Podcasts about billboard r

GRAMMY® Balloted Club Nouveau, Timex Social ClubGrammy Award Balloted singer and music label executive, Jay King, was elected CEO/President of the California Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) in June of 2019.GRAMMY® Award Balloted Jay King/Club Nouveau's music & samples have been featured in many TV & Film Soundtracks including the #1 Hit Movie "US" by Director Jordan Peele!This week, I look at how a brand can stay relevant decade after decade.As a veteran mogul Jay King brings as much humility to the field as he does what has been called his genius. With three decades of continuous achievements in music, management, film/TV/radio, consulting and publishing; King has made an indelible impression. He claims Northern California in general as his hometown due to a nomadic youth spent between many of the Bay Area's cities; as well as Alaska for birthing his career. There was a deep musical undercurrent added to his early years by a clan which boasted a number of ministers, extending from his great-grandfather through a number of cousins, who all played instruments as well. His great uncle, Saunders King, a respected jazz/blues guitarist, offered the West Coast the first family hit in the 1940's—‘The S.K. Blues'—adding to the musical backdrop of King's childhood. In 1986, King starting the independent record label JAY Records to release the Timex Social Club hit ‘Rumors' and ushered in the biggest selling single of 1986 (3.5 million copies) and becoming the #1 R&B single on the Billboard Charts. With a Top 10 single on the Billboard Pop charts for over 56 weeks, King watched his life change as his music became an unprecedented hit. What he'd produced was history-making, as nobody had before taken an R&B song from an indie label to such heights. Although having independently produced, pressed and marketed his own music King was without the money to compete at radio plays and had to be creative with promoting. “There were challenges. You couldn't reach out to stores, and social media didn't exist then so you couldn't let people know with a click of a button that you had something out. You had to get out and hustle. People were making fun of me and laughing because I was out hustling records.” Bypassing traditional methods, King utilized Macola Records because of its position as an indie manufacturer with no association to a major label.Such moves from a 24 year old entrepreneur made the year 1986 even more memorable, as he quickly followed up with a label/production deal with Warner Brother Records and his King Jay Records label, subsequently releasing the first Club Nouveau single ‘Jealousy' and the album, ‘Life, Love & Pain'. After ‘Jealousy' went to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts in September of 1986, followed by ‘Situation #9' (#4 Billboard R&B charts), 1987 came in with an even bigger bang when ‘Lean On Me' was released in February and became #1 Billboard Pop/#2 Billboard R&B platinum single, winning a Grammy for R&B Song of The Year.Club Nouveau's music is in heavy demand commercially in movies and is sampled in many of today's artists hit makers like Ashanti, Chris Brown and many more.The group is STILL on the scene, performing hundreds of LIVE concert a year & recording NEW music!© 2025 All Rights Reserved© 2025  Building Abundant Success!!Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

British musician, songwriter, and producer, Steve Nichol is a best known as a founding member of the R&B band Loose Ends. Born in London, Nichol trained as a trumpet player at the Royal College of Music and developed his skills in keyboards, production, and arranging.Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5S9xw1B-ppDXVkAuvRRQtg/joinIn 1980, Nichol co-founded Loose Ends with Carl McIntosh and Jane Eugene. The group rose to prominence in the 1980s with hits such as “Hangin' on a String (Contemplating)”, which became the first song by a British R&B band to top the Billboard R&B chart in the US in 1985. Other notable tracks include “Magic Touch”, “Stay a Little While, Child” (later covered by Mariah Carey), and “Slow Down.” Nichol was instrumental in the group's sound, serving as a keyboardist, trumpeter, and producer.After leaving Loose Ends in the late 1980s, in an acrimonious split, Nichol continued working in the music industry as a producer, songwriter, and session musician. Today, Steve Nichol remains active, releasing an EP of new tracks, and as a teacher in school, shares insights into the industry. