Whats Buzzing in the Streets – Page 68

Fats

Thomas Wright (“Fats”) Waller grew up in a Harlem household where his father was a Baptist preacher and his mother played piano and organ. He took up the piano at age six, playing in a school orchestra led by Edgar Sampson. After his mother died when he was 14, Waller moved into the home of pianist Russell Brooks, where he met and studied with James P. Johnson, Carl Bohm, and the famous pianist Leopold Godowsky. Waller made his first record at age 18, “Birmingham Blues”/Muscle Shoals Blues” in 1922.
He backed various blues singers and worked as house pianist and organist at rent parties and in movie theatres and clubs. He began to attract attention as a composer at this time, forming a most fruitful alliance with lyricist Andy Razaf that resulted in three Broadway shows in the late ’20s, “Keep Shufflin’,” “Load of Coal,” and “Hot Chocolates.” Waller’s most significant early records for Victor were a series of brilliant 1929 solo piano sides of his own compositions like “Handful of Keys” and “Smashing Thirds.” After finally signing an exclusive Victor contract in 1934, he began the long-running, prolific series of records with his Rhythm, which won him great fame and produced several hits, including “Your Feet’s Too Big,” “The Joint Is Jumpin’,” and “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter.”
He began to appear in films like “Hooray for Love” and “King of Burlesque” in 1935 while continuing regular appearances on radio dating back to 1923. He toured Europe in 1938, made organ recordings in London for HMV, and appeared on one of the first television broadcasts. Well aware of the popularity of big bands in the 1930s, Waller tried to form his own, but they were short-lived. Into the 1940s, Waller’s touring schedule of the U.S. escalated; he contributed music to the films (including a memorable stretch of Stormy Weather where he led an all-star band that included Benny Carter, Slam Stewart, and Zutty Singleton).
As a composer and improviser, his melodic invention rarely flagged, and he contributed fistfuls of joyous yet paradoxically winsome songs like “Honeysuckle Rose,” “Ain’t Misbehavin’,” “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now,” “Blue Turning Grey Over You” and the extraordinary “Jitterbug Waltz” to the jazz repertoire. While every clown longs to play Hamlet, as per the cliché, Waller did have so-called serious musical pretensions, longing to follow in George Gershwin’s footsteps and compose concert music. It was not to be, due to the racial barriers of the first half of the 20th century.
Waller influenced a long line of pianists, including Count Basie, Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum, Thelonious Monk, Dave Brubeck, and countless others. His impact has been truly profound. Years of draining alimony squabbles, plus overindulgence, and, no doubt, frustration over not being taken more seriously as an artist began to wear him down. Waller was returning to New York City from Los Angeles, after the smash success of Stormy Weather, and after a successful engagement at the Zanzibar Room, in Santa Monica California, during which he had fallen ill. the Santa Fe Chief train for the long trip back to New York. He never made it, dying of pneumonia aboard the train during a stop at Union Station in Kansas City on December 15, 1943.
More than 4,000 people attended his funeral in Harlem, which prompted Dr. Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who delivered the eulogy, to say that Fats Waller “always played to a packed house.” Afterwards he was cremated and his ashes were scattered, from an airplane piloted by an unidentified World War I black aviator, over Harlem. One of his surviving relatives is former Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket and current Baltimore Ravens tight end Darren Waller, who is Fats’ paternal great-grandson.

