Whats Buzzing in the Streets – Page 61

Will Smith

Willard Carroll Smith Jr. (born September 25, 1968) is an American actor, producer, comedian, rapper and songwriter. In April 2007, Newsweek called him “the most powerful actor in Hollywood”. Smith has been nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and two Academy Awards, and has won four Grammy Awards.

In the late 1980s, Smith achieved modest fame as a rapper under the name The Fresh Prince. In 1990, his popularity increased dramatically when he starred in the NBC television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which ran for six seasons until 1996. After the series ended, Smith transitioned from television to film, and has gone on to star in numerous blockbuster films. He is the only actor to have eight consecutive films gross over $100 million in the domestic box office, eleven consecutive films gross over $150 million internationally, and eight consecutive films in which he starred, open at the number one spot in the domestic box office tally.

Smith has been ranked as the most bankable star worldwide by Forbes. As of 2014, 17 of the 21 films in which he has had leading roles have accumulated worldwide gross earnings of over $100 million each, five taking in over $500 million each in global box office receipts. As of 2016, his films have grossed $7.5 billion at the global box office. For his performances as boxer Muhammad Ali in Ali (2001) and stockbroker Chris Gardner in The Pursuit of Happyness (2006), Smith received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Smith was born on September 25, 1968 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Caroline (Bright), a Philadelphia school board administrator, and Willard Carroll Smith Sr., U.S. Air Force veteran and refrigeration engineer. He grew up in West Philadelphia’s Wynnefield neighborhood, and was raised Baptist. He has an elder sister named Pamela and two younger siblings, twins Harry and Ellen. Smith attended Our Lady of Lourdes, a private Catholic elementary school in Philadelphia. His parents separated when he was 13, but did not actually divorce until around 2000.

Smith attended Overbrook High School. While it has been widely reported that Smith turned down a scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he never applied to college because he “wanted to rap.” Smith says he was admitted to a “pre-engineering [summer] program” at MIT for high school students, but he did not attend. According to Smith, “My mother, who worked for the School Board of Philadelphia, had a friend who was the admissions officer at MIT. I had pretty high SAT scores and they needed black kids, so I probably could have gotten in. But I had no intention of going to college.

T.I.

Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. (born September 25, 1980), known professionally as T.I. and Tip (often stylized as TIP or T.I.P.), is an American rapper and actor from Atlanta, Georgia. Harris signed his first major-label record deal in 1999, with Arista subsidiary LaFace. In 2001, Harris formed the Southern hip hop group P$C, alongside his longtime friends and fellow Atlanta-based rappers. Upon being released from Arista, Harris signed to Atlantic and subsequently became the co-chief executive officer (CEO) of his own label imprint, Grand Hustle Records, which he launched in 2003. Harris is also perhaps best known as one of the artists who popularized the hip hop subgenre trap music, along with Young Jeezy and Gucci Mane.

Harris has released nine studio albums, with seven of them reaching the top five of the US Billboard 200 chart. Throughout his career, Harris has also released several highly successful singles, including “Bring Em Out”, “Whatever You Like”, “Live Your Life” (featuring Rihanna), “Dead and Gone” (featuring Justin Timberlake), “Ball” (featuring Lil Wayne) and “No Mediocre” (featuring Iggy Azalea). Harris began to gain major recognition in 2003, following his first high-profile feature, on fellow Atlanta-based rapper Bone Crusher’s hit single, “Never Scared”. Harris earned more prominence with the release of Trap Muzik (2003), which includes the Top 40 hits, “Rubber Band Man” and “Let’s Get Away”. The next year, Harris appeared on Destiny’s Child’s international hit, “Soldier”, alongside Lil Wayne. His subsequent albums, King and T.I. vs. T.I.P., generated high record sales and were supported by popular singles, such as “What You Know” and “Big Shit Poppin'”, respectively.

Harris’ sixth album, Paper Trail (2008), became his most successful project, with the album being certified gold for first-week sales of over 500,000 copies in the United States, additionally making it his third consecutive number one album. In 2013, Harris was featured on Robin Thicke’s hit single “Blurred Lines”, alongside Pharrell Williams, which peaked at number one on several major music charts. In November 2013, Harris announced that he had signed with Columbia Records, after his 10-year contract with Atlantic came to an end. He released his Columbia Records debut, Paperwork, in October 2014. In February 2016, Harris announced he signed a distribution deal with Roc Nation, to release his tenth album. Harris has won three Grammy Awards, namely Best Rap Solo Performance, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

Harris has served two terms in county jail, twice for probation violations and a federal prison bid for a U.S. federal weapons charge. While serving 11 months in prison, he released his seventh studio album, No Mercy (2010). Harris has also had a successful acting career, starring in the films ATL, Takers, Get Hard, Identity Thief, and Ant-Man. He is also a published author, having written two novels Power & Beauty (2011) and Trouble & Triumph (2012), both of which were released to moderate success. Harris has also starred in the American reality television series T.I.’s Road to Redemption and T.I. & Tiny: The Family Hustle. In 2009, Billboard ranked him as the 27th Artist of the 2000s decade.