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of Hollywood Live, Tanya Hart breaks down the latest Grammy nominations, where Beyoncé leads the pack with an impressive 11 nods, including a groundbreaking nomination for Best Country Album. Queen Bey also landed nominations for Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Record of the Year for “Texas Hold'em,” plus Best Pop Solo Performance for “Bodyguard” and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Post Malone for “Levi Jeans.” Other top nominees include Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, and Post Malone with seven nominations each. However, there were some surprising snubs, with Ariana Grande and Hozier missing out on the major categories. The 67th Grammy Awards will air on February 2, 2025, on CBS and Paramount. Tanya also shares the sad news of the passing of Tyka Nelson, Prince's sister, who reportedly faced serious health issues in the months leading up to her death. Tyka, who had a music career of her own, achieved success with singles on the Billboard R&B charts and released several albums over the years, including her gospel album Hustler. Tanya sends condolences to the Nelson family and honors Tyka's legacy in music. For more stories and updates, follow Tanya on social media and visit @aurnonline. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Grammy® Honoree, Hollywood Walk of FameLet's Celebrate 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame IHonoree Robert " Kool" Bell & Kool & The Gang! Robert's NEW Brand is.  La Kool. lKool had always envisioned having his own brand out of Europe. For many years, he sought out Grand Cru Vineyards from owners that have been selling for generations and decided to work with Paul Berthelot, a Multi-Vintage Grand Cru Producer since 1884. Kool & the Gang, officially launched in 1969, after performing for five years under various band titles, has influenced the music of three generations and the band has become true recording industry legends. Thanks to iconic songs like Celebration, Cherish, Jungle Boogie, Summer Madness and Open Sesame, they've earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten R&B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albumsIn 1969, Kool & the Gang released their self-titled debut album/ It was the introduction to a theme, music is the message, that Kool & the Gang stands by today. The instrumental album was an expression of their deep love of music. It was also an introduction to their signature sound and the fierce horn arrangements created by Khalis, Dee Tee, and Spike. Their debut album spawned their first Billboard R&B charted single Kool & the Gang and later Let the Music Take Your Mind. In 1970, their audacious sophomore set Live at the Sex Machine peaked at #6 on Billboard's R&B chart and yielded three hit singles: Funky Man, Who's Gonna Take the Weight, and I Want to Take You Higher. Next came The Best Of Kool & the Gang Featuring The Penguin, Kool & the Gang Live at PJ'S, Music Is The Message, and Good Times, all of which helped solidify a sound that wowed not only fans but such contemporaries as James Brown and Nina Simone.e 80's would see them dominate the mainstream, starting with the double platinum-selling album Celebrate (driven by the international monster hit Celebration, which spent six weeks atop the R&B chart and became a #1 Pop single). Celebration, which played as the American hostages returned from Iran, remains de rigueur at joyous occasions worldwide. The smashes Get Down On It, Take My Heart, Let's Go Dancing, Joanna, Tonight, Misled, the #1 R&B, #2 Pop giant Cherish and the #1 R&B anthem Fresh (these last three from the multi- platinum LP Emergency) solidified the group's international stardom. Kool & the Gang landed global commercial endorsements, supported countless charitable causes and were the only American group to participate in Band Aid's 1984 Do They Know It's Christmas project for famine victims in Africa. With the explosion of hip-hop in the 90's, Kool & the Gang's incredible catalog of grooves made them DJ favorites. They were second only to R&B icon James Brown as sources of rap music samples. Today, the group enjoys global fame and recognition and a following that spans generations due in part to the groups widely sampled catalogue.© 2024 Building Abundant Success!!2024 All Rights ReservedJoin Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

Listen to the final episode in our two-part series exploring the music of Earl “Fox” Walker, a legendary Indianapolis jazz drummer.  On this week's show, we'll focus on Walker's recordings with the Indianapolis music legend Jimmy Coe. During the 1950s, Walker performed regularly with Coe on Indiana Avenue. They were also featured on many recordings together, including The Students' doo-wop ballad “I'm So Young,” a top 40 Billboard R&B hit in 1961.

