Wake Up Everybody and a greatest hits compilation released in 1976, Collector’s Item, have now sold over a million copies.

Despite success, the Blue Notes’ lineup continued to change regularly. In 1974, Melvin brought in Jerry Cummings to replace Lloyd Parks and Sharon Paige was added to the line-up at that time, providing solo performances on several recordings. While at the top of their success in 1976, Pendergrass quit after an argument over the money he earned. A year earlier, he had gained billing recognition by having the act renamed to “Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes featuring Theodore Pendergrass”, starting from the Wake Up Everybody album. Pendergrass went on to a successful solo career, with four consecutive million-selling albums with Philadelphia International between 1977 and 1980. His career was almost ended by a paralyzing 1982 car accident. He made a triumphant comeback in 1984, signing with Asylum/Elektra Records, and recording the hit LP Love Language and then the platinum selling Joy LP, released in 1988, which featured the Grammy nominated title song, an R&B number 1; his comeback was cemented by an appearance at the Live Aid concert in 1985.

Melvin replaced Pendergrass with David Ebo while Jerry Cummings remained with Harold Melvin. The Blue Notes departed Philadelphia International (who had signed Pendergrass for solo recordings) and joined ABC Records in 1977, where they recorded two albums produced by Melvin. “Reaching for the World” (#7 R&B, #74 pop) became the group’s last major-selling single. Harold Melvin, Jerry Cummings, and new members Dwight Johnson, David Ebo and William Spratley released The Blue Album in 1980 on Source Records, an imprint of MCA Records, which had acquired ABC Records in 1979. Their final album for MCA, All Things Happen in Time, was released in 1981.

Gil Saunders took the lead position in 1982, replacing David Ebo. With Gil Saunders, the group had success in the United Kingdom with the Philly World album Talk It Up (Tell Everybody), and singles such as “Today’s Your Lucky Day” and “Don’t Give Me Up”. Several of the Pendergrass-era hits were re-recorded in England with Gil Saunders on lead. Saunders left the act in 1992, and Harold Melvin continued to tour with various lineups of Blue Notes until suffering a stroke in 1996. Melvin died on March 24, 1997 at the age of 57 and was laid to rest at the Ivy Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. Lawrence Brown died of a respiratory condition on April 6, 2008 at age 63. In addition, three former members of the group would die during the year 2010. First, Teddy Pendergrass died of respiratory failure on January 13, 2010 at age 59, after having previously dealt with colon cancer. Six months later, original member Roosevelt Brodie, who was the second tenor for the original Blue Notes, died July 13, 2010 at age 75 due to complications of diabetes. And just five months later in that year, Bernard Wilson died on December 26, 2010 at age 64 from complications of a stroke and a heart attack. Pendergrass’ predecessor, John Atkins, died of an aneurysm in 1998. David Ebo, who succeeded Pendergrass, died of bone cancer on November 30, 1993 at age 43. Lloyd Parks, and Original Member Bobby Cook, are still living and are the sole survivors of the original Blue Notes.

Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes hits have been re-recorded by other artists, including David Ruffin, Simply Red, Jimmy Somerville, Sybil, and John Legend, while dance music DJ Danny Rampling cites “Wake Up Everybody” as his favorite song of all time. Today, Gil Saunders continues to perform as a solo artist, and still performs all the hits of the past as well as his own material. Several members of various incarnations of the Blue Notes continue to tour as “Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes”. Melvin’s widow, Ovelia currently manages Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes, featuring lead singer Donnell “Big Daddy” Gillespie, Anthony Brooks, Rufus Thorne and John Morris. For his album This Note’s for You, singer Neil Young named his back-up band, The Blue Notes, without permission from name rights holder Harold Melvin. Melvin took legal action against Young over use of the Blue Notes name, forcing the singer to change the name of the back-up band to “Ten Men Workin'” during the balance of the tour that promoted the This Note’s for You album.

The band is mentioned on Snoop Dogg’s 1993 album Doggystyle. In the intro for “Doggy Dogg World” Snoop says “Bitch, you without me is like Harold Melvin without the Blue Notes, you’ll never go platinum!” Former member, Jerry Cummings, is an ordained minister and has been asked to form Jerry Cummings’ Blue Notes but has turned down the offer. As of May 2014 Jerry Cummings became the Music Life Coach and producer of the X Factor superstar Lillie McCloud and Lillie has recorded one of Cummings’ songs “The Other Part of Me”. Rapper Big Boi uses a sample of “I Miss You” on his song “Shine Blockas” feat. Gucci Mane. “I Miss You” was also sampled by Kanye West on Jay-Z’s song “This Can’t Be Life”, featuring Beanie Sigel and Scarface. Also the R&B singer Pleasure P used a sample of “I Miss You” on his song “Letter To My Ex” recorded in 2013.