Kashif

Kashif Saleem, previously Michael Jones (December 26, 1956 – September 25, 2016), was an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, record producer, artist, composer, author, director and educator from New York City. Kashif first taught himself to play a $3 song flute at age seven and later the piano in the basement of his church. At age 15, Kashif joined B. T. Express and performed on stages around the world. He studied Islam and changed his name from Michael Jones to Kashif, which means discoverer and inventor. He crafted his own distinctive sound and later signed with Arista Records enjoying success as a solo artist.

Together with Stevie Wonder, he was considered a pioneer in urban music thanks to his specific synthesizer technology approach and the introduction of MIDI in his production.

Kashif was born Michael Jones on December 26, 1956, in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. (Some media outlets have listed his year of birth as 1959.) His only connection to his birth family is his birth certificate, which indicates that his biological mother was incarcerated when he was four months old. He was immediately put in foster care. He was constantly abused physically and mentally by his foster parents, and at the age of six, he moved into a more stable foster home. His introduction to music came in the form of a $3.00 song flute when he was in elementary school. He was instantly hooked and insisted on playing his flute all throughout the school day. His teacher encouraged him and delivered on her promise that she would help to enroll him at a junior high school that had a great music program. That is where he first learned to play trumpet, piano, flute, saxophone, and tuba. By age 12, with the mentoring of his junior high school music teacher (Robert Wedlaw) he had mastered several musical instruments and began performing in some of New York’s finest night clubs (Copacabana (nightclub) and Lloyd Price’s Turntable).

In 1974, at the age of 17, Kashif was recruited as a keyboard player and vocalist to join the funk band B. T. Express, whose credits included the hits “Express” and “Do It (‘Til You’re Satisfied)”, among others. Seeking a more challenging musical assignment in 1978, Kashif exited B. T. Express and landed a job as a keyboardist for R&B musician Stephanie Mills.

In 1983, Kashif signed with Arista Records as a solo artist and continued with hits like “I Just Gotta Have You (Lover Turn Me On)”, “Stone Love”, “Help Yourself to My Love”, and the Grammy-nominated instrumental “The Mood”. In 1984, his second album, Send Me Your Love resulted in two Grammy nominations, “Edgartown Groove”, featuring Al Jarreau, and the instrumental “Call Me Tonight” along with the hits “Baby Don’t Break Your Baby’s Heart” and “Are You the Woman”. Introduced to Arista by Milton Allen, its artist development director in 1983, his self-titled debut album Kashif (1983) spawned the hits “I Just Gotta Have You (Lover Turn Me On)”, “Stone Love”, “Help Yourself to My Love”, and “Say Something Love”. With this release, Kashif was well received as an innovator in music, as R&B artists were only beginning to experiment with synthesizers and other electronic instruments. He is said to have been Arista Records’ attempt to respond to Warner Bros. Records’ Prince.

In 1981 Kashif wrote and produced the hit “I’m in Love” for Evelyn “Champagne” King, which was a shift in sound from King’s “Shame” to a minimalist becoming Kashif’s signature sound. The song revitalized King’s career and branded Kashif as one of the most sought-after producers of the day. Over the next ten years, he created hits including “So Fine” for Howard Johnson, “Love Come Down”, “Betcha She Don’t Love You”, and “Back to Love”, among many others.

His other albums include Send Me Your Love and Condition of the Heart. On the album Love Changes, Exposé provided background vocals. 1989’s Kashif included the cover of the Four Tops’ hit “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I’ve Got)”, “Baby Don’t Break Your Baby’s Heart”, and “Are You the Woman”.

Kashif can be heard on releases by Kenny G, George Benson, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Johnny Kemp, Melba Moore, Dionne Warwick, Giorge Pettus, Stacy Lattisaw, Meli’sa Morgan, Exposé, The Wootens, Freda Payne, Whitney Houston, and others. His Grammy nominations are for the instrumentals “The Mood”, “Call Me Tonight”, “Edgartown Groove” featuring Al Jarreau.

In 1985, he received another Grammy nomination for another instrumental entitled “The Movie Song”. He also wrote and produced “Inside Love” for his musical idol, George Benson. It was during this time that he met and launched the career of then unknown Kenny G with “Hi How Ya Doin” and “Nighttime in Tribeca”.

In 1985, Kashif teamed up with then newcomer, Whitney Houston. The result was the hit “You Give Good Love”. Kashif also produced and was her duet partner on “Thinking About You”, a single track from Houston’s 17-million selling (30 million until current day) debut album. The album became the bestselling debut album by a female artist. Kashif also produced “Where You Are” on Houston’s second project, the result, a 15-million selling (25 million until current day) album entitled Whitney.