Written by Dianne Washington

Ron Isley

Ronald Isley ( May 21, 1941) is an American recording artist, songwriter, record producer, and occasional actor. Isley is better known as the lead singer and founding member of the family music group the Isley Brothers.
Isley was born the third of six brothers (O’Kelly Isley, Jr., Rudolph Isley, Ronald, Vernon Isley, Ernie Isley, Marvin Isley) to Sallye Bernice (Bell) and O’Kelly Isley, Sr. Ronald, like many of his siblings, began his career in the church. He began singing at the age of three, winning a $25 war bond for singing at a spiritual contest at the Union Baptist Church. By the age of seven, Ronald was singing on-stage at venues such as the Regal Theater in Chicago, alongside Dinah Washington and a few other notables.
By his early teens, he was singing regularly with his brothers in church tours and also first appeared on TV on Ted Mack’s Amateur Hour. In 1957, sixteen-year-old Ronald and his two elder brothers O’Kelly, 19 and Rudy, 18, moved to New York, recording doo-wop for local labels before landing a major deal with RCA Records in 1959, where the trio wrote and released their anthemic “Shout”. By the summer of 1959, the Isley family had moved from Cincinnati to a home in Englewood, New Jersey.
For much of the Isley Brothers’ duration, Ron Isley would remain the group’s consistent member of the group as well as the lead vocalist for most of the group’s tenure with sporadic lead shares with his older brothers. In 1969, Ron and his brothers reformed T-Neck Records in a need to produce themselves without the control of record labels, forming the label shortly after ending a brief tenure with Motown. In 1973, the group’s style and sound drastically changed following the release of the 3 + 3 album where brothers Ernie Isley and Marvin Isley and in-law Chris Jasper permanently enter the brothers’ lineup, writing the music and lyrics to the group’s new sound. The younger brothers had been providing instrumental help for the brothers since the late 1960s. By the mid-1970s, Ronald was living in Teaneck, New Jersey.
After Kelly Isley’s death in 1986 and Rudy Isley’s exit to fulfill a dream of ministry in 1989, Ronald has carried on with the Isley Brothers name either as a solo artist or with accompanying help from the group’s younger brothers, much more prominently, Ernie Isley. In 1990, Isley scored a top-ten duet with Rod Stewart with a cover of his brothers’ hit “This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)”, and in 2003 Ronald recorded a solo album, Here I Am: Bacharach Meets Isley, with Burt Bacharach. In addition, Ron Isley became a sought-after hook singer for R&B veteran R. Kelly, and hip-hop acts such as Warren G, 2Pac and UGK.
Ronald released his first solo album Mr. I on November 30, 2010. The album includes the first single “No More” It debuted at number 50 on the Billboard 200, selling 22,243 copies. It was his first solo album to crack that chart.
In 2010, Isley received a “Legend Award” at the Soul Train Music Awards.
In 2013, Ronald released his second solo album This Song Is For You sign labels eOne. The album includes the first single “Dinner and A Movie”. Second single, Premiere Song “My Favorite Thing” wrote, features and produced singer, Kem. Ronald received a nominees Independent R&B/Soul Artist Performance, at the Soul Train Music Awards.
In 2014, Ronald made a cameo appearance in the music video for Kendrick Lamar song “i”.
In 1993, Isley married producer/composer/singer Angela Winbush in Los Angeles, California. They quietly divorced in early 2002. When Winbush received chemotherapy following her ovarian cancer diagnosis, Isley was by her side giving her his support in her recovery. He has older children with various women, including daughters Tawanna and Trenisha. In 2004, while in London, Isley suffered a mild stroke, which halted an Isley Brothers tour there. In September 2005, Isley made headlines when he married background singer Kandy Johnson (of the duo JS/Johnson Sisters), who is 35 years his junior. Their son, Ronald Isley, Jr. was born in January 2007. In 2007, it was reported Isley had kidney problems. He still lives in St. Louis

Written by Dianne Washington

Cher

Cher (born May 20, 1946 as Cherilyn Sarkisian is an American singer and actress. Sometimes called the Goddess of Pop, she has been described as embodying female autonomy in a male-dominated industry. She is known for her distinctive contralto singing voice and for having worked in numerous areas of entertainment, as well as adopting a variety of styles and appearances during her six-decade-long career.
Cher gained popularity in 1965 as one-half of the folk rock husband-wife duo Sonny & Cher after their song “I Got You Babe” reached number one on the American and British charts. By the end of 1967, they had sold 40 million records worldwide and had become, according to Time magazine, rock’s “it” couple. She began her solo career simultaneously, releasing in 1966 her first million-seller song, “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)”. She became a television personality in the 1970s with her shows The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, watched by over 30 million viewers weekly during its three-year run, and Cher. She emerged as a fashion trendsetter by wearing elaborate outfits on her television shows.
Written by Dianne Washington