GRAMMY® winner Club Nouveau, Timex Social ClubGrammy Award winning singer and music label executive, Jay King, was elected CEO/President of the California Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) in June of 2019.GRAMMY® Award winning Jay King/Club Nouveau's music & samples have been featured in many Soundtracks including the #1 Hit Movie "US" by Director Jordan Peele!This week, I look at how a brand can stay relevant decade after decade.As a veteran mogul Jay King brings as much humility to the field as he does what has been called his genius. With three decades of continuous achievements in music, management, film/TV/radio, consulting and publishing; King has made an indelible impression. He claims Northern California in general as his hometown due to a nomadic youth spent between many of the Bay Area's cities; as well as Alaska for birthing his career. There was a deep musical undercurrent added to his early years by a clan which boasted a number of ministers, extending from his great-grandfather through a number of cousins, who all played instruments as well. His great uncle, Saunders King, a respected jazz/blues guitarist, offered the West Coast the first family hit in the 1940's—‘The S.K. Blues'—adding to the musical backdrop of King's childhood. In 1986, King starting the independent record label JAY Records to release the Timex Social Club hit ‘Rumors' and ushered in the biggest selling single of 1986 (3.5 million copies) and becoming the #1 R&B single on the Billboard Charts. With a Top 10 single on the Billboard Pop charts for over 56 weeks, King watched his life change as his music became an unprecedented hit. What he'd produced was history-making, as nobody had before taken an R&B song from an indie label to such heights. Although having independently produced, pressed and marketed his own music King was without the money to compete at radio plays and had to be creative with promoting. “There were challenges. You couldn't reach out to stores, and social media didn't exist then so you couldn't let people know with a click of a button that you had something out. You had to get out and hustle. People were making fun of me and laughing because I was out hustling records.” Bypassing traditional methods, King utilized Macola Records because of its position as an indie manufacturer with no association to a major label.Such moves from a 24 year old entrepreneur made the year 1986 even more memorable, as he quickly followed up with a label/production deal with Warner Brother Records and his King Jay Records label, subsequently releasing the first Club Nouveau single ‘Jealousy' and the album, ‘Life, Love & Pain'. After ‘Jealousy' went to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts in September of 1986, followed by ‘Situation #9' (#4 Billboard R&B charts), 1987 came in with an even bigger bang when ‘Lean On Me' was released in February and became #1 Billboard Pop/#2 Billboard R&B platinum single, winning a Grammy for R&B Song of The Year.Club Nouveau's music is in heavy demand commercially in movies and is sampled in many of today's artists hit makers like Ashanti, Chris Brown and many more.The group is STILL on the scene, performing hundreds of LIVE concert a year & recording NEW music!© 2024 All Rights Reserved© 2024  Building Abundant Success!!Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

Grammy® Honoree, Hollywood Walk of FameLet's Celebrate a Golden PLUS Anniversary of Kool & The Gang! Robert's NEW Brand is.  La Kool. lKool had always envisioned having his own brand out of Europe. For many years, he sought out Grand Cru Vineyards from owners that have been selling for generations and decided to work with Paul Berthelot, a Multi-Vintage Grand Cru Producer since 1884. Kool & the Gang, officially launched in 1969, after performing for five years under various band titles, has influenced the music of three generations and the band has become true recording industry legends. Thanks to iconic songs like Celebration, Cherish, Jungle Boogie, Summer Madness and Open Sesame, they've earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten R&B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albumsIn 1969, Kool & the Gang released their self-titled debut album/ It was the introduction to a theme, music is the message, that Kool & the Gang stands by today. The instrumental album was an expression of their deep love of music. It was also an introduction to their signature sound and the fierce horn arrangements created by Khalis, Dee Tee, and Spike. Their debut album spawned their first Billboard R&B charted single Kool & the Gang and later Let the Music Take Your Mind. In 1970, their audacious sophomore set Live at the Sex Machine peaked at #6 on Billboard's R&B chart and yielded three hit singles: Funky Man, Who's Gonna Take the Weight, and I Want to Take You Higher. Next came The Best Of Kool & the Gang Featuring The Penguin, Kool & the Gang Live at PJ'S, Music Is The Message, and Good Times, all of which helped solidify a sound that wowed not only fans but such contemporaries as James Brown and Nina Simone.e 80's would see them dominate the mainstream, starting with the double platinum-selling album Celebrate (driven by the international monster hit Celebration, which spent six weeks atop the R&B chart and became a #1 Pop single). Celebration, which played as the American hostages returned from Iran, remains de rigueur at joyous occasions worldwide. The smashes Get Down On It, Take My Heart, Let's Go Dancing, Joanna, Tonight, Misled, the #1 R&B, #2 Pop giant Cherish and the #1 R&B anthem Fresh (these last three from the multi- platinum LP Emergency) solidified the group's international stardom. Kool & the Gang landed global commercial endorsements, supported countless charitable causes and were the only American group to participate in Band Aid's 1984 Do They Know It's Christmas project for famine victims in Africa. With the explosion of hip-hop in the 90's, Kool & the Gang's incredible catalog of grooves made them DJ favorites. They were second only to R&B icon James Brown as sources of rap music samples. Today, the group enjoys global fame and recognition and a following that spans generations due in part to the groups widely sampled catalogue.