In 1987, he produced “Love Changes”, a chart topper in which Me’lisa Morgan was his duet partner and that name was taken from his bestselling album, which had the same name. The track also appears on Meli’sa Morgan’s album Good Love. Also contained on that album was another duet that yielded yet another international hit, the song “Reservations For Two” with Dionne Warwick. Between 1987 and 1989, Kashif continued to churn out the hits for Jermaine Jackson, The Stylistics, Melba Moore, George Benson, Stacy Lattisaw, and many others.

In 1996, with an invitation from the UCLA Extension program, Kashif created “Contemporary Record Production With Kashif”. He also wrote and self-published the book “Everything You’d Better Know About The Record Industry”; it has sold over 375,000 copies worldwide.

In 2000, Kashif produced the theme song for the Para-Olympics, and wrote and produced “Brooklyn Breezes” for R&B great Will Downing. He also co-produced along with George Duke the Duke Ellington Tribute CD for The Duke Ellington Foundation. On November 14, 2004, Kashif was inducted into the R&B Hall of Fame as a “Living Legend”. That year Janet Jackson’s hit “R&B Junkie” used a sample of “I’m in Love” written and produced by Kashif.

Growing up in the foster care system inspired Kashif to lend his time and energy to help find ways to improve the lives of the more than 518,000 young people who are in foster care every day in America. In 2006, he created and founded Team iCare Foundation and produced the very first Walk/Run for Foster Care at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, California. The result was 247 individuals signed up to become foster parents. He also created the Mentorship Dinner Cruise for youth in foster care, an event where 200 youth went on a cruise in Marina Del Rey, California and were paired with 250 professionals in various industries for the purpose of creating mentoring relationships.

Kashif received community awards from the California State Senate, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Los Angeles Mayor, Antonio Villariagosa, all five Los Angeles County members of the Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles County Children & Family Services and others. In 2006, Kashif founded Kashif University, which was located on the campus of Morningside High School in Inglewood California. It is an integrated education and arts training program for at-risk-youth ages 8–18.

Kashif also wrote, directed, and produced commercials and corporate films for Hyundai Motors America, Casey Family Programs, UPS, St. Joseph Health System, Patten Academy, and many others. He produced and directed a ten-part documentary series entitled “The History of R&B Music and Its Influence on World Culture” for worldwide distribution.

Kashif died of a massive heart attack on September 25, 2016.

Freda Payne

Freda Charcilia Payne (born September 19, 1942) is an American singer and actress. Payne is best known for career in music during the mid–1960s through the mid–1980s. Her most notable record is her 1970 hit single, “Band of Gold”. Payne was also an actress in musicals and film, as well as the host of a TV talk show. Payne is the older sister of Scherrie Payne, a former singer with the American vocal group The Supremes.

From Detroit, Michigan, she is the older sister of Scherrie Payne, the final lead singer in the Motown act The Supremes. Freda Charcilia Payne grew up listening to different jazz singers such as Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, which helped her develop a taste for music. As a teenager, she attended the Institute of Musical Arts; she soon began singing radio commercial jingles and won many local TV and radio talent shows. Her voice caught the attention of Berry Gordy and Duke Ellington. However, her mother wanted her to finish school first. In 1963, she moved to New York City and worked with Quincy Jones, Pearl Bailey, Bill Cosby and others. During that same year, her debut album, After the Lights Go Down Low and Much More!!!, was released. Three years later, she released How Do You Say I Don’t Love You Anymore.

She also made occasional guest appearances on the “Merv Griffin” and “Johnny Carson” shows. She added theatrical credits to her repertoire; as an understudy with Leslie Uggams for the Broadway show Hallelujah Baby in 1967 and she appeared with the Equity Theatre in a production of Lost in the Stars. In 1969, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Edward Holland, Jr., persuaded her to sign with them. During that same year, she released, “Unhooked Generation”. Shortly thereafter, songwriters Edythe Wayne and Ron Dunbar offered her a song entitled “Band of Gold”. Almost immediately, in early 1970, the song became an instant pop smash; it also gave Payne her first gold record. Other singles included “Deeper and Deeper”, “You Brought the Joy”, and the Vietnam protest song “Bring the Boys Home” (#12, 1971; her second gold record). Her other Invictus albums were Contact (1971), The Best of Freda Payne (1972, a compilation which included four new, unissued songs), and her last Invictus album Reaching Out (1973).

In 1973, being dissatisfied with her royalties (which were very low to begin with), she left Invictus and recorded albums for ABC/Dunhill and Capitol, but she never found the commercial success she had with Invictus. Payne was formerly married to singer Gregory Abbott in 1976, and had a son, Gregory Abbott, Jr. (born 1978). In 1981, she briefly hosted her own talk show “Today’s Black Woman” and also found work acting in different movies, Broadway, and other theatre productions throughout the eighties. She also had a relationship with Edmund Sylvers who had written and produced her 1982 single ‘In Motion.