Malcolm X

This date marks the birthday of Malcolm X. in 1925. He was an African American activist leader who articulated concepts of race pride and Black Nationalism in the early 1960s.
Malcolm Little (his name at birth), El-Hajj Malikel-Shabazz (his Muslim name) was from Omaha, Nebraska. Growing up in Lansing, Michigan, Malcolm saw his house burned down at the hands of the White supremacist Ku Klux Klan. Two years later his father was murdered, and Malcolm’s mother was placed in a mental institution. Malcolm spent the following years in detention homes, and in his early teens he moved to Boston to live with his sister. In 1946, while in prison for burglary, he was converted to the Nation of Islam; this sect professed the superiority of Black people and the inherent evil of Whites.
Released from prison in 1952, Malcolm went to Nation of Islam headquarters in Chicago, met the sect’s leader, Elijah Muhammad, and embraced its rigorous asceticism. He changed his last name to “X,” a custom among Nation of Islam followers who considered their family names to have originated with White slaveholders. Malcolm X was sent on speaking tours around the country and soon became the most effective speaker and organizer for the Nation of Islam. He founded many new mosques and greatly increased the movement’s membership. In 1961, he founded Muhammad Speaks, the official publication of the movement.
He was eventually assigned as minister of the important Mosque Number Seven in New York City’s Harlem area. Speaking with bitter eloquence against the white exploitation of Black people, Malcolm developed a brilliant platform style, which soon won him a large and dedicated following. He derided the civil-rights movement and rejected both integration and racial equality, calling instead for Black separatism, Black pride, and Black self-dependence. He advocated violence (for self-protection) and appeared to many to be a fanatic.
Many civil-rights leaders at the time rejected this style of leadership. Malcolm X described the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as a “case of chickens coming home to roost,” an example of the kind of violence that Whites had long used against Blacks. Malcolm’s success had by this time aroused jealousy within the Black Muslim hierarchy, and, in response to his comments on the Kennedy assassination, Elijah Muhammad suspended Malcolm from the movement. In March 1964, Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam and announced the formation of his own religious organization.
As a result of a pilgrimage he took to Mecca in April 1964, he modified his views of Black separatism, declaring that he no longer believed Whites to be innately evil and acknowledging his vision of the possibility of world brotherhood. In October 1964, he reaffirmed his conversion to orthodox Islam. Growing hostility between Malcolm’s followers and the rival Black Muslims manifested itself in violence and threats against his life. He was shot to death at a rally of his followers at a Harlem ballroom on February 21, 1965. Three Black Muslims were convicted of the murder.
After his assassination, the widespread distribution of his life story, “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” (1965) made him an ideological hero, especially among Black youth.

Written by Dianne Washington

Reggie Jackson

Reginald Martinez “Reggie” Jackson (born May 18, 1946) is an American former professional baseball right fielder who played 21 seasons for the Kansas City / Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, and California Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). Jackson was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1993.
Jackson was nicknamed “Mr. October” for his clutch hitting in the postseason with the Athletics and the Yankees. He helped Oakland win five consecutive American League West divisional pennants, three consecutive American League pennants and three consecutive World Series titles, from 1971 to 1975. Jackson helped New York win four American League East divisional pennants, three American League pennants and two consecutive World Series titles, from 1977 to 1981. He also helped the California Angels win two AL West divisional pennants in 1982 and 1986. Jackson hit three consecutive home runs at Yankee Stadium in the clinching game 6 of the 1977 World Series.
Jackson hit 563 career home runs and was an American League (AL) All-Star for 14 seasons. He won two Silver Slugger Awards, the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award in 1973, two World Series MVP Awards, and the Babe Ruth Award in 1977. The Yankees and Athletics retired his team uniform number in 1993 and 2004. Jackson currently serves as a special advisor to the Yankees.
Reginald Martinez Jackson is one of six children from Wyncote, Pennsylvania. When he was six, his parents divorced, and Jackson grew up with his father, Martinez, who was in jail for bootlegging when Reggie graduated from Cheltenham Township High School in 1964. Jackson was a four-sport varsity athlete in high school; at Arizona State he played both baseball and football. After his sophomore season, the Kansas City Athletics, with the No. 2 pick of the 1966, draft selected him. He played for the As, both in Kansas City and in Oakland from 1967-1975, who traded him to Baltimore in April 1976.
A free agent the following year, he signed a four-year contract with the New York Yankees. Jackson moved to the California Angels in 1982, where he played for five seasons. He finished his career with the team where he started, playing the 1987 season with the Oakland As. In Jackson’s tenure with four American League franchises and all except the Orioles, the teams won at least two division titles with him on their roster. His Oakland teams won three consecutive World Series championships, the only organization other than the Yankees to three-peat, and his Yankee teams earned back-to-back titles in 1977-78. When he was with the Angels, California twice came within a victory of its first pennant and World Series appearance.
He holds the major league career record for most league championship series played (11) most games (45) most at-bats (163) and the American League records for most RBIs (20) most hits (37) and most singles (24) in LCS play. But it was in the World Series that he received the nickname, “Mr. October.” Playing in five World Series and 27 games, Jackson batted .357 with 10 home runs and 24 RBI’s. He also holds the career slugging percentage record of .755, and holds or shares nine World Series records that contain the phrase “home run.”
Voted to the American League All-star team 14 times Jackson finished his career with 1551 runs, 2584 hits, 463 doubles, 49 triples, 1702 RBI’s, and 563 home runs. In his first year of eligibility, Jackson was named on 396 of the 423 ballots and elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. On August 1, 1993, he was the only player to be inducted into the Hall on that day. Currently, Jackson lives in California; he connects with younger players regularly and is an executive with Upper Deck.