Written by Dianne Washington

Jean Knight

Jean Knight (born Jean Caliste, January 26, 1943) is an American soul, R&B and funk singer, best known for her 1971 Stax Records hit single, “Mr. Big Stuff”.

She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. After graduating from high school, Caliste began singing at her cousin’s bar ‘Laura’s Place’ and caught the attention of many different bands who were willing to accompany her. In 1965, she recorded a demo of a cover version of Jackie Wilson’s song “Stop Doggin’ Me Around.” Her demo attracted record producer Huey Meaux, who signed her to a recording contract at the Jet Star/Tribe record labels. Shortly thereafter, Caliste adopted the professional name of “Jean Knight,” because she felt that her surname was too hard to pronounce. She recorded four singles, making a name for herself locally, but was not able to attract any national attention. By the late 1960s, it was obvious that her career was not living up to her high expectations, so she went to work as a baker in the cafeteria of Loyola University in New Orleans.

In early 1970, she was discovered by songwriter Ralph Williams, who wanted her to record some songs. With Williams’ connections, she came in contact with record producer Wardell Quezergue. In May of that year, she went to Malaco Studios in Jackson, Mississippi, for a recording session during which she recorded “Mr. Big Stuff.” After the session was finished, the song was shopped to producers at several national labels, all of whom rejected it. But when King Floyd’s hit “Groove Me” (also recorded at Malaco Studios) became a #1 R&B hit in early 1971, a producer at Stax Records remembered Knight’s recording of “Mr. Big Stuff,” and released it. The song also proved to be an instant smash in 1971, reaching #2 on the pop chart and becoming a #1 R&B hit. It went double-platinum and received a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female; it lost to Aretha Franklin’s version of “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” It sold over two million copies and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. Knight performed the hit song on Soul Train.

The next year, Knight was named the ‘Most Promising Female Vocalist’. An album of the same name proved to be fairly successful. A couple more minor hits followed, but disagreements with her producer and her label terminated Knight’s involvement with Stax.

After leaving Stax, Knight recorded songs for various small labels, but was not able to gain any more recognition. She ended up performing and touring the local oldie circuit. Things changed in 1981, when she met local producer Isaac Bolden, who signed her to his Soulin’ label. Together, they came up with a song entitled “You Got the Papers but I Got the Man,” an answer song to Richard “Dimples” Fields’ record, “She’s Got Papers On Me”; that song was leased to Atlantic Records for national release. Soon, Knight found herself touring consistently. In 1985, she gained more recognition when she covered Rockin’ Sidney’s zydeco novelty hit, “My Toot Toot,” and found herself in a cover battle with Denise LaSalle. While LaSalle’s version reached the top ten in the United Kingdom, Knight’s version was the more successful Stateside, reaching #50 on the pop chart. Knight was then given a chance to perform it on the TV variety show Solid Gold. The song also became her only hit in South Africa, reaching number 3.

Although she waited twelve years to come out with another recording, she continued touring and performing engagements all over the world, particularly in the Southern states. In 2003, she performed her biggest hit, “Mr. Big Stuff”, on the PBS special Soul Comes Home. Knight has talent running in the family; her great nephews are Gerard Caliste (a visual artist) and Swedish hip hop artist Mattias Lindström Caliste who is part of the Scandinavian rap group Fjärde Världen. Knight continues to tour and make live performances, often with such artists as Gloria Gaynor.

In October 2007, the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame honored Knight for her contributions to Louisiana music by inducting her. Knight’s song “Do Me” appeared on the 2007 Superbad soundtrack.

Written by Dianne Washington

Jermaine Jackson

Jermaine La Jaune Jackson (born December 11, 1954) is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and member of the Jackson family. He was a member of The Jackson 5, a singing group composed of him and four of his brothers, from 1962 to 1975, where he was the second lead vocalist (after brother Michael) and played bass guitar. He sang the lead on some of their songs and had featured vocals on many others, including many of their biggest hits like “I’ll Be There” and “I Want You Back”. When the group left the Motown label and reformed as “The Jacksons”, Jermaine stayed with Motown, due to loyalty to Motown founder Berry Gordy, whose daughter he had married, and was replaced in the group by youngest brother Randy. He rejoined the group in 1983, and has remained with them since, through various breakups and reunions.