Although she was concentrating more on acting by that time, she never gave up music; in 1982, she recorded a single entitled “In Motion” for the Sutra label in New York, and in 1986, she recorded a remake of her hit “Band of Gold” with Belinda Carlisle. In 1990, she recorded three songs for Ian Levine’s UK Motorcity label: another remake of “Band of Gold”, “Memories and Souvenirs”, and “Only Minutes Away”. In the mid-nineties, she released three albums for Dove Music: I Hate Barney (1995, a comedy album), An Evening With Freda Payne: Live, and her first (and only) Christmas album Christmas With Freda and Friends (both 1996). She also continued her acting career appearing in movies like Private Obsession (1995), Ragdoll (1999), The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps (2000), and Fire & Ice (made-for-TV, 2001). In early 2001, she released a new album (of jazz, pop, and R&B molded into one) called Come See About Me for the Volt label (the title track is a remake of the Supremes’ hit). In early 2003, she performed a show called “Love & Payne” with Darlene Love at Feinstein’s at the Regency in New York City and at the Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles getting excellent reviews. During the early part of the 21st century, the following compilations of her music were released: Lost in Love (which includes nine of her post-Invictus recordings), Band of Gold: The Best of Freda Payne (both 2000), Unhooked Generation: The Complete Invictus Recordings (2001, the best compilation of her Invictus songs ever made), and The Best of Freda Payne: Ten Best Series (2002, another collection of her Invictus songs).

In 2009, she appeared on American Idol and sang “Band of Gold”. In 2010, Payne joined Kanye West, Jordin Sparks, Jennifer Hudson, Barbra Streisand and many more on We Are The World for Haiti Relief. In 2011 Payne recorded a duet, “Saving A Life”, with British pop star Sir Cliff Richard for inclusion on his “Soulicious” album. She also joined Richard on his “Soulicious” tour of the UK in October of the same year.

Nell Carter

Nell Carter was born on this date in 1948. She was an African American singer and actress.

From Birmingham, Alabama while growing up, Carter listened to her mother’s recordings of Dinah Washington and B. B. King, and her brother’s Elvis Presley records. She liked Doris Day, the Andrews Sisters, Johnny Mathis, and admired the work of Cleo Laine and Barbra Streisand. Early in her career, she performed as a singer on the gospel circuit. She moved on to coffeehouses and nightclubs in her hometown, before going on to New York.

While there Carter started out as a cabaret performer, then leaped to stardom in the musical revue “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” for which she won a Tony award. She continued in theater with a revival of “Annie,” where she won the Outer Circle Critics Award, the Obie, and the Drama Desk Award. On TV, Carter worked on the soap opera “Ryan’s Hope” and the prime-time series “The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo” as police sergeant Hildy Jones.

In 1981 Carter had her biggest TV hit was on the sitcom “Gimme a Break” which ran until 1987. In 1990, she was in the short-lived series “You Take the Kids” and from 1993 to 1995 she appeared in the recurring role of Mark Curry’s boss in “Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper”. Carter also appeared in TV-movies, including the musical “Cindy” 1978, she also played the mother of ill-fated athlete Hank Gathers in “Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story” 1992 “Maid for Each Other” later that same year.

Carter’s musical specials have a been many, a guest appearance on “Baryshnikov on Broadway” 1980; “Ain’t Misbehavin'” 1981; and “Evening at the Pops” 1987. Carter’s feature film appearances included “Black Boys/White Boys,” Milos Forman’s “Hair” 1979, “Modern Problems” and “Back Roads” both in 1981. In 1992, Carter’s voice was featured for the animated feature “Bebe’s Kids”. She has also performed in Las Vegas, headlined a 1991 Los Angeles revival of “Hello, Dolly!” with an African-American cast and played the villainous Miss Hannigan in the 1996-97 revival of the stage musical “Annie”.

Her last appearance was an episode of “Touched By an Angel” in 2001. Nell Carter died from complications of diabetes on January 23, 2003.

Barry White

Barry White (born Barry Eugene Carter; September 12, 1944 – July 4, 2003) was an American composer and singer-songwriter.

A three-time Grammy Award–winner known for his distinctive bass-baritone voice and romantic image, White’s greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring soul, funk, and disco songs such as his two biggest hits, “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” and “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe”.

During the course of his career in the music business, White achieved 106 gold albums worldwide, 41 of which also attained platinum status. White had 20 gold and 10 platinum singles, with worldwide record sales in excess of 100 million. He is one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time. His influences included Rev. James Cleveland, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, and Elvis Presley plus Motown artists The Supremes, The Four Tops, and Marvin Gaye.