© 2024 Building Abundant Success!!2024 All Rights ReservedJoin Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

#23- Otis Redding-Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul (Stax) Released October 1966, Recorded May-September 1966  Complete & Unbelievable: The Otis Redding Dictionary of Soul, recorded at Stax Recording Studios in Memphis, is a seminal work in Otis Redding's career and soul music. Produced by Jim Stewart, Isaac Hayes, and Booker T. Jones, the album features legendary Stax studio musicians like Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Al Jackson Jr., Booker T. Jones, and the Memphis Horns. It includes standout tracks such as the iconic "Try a Little Tenderness," "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)," and "My Lover's Prayer." It covers like "Day Tripper" and "Tennessee Waltz," each showcasing Redding's dynamic vocal range and the band's tight, soulful arrangements. The album received critical acclaim, reaching No. 5 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 73 on the Billboard 200, solidifying Redding's legacy as a master of soulful expression and musical innovation. Full Album on YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLn1E4mv4x-I4oNQ0qlroeWXxa4lDD4Lj9&si=6SlxhnkIL8UdM3Ms Full Album on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/album/25uNcuL4dAoV62eKmr8Q0Y?si=hK3DknToSX2TkN_3ggWDiA Curated 1966 Playlist Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7I6dzYc5UJfko8unziRMWf?si=a07e4d1e27944d00

The Celeste Stein Show with Celeste Stein Guest, Jay King, songwriter, composer, singer, producer, entrepreneur Who Is Jay King? As a veteran mogul Jay King brings as much humility to the field as he does what has been called his genius. With three decades of continuous achievements in music, management, film/TV/radio, consulting and publishing; King has made an indelible impression. He claims Northern California in general as his hometown due to a nomadic youth spent between many of the Bay Area's cities; as well as Alaska for birthing his career. There was a deep musical undercurrent added to his early years by a clan which boasted a number of ministers, extending from his great-grandfather through a number of cousins, who all played instruments as well. His great uncle, Saunders King, a respected jazz/blues guitarist, offered the West Coast the first family hit in the 1940's—‘The S.K. Blues'—adding to the musical backdrop of King's childhood. Jay King broadened his own talent when he took up the trumpet in his freshman year of high school and when Popping and Breaking became popular; dance soon opened doors to his subsequent career in music. Joining the Air Force at age 18 landed him in Anchorage, Alaska and despite getting kicked out a year later he remained there and called it home. “Something like that can be a detriment or awe-inspiring. I didn't let it become a detriment. I thank my mom for this. My mom was a fighter. She had her first baby, my sister, at 15 and me at 17, and was a brilliant woman who graduated Magna Cum Laude. I never met anybody with more heart, gumption and strength, or who had a more profound effect on my life than Helen Bridges, my mom.” Not wanting to return home a failure at 19, King stayed and started a dance group that became successful around the city, opening for every act that came through Anchorage at the time. Having made a name for himself, he returned to Northern California to try his hand as a rapper. Borrowing a reference to the Alaskan ice, he named a group Frost and put out a record entitled ‘The Battle Beat'. Although unsuccessful, it did lead him deeper into music, eventually meeting the members of Timex Social Club. As his music and connections continued to develop, he found himself writing songs for Con Funk Shun whose members, Michael Cooper and Felton Pilate, encouraged King against the detractors who at the time didn't like his sound. In 1986, King starting the independent record label JAY Records to release the Timex Social Club hit ‘Rumors' and ushered in the biggest selling single of 1986 (3.5 million copies) and becoming the #1 R&B single on the Billboard Charts. With a Top 10 single on the Billboard Pop charts for over 56 weeks, King watched his life change as his music became an unprecedented hit. What he'd produced was history-making, as nobody had before taken an R&B song from an indie label to such heights. Although having independently produced, pressed and marketed his own music King was without the money to compete at radio plays and had to be creative with promoting. “There were challenges. You couldn't reach out to stores, and social media didn't exist then so you couldn't