Jermaine also had a solo career concurrent with his brother Michael’s, and had a number of top 30 hits throughout the 1970s and 80s. He also produced and recorded duets with American singer Whitney Houston in her early years as a recording artist, and was a producer for the band Switch.

Jackson was born December 11, 1954 in Gary, Indiana, after his brother Tito Jackson. He is the fourth child born to Joseph and Katherine Jackson. His siblings are Rebbie, Jackie, Tito, La Toya, Marlon, Michael, Randy, and Janet. His father Joseph had musical aspirations, playing guitar with his brother’s band, The Falcons, and Katherine was a passionate pianist and singer. But their large family and lack of money ended their dreams with Katherine becoming a housewife, and Joseph, a steel worker at nearby Inland Steel Company in East Chicago, Indiana (his parents lived there before they moved to Gary in 1950). While his father worked long hours as a crane operator, Jermaine and his brothers, Tito and Jackie, secretly practiced their own songs using their father’s guitar. Jermaine became the original lead singer of the Jackson Brothers—an earlier incarnation of The Jackson Five until 1966, when younger brother (Michael Jackson) began singing lead. Jermaine would continue to provide some leads over the years. Jermaine graduated from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys, Los Angeles, California in 1973.

Jermaine and his brothers first signed as The Jackson Five with Gordon Keith of Steeltown Records in November 1967, and their first single “Big Boy”, was released on January 31, 1968. After the group recorded three more songs with the Steeltown label (on two records) they were signed with Berry Gordy of Motown Records in 1968 and 1969. As the co-lead singer of The Jackson 5 after his brother Michael, Jermaine sang notable parts of “I Want You Back”, “ABC”, “I’ll Be There”, “The Love You Save”, “Dancing Machine”, and many other Jackson 5 songs. Jermaine performed as part of the group for six years. Not feeling that they were being paid fair royalties by Motown Records for their success as well as their desire for creative control, the Jackson 5 decided to leave the label and sign with Epic Records in 1975. However, Jermaine decided to stay with Motown Records, citing loyalty to the company as the reason. Others argue that Jermaine’s marriage to Motown founder Berry Gordy’s daughter Hazel, whom he married in 1973, was the reason. Jermaine split from the Jackson 5 to start a solo career at Motown, and was replaced by his brother Randy Jackson. Unbeknownst to the group, Gordy had trademarked the name The Jackson Five and did not allow the group to continue using the name when they left the label. Once signed with Epic, the group became known as The Jacksons. Several years later, in 1983, Gordy asked the group to perform at the Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television special. After the success of the broadcast, Jermaine rejoined the band to record the album Victory which featured all six brothers on The Jackson’s album cover. Jermaine also participated in the band’s Victory Tour. He stayed with the group for their final album, 2300 Jackson Street, in 1989. In 2001, he reunited with his brothers to perform for the 30th Anniversary Special.

Like Michael, Jermaine began a solo career while still a member of The Jackson 5, and had a hit with the 1972 Shep and the Limelites cover “Daddy’s Home”. It sold over one million copies by March 1973, and was awarded a gold disc. When The Jackson 5 left Motown, Jermaine left the group and stayed at Motown. Jermaine was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance for his 1980 album Let’s Get Serious. He had a number of Billboard Top 30 hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including “Daddy’s Home” (#9), “That’s How Love Goes”, “Let’s Be Young Tonight”, “Bass Odyssey”, “Feel the Fire”, “Let Me Tickle Your Fancy” (featuring Devo on backing vocals) (#18), “Let’s Get Serious” (#9, also one of his only two UK hits, peaking at #8), “Dynamite” (#15), “Do What You Do” (#13), and “I Think It’s Love” (#16). A duet with his brother Michael, “Tell Me I’m Not Dreamin’ (Too Good to Be True)”, hit No. 1 on the dance chart in 1984. He and Michael also collaborated with Rockwell, both providing guest vocals on his 1984 hit single, “Somebody’s Watching Me”. In 1985, his duet with Pia Zadora, “When the Rain Begins to Fall”, topped several singles charts in Europe. His final chart success, 1989’s “Don’t Take It Personal”, hit #1 on the R&B singles chart. Some of Jermaine’s finest moments as a singer can be heard in the soulful “Castle of Sand” and the Earth Wind & Fire-inspired “You Need To Be Loved”.[13] Jackson is proficient on the electric guitar and is a talented bass guitar player. At an early age, he performed the parts of legendary bass player James Jamerson and others when the J5 performed live. Jermaine also composed and produced for other artists, such as Switch, and he produced and sang duets on Whitney Houston’s debut album for Arista Records.