Barry White was born Barry Eugene Carter in Galveston, Texas, and grew up in the high-crime areas of South Central Los Angeles. White was the older of two children. His brother Darryl was 13 months younger than Barry. He grew up listening to his mother’s classical music collection and first took to the piano, emulating what he heard on the records. White has often been credited with playing piano, at age eleven, on Jesse Belvin’s 1956 hit single, “Goodnight My Love.” However, in a 1995 interview with the Boston Herald’s Larry Katz, White denied writing or arranging the song. He believed the story was an exaggeration by journalists. While White and Belvin lived in the same neighborhood, Belvin was twelve years older than White. Barry White also stated that he had no involvement with Bob & Earl’s 1963 hit single Harlem Shuffle, a song he is credited with producing and in his 1999 autobiography, White confirmed the song had been produced by Gene Page, who had worked with him on many of White’s 1970s successes.

White’s voice deepened suddenly when he was fourteen. White recalled: “[As a child] I had a normal squeaky kid voice. Then as a teenager, that completely changed. My mother cried because she knew her baby boy had become a man.”

His brother Darryl was murdered in a clash with a rival gang, and White himself was jailed—at the age of 16—for stealing $30,000 worth of Cadillac tires.

While in jail, White listened to Elvis Presley singing “It’s Now or Never” on the radio, an experience he later credited with changing the course of his life.

After his release from jail, he left gang life and began a musical career at the beginning of the 1960s in singing groups. He first released “Too Far to Turn Around” in 1960 as part of The Upfronts before working for various small independent labels in Los Angeles. He also recorded several singles under his own name in the early 1960s, backed by vocal groups the Atlantics (for the Rampart and Faro labels) and the Majestics (for the Linda and Jordan labels).

Bob Keane of Del-Fi Records—the man who discovered Ritchie Valens—hired him as an A&R man in the mid 1960s, and White started working with the label’s artists, including Viola Wills and The Bobby Fuller Four, as a songwriter, session musician, and arranger. He discovered singer Felice Taylor and arranged her song “I Feel Love Comin’ On”, which became a big hit in the UK. He also wrote “Doin’ the Banana Split” for TV bubblegum act The Banana Splits in 1968.

In 1972, he got his big break producing a girl group he had discovered called Love Unlimited. Formed in imitative style of the Motown girl group The Supremes, the group members had gradually honed their talents with White for two years previously until they signed contracts with Uni Records. His friend Paul Politi hooked him up with music industry businessman Larry Nunes, who helped to finance their album. After it was recorded, Nunes took the recording to Russ Regan, who was the head of the Uni label owned by MCA. The album, 1972’s From A Girl’s Point of View We Give to You… Love Unlimited, became a million album seller and the first of White’s string of long-titled albums and singles.

White produced, wrote and arranged their classic soul ballad “Walkin’ in the Rain with the One I Love”, which climbed to #14 in the Billboard Hot 100 Pop chart and #6 on the Billboard R&B chart in late 1972. This single also reached #12 in the UK chart. White’s voice can clearly be heard in this piece as he plays the lover who answers the phone call of the female lead.

Soon after, Regan left Uni for 20th Century Records. Without Regan, White’s relationship with Uni soured. With his relationship with Uni over and Love Unlimited contract-bound with the label, White was able to switch both his production deal and the group to 20th Century Records. (They recorded several other hits throughout the 1970s, “I Belong to You”, which spent over five months on the Billboard R&B chart in 1974 including a week at #1 and “Under the Influence of Love”, which hit #3 on the Billboard Pop album charts. White married the lead singer of the group, Glodean James, on July 4, 1974.)

White wanted to work with another act but decided to work with a solo male artist. While working on a few demos for a male singer, he made three song demos of himself singing and playing, but Nunes heard them and insisted that he re-record and release them himself as a solo recording artist. After arguing for days about it, White was finally persuaded to release the songs himself although he was initially reluctant to step out in front of the microphone.

He then wrote several other songs and recorded them for what eventually became an entire album of music. He was going to use the name “White Heat,” but decided on using his given name instead. White was still hesitating up to the time the label copy was made. It eventually became the first solo White album, 1973’s I’ve Got So Much to Give. It included the title track and his first solo chart hit, “I’m Gonna Love You Just a Little More Baby”, which also rose to #1 on the Billboard R&B charts as well as #3 on the Billboard Pop charts in 1973 and stayed in the top 40 for many weeks.

Other chart hits by White included “Never, Never Gonna Give Ya Up” (#2 R&B, #7 Pop in 1973), “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe” (# 1 Pop and R&B in 1974), “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything” (#1 R&B, #2 Pop in 1974), “What Am I Gonna Do with You” (#1 R&B, #8 Pop in 1975), “Let the Music Play” (#4 R&B in 1976), “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down Next to Me” (#1 R&B, #4 Pop in 1977) and “Your Sweetness is My Weakness” (#2 R&B in 1978) and others. White also had a strong following in the UK, where he scored five Top 10 hits and a #1 for “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything”.