Written by Dianne Washington

Sugar Ray Leonard

Ray Charles “Sugar” Leonard (born May 17, 1956) is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, Leonard was part of “The Fabulous Four” a group of boxers who all fought each other throughout the 1980s, consisting of himself, Roberto Durán, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler. “The Fabulous Four” created a wave of popularity in the lower weight classes that kept boxing relevant in the post-Muhammad Ali era. Leonard was also the first boxer to earn more than $100 million in purses, won world titles in five weight divisions, including a run as the undisputed welterweight champion, and defeated future fellow International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Hearns, Durán, Hagler, and Wilfred Benítez. Leonard was named “Boxer of the Decade” in the 1980s.
Leonard, the fifth of seven children of Cicero and Getha Leonard, was born in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was named after Ray Charles, his mother’s favorite singer. The family moved to Washington, D.C., when he was three, and they settled permanently in Palmer Park, Maryland when he was ten. His father worked as a supermarket night manager and his mother was a nurse. He attended Parkdale High School, Leonard was a shy child, and aside from the time he nearly drowned in a creek during a flood in Seat Pleasant, Maryland, his childhood was uneventful. He stayed home a lot, reading comic books and playing with his dog. His mother said: “He never did talk too much. We never could tell what he was thinking. But I never had any problems with him. I never had to go to school once because of him.”
Leonard started boxing at the Palmer Park Recreation Center in 1969. His older brother, Roger, started boxing first. Roger helped start the boxing program, urging the center’s director, Ollie Dunlap, to form a team. Dave Jacobs, a former boxer, and Janks Morton volunteered as boxing coaches. Roger won some trophies and showed them off in front of Ray, goading him to start boxing.
In 1972, Leonard boxed in the featherweight quarterfinals of the National AAU Tournament, losing by decision to Jerome Artis. It was his first defeat. Later that year, he boxed in the Eastern Olympic Trials. The rules stated that a boxer had to be seventeen to box in international competition, so Leonard, only sixteen, lied about his age. He made it to the lightweight semifinals, losing a disputed decision to Greg Whaley, who took such a beating that he wasn’t allowed to continue in the trials and never boxed again.
Sarge Johnson, assistant coach of the U.S. Olympic Boxing Team, said to Dave Jacobs, “That kid you got is sweet as sugar”. The nickname stuck. However, given his style and first name, it was probably only a matter of time before people started calling him Sugar Ray, after the man many consider to be the best boxer of all time, Sugar Ray Robinson. In 1973, Leonard won the National Golden Gloves Lightweight Championship, but lost to Randy Shields in the lightweight final of the National AAU Tournament. The following year, Leonard won the National Golden Gloves and National AAU Lightweight Championships. Leonard suffered his last two losses as an amateur in 1974. He lost a disputed decision to Anatoli Kamnev in Moscow, after which, Kamnev gave the winner’s trophy to Leonard. In Poland, Kazimierz Szczerba was given a decision victory over Leonard, even though he was dominated in the first two rounds and dropped three times in the third. Leonard won the National Golden Gloves and National AAU Light Welterweight Championships in 1974. The following year, he again won the National AAU Light Welterweight Championship, as well as the Light Welterweight Championship at the Pan American Games.