Jackson has been married three times and has seven children. His first marriage was to Motown founder Berry Gordy’s daughter, Hazel Gordy, from 1973 until 1988. He has three children with Hazel: Jermaine La Juane “Jay” Jackson Jr., (born January 27, 1977), Autumn Joy Jackson (born July 10, 1978), and Jaimy Jackson (born March 17, 1987). Jermaine Jr. and his longtime girlfriend, Asa Soltan Rahmati, have a son, Soltan Jackson, born January 20, 2017.

Jackson was in a relationship with Margaret Maldonado from 1986 till 1993 that produced two sons: Jeremy Maldonado Jackson (born December 26, 1986), and Jourdynn Michael Jackson (born January 5, 1989).

Jackson, like the rest of his family, was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness. In 1989 he converted to Islam after a trip to Bahrain in which he was impressed by the local children’s devotion to their religion.

He began a relationship with Alejandra Genevieve Oaziaza while she was dating his younger brother Randy. He married Oaziaza on March 18, 1995, and the marriage lasted until May 19, 2003. They had two childreen: Jaafar Jackson (born July 25, 1996), and Jermajesty Jackson (born October 3, 2000).

In January 2004, Jackson met Halima Rashid while in line at Starbucks. In March 2004, he proposed to her and five months later they got married in a mosque in Los Angeles Rashid was arrested on November 28, 2015 in Los Angeles for alleged domestic violence. She was booked for felony corporal injury on a spouse by the Los Angeles Police Department. The charges were later dropped when prosecutors could not determine who the aggressor was. Rashid filed a petition for divorce on June 21, 2016 citing irreconcilable differences.

Jermaine supported his brother, Michael, during the 2005 child-abuse trial. He came to Michael’s defense on CNN’s Larry King Live and appeared with him in court on many occasions. On June 25, 2009, Jermaine held a press conference at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and broke the news of Michael Jackson’s death to the media.

Written by Dianne Washington

Mos Def

Yasiin Bey born Dante Terrell Smith; December 11, 1973), best known by his stage name Mos Def, is an American hip hop recording artist, actor and activist from Brooklyn, New York City, New York. Best known for his music, Mos Def embarked on his hip hop career in 1994, alongside his siblings in the short-lived rap group Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. He subsequently formed the duo Black Star, alongside fellow Brooklyn-based rapper Talib Kweli, and they released their eponymous debut album in 1998. He was featured on the roster of Rawkus Records and in 1999 released his solo debut, Black on Both Sides. His debut was followed by The New Danger (2004), True Magic (2006) and The Ecstatic (2009). The editors at About.com listed him as the 14th greatest emcee of all time on their “50 greatest MC’s of our time” list.

Prior to his career in music, Mos Def first entered public life as a child actor, having played roles in television movies, sitcoms, and theater. Since the early 2000s, Mos Def has been well known for his roles in films such as Something the Lord Made, Next Day Air, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 16 Blocks, Be Kind Rewind, The Italian Job, The Woodsman, Bamboozled and Brown Sugar, as well as for his portrayal of Brother Sam in the Showtime drama series Dexter. He is also known as the host of Def Poetry Jam, which aired on HBO between 2002 and 2007.

Mos Def has been vocal on several social and political causes, including police brutality, the idea of American exceptionalism, and the state of African Americans.

Mos Def was born as Dante Terrell Smith in Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Sheron Smith and Abdul Rahman. The eldest of 12 children and step-children, he was raised by his mother in Brooklyn, while his father lived in New Jersey.

Although his father was initially a member of the Nation of Islam and later followed Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, who merged into mainstream Sunni Islam from the Nation, Mos Def was not exposed to Islam until the age of 13. At 19, he took his shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. He is close friends with fellow Muslim rappers Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Kamaal Ibn John Fareed (Q-Tip) of the rap group A Tribe Called Quest.