In 1973 White created The Love Unlimited Orchestra, a 40-piece orchestral group to be used originally as a backing band for the girl-group Love Unlimited. However, White had other plans, and in 1973 he released a single with “Love’s Theme” (written by him and played by the Orchestra), that same track reached #1 on the Billboard Pop charts. Later, in 1974, he made the first album of the Love Unlimited Orchestra, Rhapsody in White, containing “Love’s Theme”. White is sometimes credited with ushering in the “disco” sound, seamlessly combining R&B music with classical music. Some also regard “Love’s Theme” as the first hit in the actual “disco era”.

Barry White would continue to make albums with the Orchestra, achieving some successes such as: “Rhapsody in White”; “Satin Soul”; “Forever in Love”; “Midnight Groove”; “My Sweet Summer Suite”, Remake of “Theme From King Kong”. The Orchestra ceased to make albums in 1983, but continued to support Barry White as a backing band.

After six years White left 20th Century in 1979 to launch his own label, Unlimited Gold, with CBS/Columbia Records. Although his success on the pop charts slowed down as the disco era came to an end, he maintained a loyal following throughout his career. Despite several albums over the next three years he failed to repeat his earlier successes, with no singles managing to reach the Billboard Hot 100 except for 1982’s “Change,” climbing into the Billboard R&B Top 20 (#12). His label venture was exacting a heavy financial cost on White, so he concentrated on mostly touring and finally folded his label in 1983.

After four years he signed with A&M Records, and with the release of 1987’s The Right Night & Barry White, the single entitled “Sho’ You Right” made it to the Billboard R&B charts, peaking at #17.

In 1989 he released The Man Is Back! and with it had three top 40 singles on the Billboard R&B charts: “Super Lover”, which made it to #34, “I Wanna Do It Good to Ya”, which made it to #26, and “When Will I See You Again”, which made it to #32.

A 1970s nostalgia fad allowed White to enjoy a renewed wave of popularity in the 1990s. After participating in the song “The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite)” from Quincy Jones’s 1989 album Back on the Block, White mounted an effective comeback with several albums, each more successful than the last. He returned to the top of the charts in 1991 with the album Put Me in Your Mix, which reached #8 on the Billboard R&B Albums chart and the song by the same name reached #2 on the Billboard R&B singles chart.

In 1994 he released The Icon Is Love, which went to #1 on the Billboard R&B album charts, and the single “Practice What You Preach” gave him his first #1 on the Billboard R&B singles chart in almost 20 years. The album was nominated for a Grammy in the Best R&B Album category, but lost to TLC’s CrazySexyCool.

In 1996, White recorded the duet “In Your Wildest Dreams” with Tina Turner. 1996 also saw the release of Space Jam and its soundtrack, on which White had a duet with Chris Rock, called “Basketball Jones,” a remake of Cheech & Chong’s “Basketball Jones” from 1973.

His final album, 1999’s Staying Power, resulted in his last hit song “Staying Power,” which placed #45 on the Billboard R&B charts. The single won him two Grammy Awards in the categories Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance.

His autobiography, Love Unlimited, written with Mark Eliot, was published in 1999 by Broadway Books.

Over the course of his career, White sometimes did voice-over work for TV and movies. He voiced the character Bear in the 1975 film Coonskin and also played the character Sampson in the movie’s live-action segments.

He appeared as himself in a few episodes of The Simpsons, and most importantly the episode “Whacking Day” in which Bart and Lisa used his famously deep bass singing voice, played through loudspeakers placed on the ground, to lull and attract snakes. White was a fan of the show, and had reportedly contacted the staff about wanting to make a guest appearance.

He played the role of a bus driver for a Prodigy commercial in 1995, and he also portrayed the voice of a rabbit in a Good Seasons salad dressing mix commercial, singing a song called “You Can’t Bottle Love”.

In addition, he did some work for car commercials, most famously for Oldsmobile, and later on, Jeep.

He also provided voice over for Arby’s Restaurant commercials on TV and Radio to promote their ‘Market Fresh’ menu.

His voice can also be heard in Apple’s first iBook commercial.

He made three guest appearances on the comedy-drama TV series Ally McBeal, as his music was often featured on the show in dream sequences.

White was overweight for most of his adult life—weighing 375 pounds (170 kg) according to Casey Kasem—and suffered from related health problems. In October 1995, he was admitted to a hospital as a result of high blood pressure. In August 1999, White was forced to cancel approximately a month’s worth of tour dates owing to exhaustion, high blood pressure, and a hectic schedule. In September 2002, he was hospitalized with kidney failure attributed to chronic diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure.

While undergoing dialysis and awaiting a kidney transplant in May 2003, he suffered a severe stroke, which forced him to retire from public life. At around 9:30 a.m. (PDT) on July 4, 2003, 29 years to the day that he married Glodean, White died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at the age of 58. His remains were cremated, and the ashes were scattered by his family off the California coast.