In 1976, Leonard made the U.S. Olympic Team as the light welterweight representative. The team also included Leon and Michael Spinks, Howard Davis, Jr., Leo Randolph, Charles Mooney, and John Tate. Many consider the 1976 U.S. team to be the greatest boxing team in the history of the Olympics. Leonard won his first four Olympic bouts by 5–0 decisions. He faced Kazimierz Szczerba in the semifinals and won by a 5–0 decision, avenging his last amateur loss. In the final, he boxed the great Cuban knockout artist Andrés Aldama, who scored five straight knockouts to reach the final. Leonard landed several good left hooks in the first round. In the second, he dropped Aldama with a left to the chin. Late in the final round, he again hurt Aldama, which brought a standing eight count from the referee. With only a few seconds left in the fight, a Leonard combination forced another standing eight count. Leonard was awarded a 5–0 decision and the Olympic Gold Medal. Afterward, Leonard announced, “I’m finished…I’ve fought my last fight. My journey has ended, my dream is fulfilled. Now I want to go to school.” He was given a scholarship to the University of Maryland, a gift from the citizens of Glenarden, Maryland. He planned to study business administration and communications.
He finished his amateur career with a record of 145–5 and 75 KO’s.
Juanita Wilkinson, Leonard’s high school girlfriend, told him she was pregnant in the summer of 1973. They decided to have the baby but marriage would be put off until after the Olympics in 1976. Leonard would continue to pursue his Olympic dream while she and the baby, Ray Charles Leonard, Jr., lived with her parents. When Leonard boxed in the Olympics, he had a picture of Wilkinson taped to his sock.
Shortly before the Olympics, Wilkinson had filed an application to receive $156 a month in child support payments from Prince George’s County. She named Leonard as the father and the county’s state attorney’s office filed a civil suit against Leonard to establish paternity and get support payments for the child. Leonard learned of the suit several days after returning home from the Olympics. The headline in the Washington Star read, “Sugar Ray Leonard Named in Welfare Dept. Paternity Suit”
Wilkinson went to the Olympics to watch Leonard box, but she did not tell him about the suit and never asked him for any money. “I didn’t feel like being bothered by all those complications by asking him for any money for support”, she said. Leonard pledged he would support his son, even if he had to scrap plans to attend college.
Leonard had hoped to get lucrative endorsements following his gold medal win, but the negative publicity from the paternity suit chased off any big commercial possibilities. To make matters worse, his father was hospitalized with meningitis and his mother suffered a heart attack. With neither parent able to work, with his child and the mother of his child to support, and without any endorsement opportunities, Leonard decided to become a professional boxer.
When Leonard decided to turn professional, Janks Morton introduced him to Mike Trainer, a friend of his who was an attorney. Trainer talked 24 of his friends and clients into underwriting Leonard’s career with an investment of $21,000 to be repaid within four years at 8% interest. Trainer then made Leonard the sole stockholder in Sugar Ray Leonard, Inc. Angelo Dundee, Muhammad Ali’s trainer, was brought in to be Leonard’s trainer and manager. Many of the people being considered wanted absolute control and a cut somewhere near the manager’s traditional 33%. Dundee had a different proposition. Although he would prescribe the training procedures, he would leave the day-to-day work to Dave Jacobs and Janks Morton. He would also choose Leonard’s opponents. For his services, Dundee would get 15% of Leonard’s purse.
Leonard made his professional debut on February 5, 1977 before a crowd of 10,270 at the Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland. He was paid $40,044 for the fight. His opponent was Luis “The Bull” Vega, whom he defeated by a six-round unanimous decision.After the fight, Leonard paid back his $21,000 loan to the investors.
In his fourteenth professional fight, Leonard fought his first world-ranked opponent, Floyd Mayweather, who was ranked seventeenth. The fight took place on September 9, 1978. Leonard won by a tenth-round knockout. A month later, Leonard defeated his old amateur nemesis Randy Shields by a ten-round unanimous decision.
On August 12, 1979, Leonard knocked out Pete Ranzany in four rounds to win the NABF Welterweight Championship. The following month, he made his first title defense against Andy Price. Many felt that Price would give Leonard a tough fight, but Leonard took him out in the first round, advancing his record to 25–0 with 16 knockouts