Mos Def attended middle school at Philippa Schuyler Middle School 383 in Bushwick, Brooklyn where he picked up his love for acting. After returning from filming You Take the Kids in Los Angeles, and getting into a relationship with an older girl, Mos Def dropped out of high school during sophomore year. Growing up in New York City during the crack epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s, he has spoken about witnessing widespread instances of gang violence, theft and poverty in society, which he largely avoided by working on plays, Off-Off-Broadway and arts programs. In a particularly traumatic childhood experience, Mos Def witnessed his then five year old younger brother Ilias Bey (b. Denard Smith) get hit by a car. Bey, who later adopted the alias DCQ, was described by Smith as “my first partner in Hip Hop”.

Mos Def began his rap music career in 1994, forming the rap group UTD (or Urban Thermo Dynamics) along with younger brother DCQ and younger sister Ces. In 2004, they released the album Manifest Destiny, their first and only release to date. The album features a compilation of previously unreleased and re-released tracks recorded during the original UTD run.

In 1996, Mos Def emerged as a solo artist and worked with De La Soul and Da Bush Babees, before he released his own first single, “Universal Magnetic” in 1997.

Mos Def signed with Rawkus Records and formed the rap group Black Star with Talib Kweli. The duo released an album, Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star, in 1998. Mostly produced by Hi-Tek, the album featured the singles “Respiration” and “Definition”, which both reached in the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

Mos Def released his solo debut album Black on Both Sides in October 1999, also through Rawkus. The single “Ms. Fat Booty” charted, while the album reached #25 on the Billboard 200. Around this time he also contributed to the Scritti Politti album Anomie & Bonhomie.

In January 2002 Rawkus Records was taken over by Geffen Records, which released his second solo album The New Danger in October 2004. It included contributions by Shuggie Otis and Bernie Worrell, Doug Wimbish,and Will Calhoun as the Black Jack Johnson Band. The album reached #5 on the Billboard 200, making it the most successful for the artist to date. The single “Sex, Love & Money” charted, and was nominated for a Grammy Award. Mos Def’s final solo album for Geffen Records, titled True Magic, was released in 2006.

Mos Def married Maria Yepes in 1996, and has two daughters with her: Jauhara Smith and Chandani Smith. He filed for divorce from Yepes in 2006. The former couple made headlines when Yepes took Mos Def to court over failure in child-support obligations, paying $2,000 short of the monthly $10,000 he is ordered to pay. Mos Def has four other children.

His mother Sheron Smith, who goes by her nickname “Umi”, has played an active role managing portions of her son’s career. She is also a motivational speaker, and has authored the book Shine Your Light: A Life Skills Workbook, where she details her experience as a single mother raising him.

In January 2016, Mos Def was ordered to leave South Africa and not return for five years, having stayed in the country illegally on an expired tourist visa granted in May 2013. Also that month, he was charged with using an unrecognized World Passport and having lived illegally in South Africa since 2014. Mos Def had reportedly recruited Kanye West to help defend him, and posted a message on West’s website announcing his retirement from show business. There is an ongoing court case in relation to immigration offences involving the artist and his family.

Written by Dianne Washington

Monique

Monique Angela Jackson (née Imes; born December 11, 1967), known professionally as Mo’Nique, is an American comedian and actress. She is best known for her role as Nikki Parker in the UPN series The Parkers while making a name as a stand-up comedian hosting a variety of venues, including Showtime at the Apollo. Mo’Nique transitioned to film with roles in such films as Phat Girlz, and Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins. In 2009, she received critical praise for her villainous role in the film Precious and won numerous awards including the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She hosted The Mo’Nique Show, a late-night talk show that premiered in 2009 on BET; it was cancelled in 2011.

Mo’Nique was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Steven Imes, Jr., a drug counselor, and Alice Imes, an engineer. She is the youngest of four children: sister Millicent is her personal assistant; brother Steve is her manager. Mo’Nique graduated from Milford Mill High School in Baltimore County and attended Morgan State University. She is a 1987 graduate of the Broadcasting Institute of Maryland.

Before working in her chosen career, Mo’Nique worked as a phone operator. She got her start in comedy at the downtown Baltimore Comedy Factory Outlet, when her brother Steve dared her to perform at an open mic night.