Geoffrey Owens not out of work anymore

Just when most of us get sick and tired of social media and how heartbreaking it can be, something heartwarming like this happens. I can’t express to you how full my heart is seeing how social media has rallied behind and supports Geoffrey Owens. Geoffrey is a good dude. It’s actually a distinguishing quality of his. So it’s no wonder that he is willing to do whatever he needs to do legally to take care of his family. What people don’t know about Geoffrey is that not only did he graduate cum laude from Yale, but he is an accomplished theater actor (pre and post Cosby). His intimate knowledge of Shakespeare as an actor and director puts many of us to shame. And in a way we should thank Fox News and the miserable fucks for their attempt to job shame him. With the love and support he’s getting from everybody, he’s about to get more work. Trader Joe’s is not a career change, you dumbfucks out there, it’s a placeholder gig that allows flexibility to go on auditions and then to take time off to go work when booking said auditions. An actor’s life is a series of ups and downs. As my mama used to tell me when I was a teenager, if you’re in this business long enough, you will have dry spells. Watch this be the kickstart this dry spell needed! Salute and MAD respect to bro

Macy Gray

Macy Gray (born Natalie Renée McIntyre; September 6, 1967) is an American R&B, jazz and soul singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, and actress, known for her distinctive raspy voice, and a singing style heavily influenced by Billie Holiday.

Gray has released six studio albums, and received five Grammy Award nominations, winning one. She has appeared in a number of films, including Training Day, Spider-Man, Scary Movie 3, Lackawanna Blues, Idlewild and For Colored Girls. Gray is best known for her international hit single “I Try”, taken from her multi-platinum debut album On How Life Is.

In 2016, Gray made a large artistic leap by changing labels to record an album produced with binaural sound. Stripped (Chesky Records, 2016) marked the singer’s first steps into the world of audiophile recordings.

Natalie McIntyre was born in Canton, Ohio, the daughter of Laura McIntyre, a math schoolteacher, and Otis Jones who left when she was a baby. Her stepfather was a steelworker, and she has a sister who would become a biology teacher. She began piano lessons at age seven. A childhood bicycle mishap resulted in her noticing a mailbox of a man named Macy Gray; she used the name in stories she wrote and later decided to use it as her stage name.

Gray attended school with Brian Warner (later known as musician Marilyn Manson) although they did not know each other. She attended more than one high school including a boarding school which asked her to leave due to her behavior.

She attended college at the University of Southern California and studied script-writing.

While attending the University of Southern California, she agreed to write songs for a friend. A demo session was scheduled for the songs to be recorded by another singer, but the vocalist failed to appear, so Gray recorded them herself.

I started forming bands and writing songs just for fun and then I really got into it and got attached to it. Then a friend of mine asked me to be a singer in his jazz band. He gave me all these jazz CDs and I studied all these different singers and I kind of taught myself how to sing for a gig, but I didn’t take it seriously until later.

She then met writer-producer Joe Solo while working as a cashier in Beverly Hills. Together, they wrote a collection of songs and recorded them in Solo’s studio. The demo tape gave Gray the opportunity to sing at jazz cafés in Los Angeles. Initially, Gray did not consider her unusual voice desirable for singing, Atlantic Records signed her. She began recording her debut record but was dropped from the label upon the departure of A&R man Tom Carolan, who had signed her to the label. Macy returned to Ohio but in 1997 Los Angeles based Zomba Publishing Senior VP A&R man Jeff Blue, convinced her to return to music and signed her to a development deal, recording new songs based on her life experiences, with a new sound, and began shopping her to record labels. In 1998, she landed a record deal with Epic Records. She performed on “Love Won’t Wait”, a song on the Black Eyed Peas’ debut album Behind the Front.

Gray worked on her debut album in 1999 with producer Darryl Swann. Released in the summer of 1999, On How Life Is became a worldwide smash. Despite the first single “Do Something” stalling on the charts, the release of the second single “I Try” made the album a success for Gray. “I Try” (which was originally featured in Love Jones and the Jennifer Aniston-starring romantic-comedy Picture Perfect in 1997) was one of the biggest singles of 1999, and subsequent singles “Still” and “Why Didn’t You Call Me” ensured the album became triple platinum in the US, quadruple platinum in the UK, and in Canada.

In 2001, Gray won the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “I Try”, which was also nominated for “song of the year” and “record of the year”. She then collaborated with Fatboy Slim, the Black Eyed Peas, and Slick Rick (on the song “The World Is Yours”, from the Rush Hour 2 soundtrack), as well as acting for the first time, in the thriller Training Day. In August 2001, Gray was booed off the field at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game after forgetting the lyrics to the American national anthem.