let people know with a click of a button that you had something out. You had to get out and hustle. People were making fun of me and laughing because I was out hustling records.” Bypassing traditional methods, King utilized Macola Records because of its position as an indie manufacturer with no association to a major label. Such moves from a 24-year-old entrepreneur made the year 1986 even more memorable, as he quickly followed up with a label/production deal with Warner Brother Records and his King Jay Records label, subsequently releasing the first Club Nouveau single ‘Jealousy' and the album, ‘Life, Love & Pain'. After ‘Jealousy' went to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts in September of 1986, followed by ‘Situation #9' (#4 Billboard R&B charts), 1987 came in with an even bigger bang when ‘Lean On Me' was released in February and became #1 Billboard Pop/#2 Billboard R&B platinum single, winning a Grammy for R&B Song of The Year. READ MORE: https://www.theofficialjayking.com/

The Richard Syrett Show, June 12th, 2024 Attorney General and a federal judge are enacting new rules allowing password sharing https://www.blacklocks.ca/this-will-be-law-september-1/ The Commons yesterday by a 208 to 118 vote passed a Ways And Means Motion to raise capital gains tax revenues https://www.blacklocks.ca/ok-capital-gains-tax-208-118/ Tom Korski, Managing Editor Blacklock's Reporter Subscribe to Blacklock's https://www.blacklocks.ca/ OPEN LINES THE CULT OF CLIMATE CHANGE Climate change-related disturbances linked to worse cardiovascular health, researchers show https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-climate-disturbances-linked-worse-cardiovascular.html#google_vignette Human-caused global warming at all-time high, new report concludes https://www.space.com/human-driven-global-warming-report  Tony Heller, Geologist, Weather Historian, Founder of Real Climate Science Dot Com Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Admits “Responsibility” for Jan. 6 Riot https://nypost.com/2024/06/10/us-news/nancy-pelosi-says-i-take-responsibility-for-not-having-national-guard-at-the-capitol-on-jan-6-video-shows/  Chris Burgard, Award-Winning Filmmaker. Director of The War on Truth; and Capitol Punishment: Everything They Told You About J6 Was a Lie https://hisglory.tv Epic Legal Win for The Anti-Vax Movement! A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit challenging the COVID-19 vaccine mandate imposed by the Los Angeles school district, noting that the record doesn't clearly show whether the vaccines prevent transmission of the illness. https://calmatters.org/education/2024/06/covid-vaccine-mandate-schools/ Leslie Manookian, president and founder of Health Freedom Defense Fund (HFDF), a nonprofit which seeks to rectify health injustice through education, advocacy, and legal challenges to unjust mandates, laws, and policies that undermine our health freedoms and human rights. Former Successful Wall Street Business executive and Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker THIS DAY IN ROCK HISTORY Audio: All My Loving/The Beatles Back in My Arms Again/The Supremes Another Brick in the Wall/Pink Floyd Hide the Bone/Prince   On this day in music, June 12, 1964, The Beatles arrived in Adelaide, Australia for their first and only tour of Oceania. As they deplaned, they were met by an estimated 300,000 fans, who lined a ten-mile route into the city center. Over the next two weeks, the band performed shows across Australia and New Zealand, including 3-night engagements in Sydney and Melbourne. The dates were part of the band's 1964 World Tour, during which Ringo was hospitalized with tonsillitis, and replaced temporarily with drummer Jimmie Nicol. On June 15, Ringo flew into Sydney to complete the rest of the run. In 1965, with “Back in My Arms Again,” The Supremes became the first act to score five consecutive No.1 hits on the Billboard Hot 100. The Motown classic also topped the Billboard R&B chart and went to No.1 in Canada. 12 Jun 2005 Pink Floyd announced they would reunite with former bassist Roger Waters, who left the band in 1985, on July 2 for the Live 8 London concert. This would be the first time the band had played together as a quartet since The Wall tour in 1981.   12 Jun 2006 Prince received a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his "visionary" use of the Internet; Prince was the first major artist to release an entire album, 1997's Crystal Ball, exclusively on the internet.   Jeremiah Tittle, Co-Host of The 500 with Josh Adam Myers Podcast. Founder/CEO of Next Chapters Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kayne, Amy Winehouse Shirley Murdock, Chrissie Hynde Music compositions can become legendary for decades after they first debut's by the original artist. New life & versions of compositions can keep artists alive for New Generations to enjoy!!Kanye West, Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, John Legend, Will Smith,  Damon Dash, Rick James, Annie Lennox, Bone Thugs and Harmony, Arrested Development have recorded, sampled, used a song title for Movies ofThe Poindexter's Music over the years. Jackie Members joined them as a vocalist and songwriter in 1966. She became Robert's wife. Richard  & Robert performing at the The Apollo Theatre in New York City,  legends Jimi Hendrix, The Ojay's  Maya Angelou, Florence Ballard, famed songwriter & vocalist Alonzo Tucker, member of The Royals.Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, Producer & Songwriter Jerry, Ragovoy PLUS:The Persuaders are a New York City-based R&B vocal group best known for their gold hit single in the 1970s, "Thin Line Between Love and Hate". It sold over a million copies, topping the Billboard R&B chart, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on October 29, 1971.Linda Jones was an American soul singer with a strong gospel-influenced style who had the 1967 top 10 R&B hit single, "Hypnotized" Jones was born in Newark, New Jersey,After her death in 1972 and in 2008, an album entitled, "Soul Talkin" featuring her vocals. on "Baby I Know" was nominated for a Grammy Award at the 51st Awards Ceremony in 2008.On June 3, 2021, The Grammy Museum in Newark, New Jersey added artifacts of JonesOn December 14, 2021, The City of Newark, New Jersey honored Jones with renaming Sherman Avenue, the street she lived on, to Linda Jones Way.Platinum and gold records awarded to the Poindexters include Slow Dance on the John Legend 2007 platinum album Once Again, He Can Only Hold Her on the Amy Winehouse 2007 platinum album Bacck to Black, Thin Line Between Love and Hate on the 1984 Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders platinum album Learning to Crawl, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate on the Annie Lennox 1996 platinum album Medusa, Willow is a Player on the Will Smith 2002 gold album Born to Reign, Girls Girls Girls remix on the Jay Z 2002 platinum album The Blue Print, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate on the H-Town 1996 gold single. A Thin Line on the Martin Lawrence 1996 movie soundtrack.© 2024 Building Abundant Success!!2024 All Rights ReservedJoin Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBAS

Grammy® Honoree, Hollywood Walk of FameLet's Celebrate a Golden PLUS Anniversary of Kool & The Gang! Robert's NEW Brand is.  La Kool. lKool had always envisioned having his own brand out of Europe. For many years, he sought out Grand Cru Vineyards from owners that have been selling for generations and decided to work with Paul Berthelot, a Multi-Vintage Grand Cru Producer since 1884. Kool & the Gang, officially launched in 1969, after performing for five years under various band titles, has influenced the music of three generations and the band has become true recording industry legends. Thanks to iconic songs like Celebration, Cherish, Jungle Boogie, Summer Madness and Open Sesame, they've earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten R&B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albumsIn 1969, Kool & the Gang released their self-titled debut album/ It was the introduction to a theme, music is the message, that Kool & the Gang stands by today. The instrumental album was an expression of their deep love of music. It was also an introduction to their signature sound and the fierce horn arrangements created by Khalis, Dee Tee, and Spike. Their debut album spawned their first Billboard R&B charted single Kool & the Gang and later Let the Music Take Your Mind. In 1970, their audacious sophomore set Live at the Sex Machine peaked at #6 on Billboard's R&B chart and yielded three hit singles: Funky Man, Who's Gonna Take the Weight, and I Want to Take You Higher. Next came The Best Of Kool & the Gang Featuring The Penguin, Kool & the Gang Live at PJ'S, Music Is The Message, and Good Times, all of which helped solidify a sound that wowed not only fans but such contemporaries as James Brown and Nina Simone.e 80's would see them dominate the mainstream, starting with the double platinum-selling album Celebrate (driven by the international monster hit Celebration, which spent six weeks atop the R&B chart and became a #1 Pop single). Celebration, which played as the American hostages returned from Iran, remains de rigueur at joyous occasions worldwide. The smashes Get Down On It, Take My Heart, Let's Go Dancing, Joanna, Tonight, Misled, the #1 R&B, #2 Pop giant Cherish and the #1 R&B anthem Fresh (these last three from the multi- platinum LP Emergency) solidified the group's international stardom. Kool & the Gang landed global commercial endorsements, supported countless charitable causes and were the only American group to participate in Band Aid's 1984 Do They Know It's Christmas project for famine victims in Africa. With the explosion of hip-hop in the 90's, Kool & the Gang's incredible catalog of grooves made them DJ favorites. They were second only to R&B icon James Brown as sources of rap music samples. Today, the group enjoys global fame and recognition and a following that spans generations due in part to the groups widely sampled catalogue.© 2024 Building Abundant Success!!2024 All Rights ReservedJoin Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

The band War formed in 1969, in Long Beach, California. “Low Rider” is from their 1975 album Why Can't We Be Friends? The song was a hit as soon as it came out. It went to #1 on the Billboard R&B charts. And it's just had tremendous lasting power ever since. Besides being in Dazed and Confused, where I heard it, it's been sampled by The Beastie Boys, it was covered by Korn, and it was the theme song for all six seasons of The George Lopez Show.For this episode, I talked to War's bandleader Lonnie Jordan, and their producer Jerry Goldstein. The two of them told me how “Low Rider” was made in the studio, through a combination of improvisation and meticulous editing.For more, visit songexploder.net/war.