Leonard fought Wilfred Benitez for the WBC Welterweight Championship on November 30, 1979, at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. Leonard received $1 million and Benitez, a two-division champion with a record of 38–0–1, received $1.2 million.
It was a highly competitive and tactical battle. In the first round, Leonard rocked Benitez with a left hook that came off a jab and right cross. Late in the third, Leonard dropped Benitez on the seat of his pants with a stiff left jab. More embarrassed than hurt, Benitez got up quickly.
Benitez started to do better in the fourth, slipping numerous punches and finding the range with his right hand. “I wasn’t aware I was in a championship early because I hit him so easy”, Leonard said. “But then he adjusted to my style. It was like looking in a mirror”.
In the sixth, there was an accidental clash of heads, which opened a cut on the forehead of Benitez. Blood flowed down his forehead and the bridge of his nose but stayed out of his eyes.
Leonard landed the harder punches and had Benitez hurt several times late in the fight, but Leonard couldn’t put him away. Benitez was very slick. “No one, I mean no one, can make me miss punches like that”, Leonard said.
Going into the final round, Leonard led by scores of 137–130, 137–133, and 136–134. The two went toe-to-toe in the fifteenth. Late in the round, Leonard dropped Benitez with a left. He got up, but after a few more punches, the referee stopped the fight. The time was 2:54 of round fifteen.
The Boxing Writers Association of America and The Ring named Leonard “Fighter of the Year” for 1979.
Leonard made his first title defense in Landover, Maryland, on March 31, 1980. His opponent was Dave “Boy” Green. The British challenger had a record of 33–2. In the fourth round, Leonard knocked Green out with a devastating left hook. Leonard called it “the hardest single punch I ever threw.”
On February 15, 1982, Leonard defended the unified title against Bruce Finch, the WBC fourth-ranked contender. Leonard knocked him out in the third round. Leonard’s next fight was scheduled to be against Roger Stafford on May 14, 1982, in Buffalo, New York. While training, Leonard started to see floaters. He went to a doctor and discovered that he had a detached retina. The fight was cancelled, and Leonard had surgery to repair the retina on May 9, 1982.
On November 9, 1982, Leonard invited Marvin Hagler and other boxing dignitaries to a charity event in Baltimore, Maryland to hear him announce whether he would continue his career. Standing in a boxing ring with Howard Cosell, the master of ceremonies, Leonard announced his retirement, saying a bout with Hagler would unfortunately never happen. Leonard maintained his eye was fully healed, but that he just didn’t want to box anymore.
Missing the limelight and the competition, Leonard announced in December 1983 that he was returning to the ring. Leonard boasted that he would have a couple of ten-round bouts and then take on Milton McCrory, Donald Curry, Durán, Hearns and finally Hagler. This decision was met with a torrent of criticism from fans and the media, who felt Leonard was taking unnecessary risks with his surgically repaired eye
A bout with Philadelphia’s Kevin Howard, who was 20–4–1, was scheduled for February 25, 1984. The fight was postponed when Leonard had minor surgery on his right eye to fix a loose retina. This latest eye problem further fueled the flames of those who opposed Leonard’s comeback.
Before the fight with Howard, Dave Jacobs rejoined Leonard’s team in a limited role. Jacobs had quit in 1980, disagreeing with Leonard’s decision to have an immediate rematch with Durán.
Leonard and Howard fought on May 11, 1984, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Howard knocked Leonard flat on his back in the fourth round. It was the first knockdown of Leonard’s professional career. Leonard came back to stop Howard in the ninth round, but the stoppage was disputed, with some feeling that the referee stopped the fight prematurely. Leonard was ahead on all three scorecards at the time of the stoppage. At the post-fight press conference, Leonard surprised everyone by announcing his retirement again, saying he just didn’t have it anymore.