Gray was married to Tracy Hinds, a mortgage broker, for about four years, but they divorced when her career was about to begin. They have three children:Aanisah, Mel, and Happy.

Along with her unique voice, she has a somewhat unusual appearance. Standing 6 feet (1.8 metres) tall, she has also worn her hair dramatically and for some part of her career was known for noticeable and creative wigs.

She opened the Macy Gray Music Academy in 2005.

After her quick rise to fame as a musician and songwriter, Macy Gray was featured on television and feature films, performing her music and/or appearing as herself or in cameos. However, she also began acting in small roles as well.

Isabel Sanford

On this date in 1917 Isabel Sanford was born. She is an African American actress.

From New York City, Sanford’s life story is the type that those in show business enjoy because it gives the struggling artist hope. After education in New York, she joined the Star Players (later the American Negro Theater) in the 1930s. Sanford worked with them until World War II started and the theater temporarily split up. After the war, Sanford had home obligations that put her career on hold. But her husband’s death was inspiration for Sanford’s dream.

With three children to support, she worked as a data processor by day and acted as she could in the evening and developed a life-long frugality about which she joked about. Sanford made it to the Broadway stage in James Baldwin’s The Amen Corner, and, in 1967 was given her film debut by producer-director Stanley Kramer in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? In it, Sanford was the ever-loyal housekeeper of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Her role of the maid was in stark contrast to the supposed liberalism of Hepburn and Tracy characters in the film, here Sanford offered a grand performance in what might be the last of the great strong, humorless Black domestics, a practice in American films and TV until the Civil Rights era. Sanford appeared in the feature Pendulum (1969) as well as making appearances on The Carol Burnett Show from 1967-69 as a stock player in some skits.

She also appeared on episodes of Julia as a woman who berated Dihann Carroll to make sure the widowed nurse wasn’t turning her son Corey into an “Oreo.” In 1971 came All in the Family. Sanford’s role was, at first, recurring, but as the producers could use her as a friend to Edith, it increased. The Jeffersons followed, with Sanford winning an Emmy in 1981 for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, the first African-American woman to win in that category in the history of the awards. Sanford made guest appearances on other shows and specials and appeared in the 1979 film Love at First Bite. Other film roles include Lady Sings the Blues (1972) and Original Gangstas (1996).

Isabel Sanford will always be known as Louise Jefferson, yet throughout her career, Sanford said more with her eyes and with her impeccable comic timing than others did with words. Isabelle Sanford died on July 12, 2004.

Michael Jackson King of pop

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, record producer, dancer, and actor. Called the King of Pop, his contributions to music, dance and fashion along with his publicized personal life made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades.

The eighth child of the Jackson family, Michael made his professional debut in 1964 with his elder brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon as a member of the Jackson 5, and began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became a dominant figure in popular music. His music videos, including those of “Beat It”, “Billie Jean”, and “Thriller” from his 1982 album Thriller, are credited with breaking racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped bring the television channel MTV to fame. Jackson’s 1987 album Bad spawned the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You”, “Bad”, “The Way You Make Me Feel”, “Man in the Mirror”, and “Dirty Diana”, becoming the first album to have five number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100. He continued to innovate with videos such as “Black or White” and “Scream” throughout the 1990s, and forged a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous artists of various music genres.

Thriller is the best-selling album of all time, with estimated sales of 65 million copies worldwide. Jackson’s other albums, including Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991), and HIStory (1995), also rank among the world’s best-selling albums. He is recognized as the Most Successful Entertainer of All Time by Guinness World Records. Jackson is one of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, and was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Dance Hall of Fame as the only dancer from pop and rock music. His other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records, 13 Grammy Awards, the Grammy Legend Award, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, 26 American Music Awards—more than any other artist—including the “Artist of the Century” and “Artist of the 1980s”, 13 number-one singles in the United States during his solo career,—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and estimated sales of over 350 million records worldwide. Jackson has won hundreds of awards, making him the most awarded recording artist in the history of popular music. He became the first artist in history to have a top ten single in the Billboard Hot 100 in five different decades when “Love Never Felt So Good” reached number nine on May 21, 2014. Jackson traveled the world attending events honoring his humanitarianism, and, in 2000, the Guinness World Records recognized him for supporting 39 charities, more than any other entertainer.

Aspects of Jackson’s personal life, including his changing appearance, personal relationships, and behavior, generated controversy. In 1993, he was accused of child sexual abuse, but the civil case was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount and no formal charges were brought. In 2005, he was tried and acquitted of further child sexual abuse allegations and several other charges after the jury found him not guilty on all counts. While preparing for his comeback concert series, “This Is It,” Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles County Coroner ruled his death a homicide, and his personal physician, Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Jackson’s death triggered a global outpouring of grief, and a live broadcast of his public memorial service was viewed around the world. Forbes ranks Jackson as the top-earning dead celebrity, a title held for a sixth consecutive year, with $115 million in earnings.