Mo’Nique revealed during an interview with Essence magazine in 2008 that she was sexually abused by her brother, Gerald, from the age of seven until she was eleven. He went on to sexually abuse another girl and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. After her twin boys were born in 2005 she cut all contact with her brother and they have not spoken since.

On April 19, 2010, Mo’Nique’s brother admitted on Oprah to sexually abusing her and that the abuse continued for over several years. Her brother, who has struggled with substance abuse, was also abused himself by other family.

She played the role of Nicole “Nikki” Parker on the UPN television series The Parkers. The show ran from 1999 to 2004. Mo’Nique was subsequently featured on a number of leading stand-up venues, including stints on Showtime at the Apollo, Russell Simmons’ Def Comedy Jam, and Thank God You’re Here.

She was also named hostess of Showtime at the Apollo. She is currently the hostess and executive producer of Mo’Nique’s Fat Chance, a beauty pageant for plus-sized women, on the Oxygen cable network. She hosted the first season of Flavor of Love Girls: Charm School on VH1, where she crowned Saaphyri as the winner.

Her 2007 documentary I Coulda Been Your Cellmate!, focuses on women who are incarcerated. Mo’Nique touches on the common factors that bring many women into the penal system in her interviews with individual women. The documentary was related to her filming a comedy special at the Ohio Reformatory for Women, also known as The Farm. In 2007, Mo’Nique had a guest-starring role on the hit television series Ugly Betty as L’Amanda, Mode’s weekend security guard.

Mo’Nique starred in her own late-night talk show called The Mo’Nique Show. Taped in Atlanta, the show premiered October 5, 2009, on BET.

Written by Dianne Washington

Michael Duncan

Michael Clarke Duncan (December 10, 1957 – September 3, 2012) was an American actor, best known for his breakout role as John Coffey in The Green Mile (1999), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and various similar honors. He also appeared in motion pictures such as Armageddon (1998), The Whole Nine Yards (2000), The Scorpion King (2002), Daredevil (2003) and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006). His voice can be heard in films such as Brother Bear (2003), Kung Fu Panda (2008) and Green Lantern (2011).

Duncan grew up on Chicago’s South Side. His father left the family when he was 6; his mother raised him and his sister, Judith, to stay clear of gangs, drugs and alcohol. Growing up, he wanted to become an actor. “Of course, people told me, ‘Mikey, you will never be an actor. You don’t have the look. You’re ugly,'” he recalled in a 2003 Chicago Sun-Times interview. What helped him, he said, was that his mother “always told me to think ‘YCDA.’ That stands for ‘You Can Do Anything.'”

After high school, Duncan attended Alcorn State University in Mississippi but left before graduating to help support his ailing mother. Back in Chicago, he began working for the gas company as a ditch-digger. On the job, he talked so much about his dream of going to Hollywood and becoming an actor that his co-workers dubbed him “Hollywood Mike.”

He finally quit his job and became a security guard for a traveling show. Once the show reached Los Angeles, he decided to stay. Working first as a bodyguard for Martin Lawrence, Will Smith and other stars, he began landing small parts in films and television. In 1998, he played bouncers in “Bulworth” and “A Night at the Roxbury” and a bodyguard in “The Players Club.” While making “Armageddon,” Duncan became friends with Willis, who was instrumental in getting him the role in Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s serial novel “The Green Mile.” Michael Clarke Duncan, the tall and massively built actor with the shaved head and deep voice who received an Academy Award nomination for his moving portrayal of a gentle death row inmate in the 1999 prison drama “The Green Mile,” died on September 3rd 2012; he was 54.

At the time of his death, Duncan was engaged to reality television personality Omarosa Manigault.

In 2013, Manigault appeared in the cast of The All-Star Celebrity Apprentice and played in Duncan’s honor for his favorite charity and one he had benefited from himself, the Sue Duncan Children’s Center. In episode 2 of the season, Manigault won $40,000 for the charity.

On July 13, 2012, Duncan was taken to Cedars Sinai Medical Center after suffering a heart attack. Media reports suggested that his girlfriend, Omarosa Manigault, had tried to save his life by performing CPR. Duncan’s publicist, Joy Fehily, issued a statement on August 6 that read he was moved from the intensive-care unit but remained hospitalized following his heart attack. On September 3, Duncan died in Los Angeles. Celebrations of Duncan’s life were scheduled for a later date.

Written by Dianne Washington