Written by Dianne Washington

Janet Jackson

Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, dancer and actress. Known for sonically innovative, socially conscious, and sexually provocative records, elaborate stage shows, and high-profile television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 30 years.
The youngest child of the Jackson family, she began her career with the variety television series The Jacksons in 1976 and went on to appear in other television shows throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, including Good Times and Fame. After signing a recording contract with A&M Records in 1982, she became a pop icon following the release of her third studio album Control (1986). Her collaborations with record producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis incorporated elements of rhythm and blues, funk, disco, rap, and industrial beats, which led to crossover success in popular music. In addition to recognition for the innovation in her records, choreography, music videos, and prominence on radio airplay and MTV, she was acknowledged as a role model for her socially conscious lyrics.
In 1991 Jackson signed the first of two record-breaking multimillion-dollar contracts with Virgin Records, establishing her as one of the highest paid artists in the industry. Her debut album under the label, Janet (1993), saw her develop a public image as a sex symbol as she began to explore sexuality in her work. That same year, she appeared in her first starring film role in Poetic Justice; she has continued to act in feature films. By the end of the 1990s, she was the second most successful recording artist of the decade. The release of her seventh studio album All for You (2001) coincided with a celebration of her impact on popular music as the inaugural MTV Icon. After parting ways with Virgin she released her tenth studio album, Discipline (2008), her first and only album with Island Records. In 2015 she partnered with BMG Rights Management to launch her own record label, Rhythm Nation, and released her eleventh studio album Unbreakable the same year.
Having sold over 100 million records, Jackson is one of the best-selling artists in the history of contemporary music. She has amassed an extensive catalog, with singles such as “Nasty”, “Rhythm Nation”, “That’s the Way Love Goes”, “Together Again” and “All for You”; she holds the record for the most consecutive top 10 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 singles chart by a female artist with 18. In 2016, Billboard placed her number seven on its list of the Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists, and in 2010 ranked her fifth among the “Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years”. In December 2016, the magazine named her the second most successful dance club artist of all-time. One of the world’s most awarded artists, her longevity, records and achievements reflect her influence in shaping and redefining the scope of popular music. She has been cited as an inspiration among numerous performers.

Written by Dianne Washington

Raphael Saadiq

Raphael Saadiq /səˈdiːk/ (born May 14, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. Saadiq has been a standard bearer for “old school” R&B since his early days as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! He has also produced songs for such artists as Joss Stone, D’Angelo, TLC, En Vogue, Kelis, Mary J. Blige, Ledisi, Whitney Houston, Solange Knowles and John Legend.

Written by Dianne Washington

Sammy Davis Jr.

On this date in 1990, Sammy Davis Jr., actor, dancer, singer and world class entertainer dies in Beverly Hills, California at age 64. Davis, born in Harlem, was a member of the popular and notorious Hollywood Rat Pack. He also held starring roles in a host of Broadway musicals and motion pictures.
Written by Dianne Washington

It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot: The 20th Anniversary

As the 90’s were slowly coming to an end, hip hop was in a place where it was shiny, glittery, and downright Hollywood. With it’s shiny suits and dresses, fancy cars and jewelry, big smiles and alcohol, all it took was for one guy from Yonkers to come along and redirect hip hop back to it’s roots in the streets. With his rough exterior and vulnerable lyrics and big attitude, Earl Simmons aka DMX not only brought hip hop back to the streets but he was the first artist in hip hop to release two number 1 albums in the same year. On May 12th, 1998, DMX released his debut album “It’s Dark And Hell Is Hot.” With four singles out, DMX was the new face and voice for the streets, the ghetto, the first to be the voice for vulnerable black men in hip hop since Treach from Naughty By Nature. Giving us stories of pain, abuse, struggle, drugs, violence, and sex, while staying true to his higher faith. Just like his hometown natives, Mary J. Blige and The LOX, he also gives that same gritty, street, raw emotion, pain and truth in his music. “Get At Me Dog”, “Stop Being Greedy”, “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem”, and “How’s It Goin’ Down” featuring Faith Evans were all big hits for Simmons. 20 years later, Simmons is known as one of hip hop’s most treasurable artists. One of those artists that stayed true to hisself an where he comes from, despite the troubles with the law, drugs, and alcohol. With an acting career and also party hits underneath his belt, DMX is a certified legend in this hip hop biz.