Curt Jones has had a successful career beginning in the Mid to Late ‘70s as a Lead member, Vocalist, Songwriter Guitarist of Atlantic/Cotillion Records legendary group, Slave. "Just a Touch of Love and "Stone Jam" albums.In the 1980s - Curt Co-founded with Steve Washington and Collaborated on the funky and diversified R&B grooves led by Salsoul Records' group - Aurra, with the powerful and dynamic vocalist, Starleana Young and a host of talented musicians from the Slave family, producing Hits "Are You Single & Make Up Your Mind" and many more.Late 1980s - Aurra became Deja, delivering the #1 Billboard® R&B/Top 10 British Pop chart hit, “You & Me Tonight”. In addition, the album also reached the Top 20 plateau on Billboard®'s R&B album charts. Deja's final album was Made To Be Together. Starleana went solo and was replaced by Mysti Day, of Houston, TX. This album was produced by Teddy Riley, and also scored tremendously in the Top 20 on Billboard®'s R&B charts. Remarkably, Deja registered eight Top 20 R&B singles from 1985-1990, with significant international success.Fast forward through the 90s, Curt had a successful touring schedule internationally and domestically as well as a successful writer and producer, Co-Producing the album "Back to the Island" for the Baha Men on Atlantic Records. From early 2000 to current, Curt has released 3 solo CD's and produced and released his wife Ceci Jones' first solo project entitled "Levels of Love". She currently performs with the "Curt Jones and Aurra" show as his lead female vocalist."Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley" Podcast BioRock and Roll Hall of Famer Prince featured the "Upper Room with Joe Kelley and Gi Dussault" on his official website www.npgmusicclub.com. This is the first radio show to have ever received that honor. "Musicians Reveal with Joe Kelley" has been on the radio airwaves since 1982. Joe Kelley and Gi Dussault co-host the show and are well-respected in the music business as creative air personalities and supporters of independent musicians . Our web site is located at www.musiciansreveal.com . The show features creative music in funk, R&B, jazz, blues, rock, hip-hop, latin, and gospel. In addition, Joe Kelley has interviewed renowned musicians such as Victor Wooten, Sheila E. , Foley, Robin Duhe, Jef Lee Johnson, Jellybean Johnson, Monte Moir, Rhonda Smith, Bernie Worrell, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Bland, Larry Graham, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, Steve Smith, St. Paul Peterson, JD Blair, Tori Ruffin, Kat Dyson, Eric Person, actor Jeff Daniels, Junior Giscombe, John Scofield, EC Scott, John Blackwell, Mystic Bowie, and many others.

GRAMMY® winner Club Nouveau, Timex Social ClubGrammy Award winning singer and music label executive, Jay King, was elected CEO/President of the California Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) in June of 2019.GRAMMY® Award winning Jay King/Club Nouveau's music & samples have been featured in many Soundtracks including the #1 Hit Movie "US" by Director Jordan Peele!This week, I look at how a brand can stay relevant decade after decade.As a veteran mogul Jay King brings as much humility to the field as he does what has been called his genius. With three decades of continuous achievements in music, management, film/TV/radio, consulting and publishing; King has made an indelible impression. He claims Northern California in general as his hometown due to a nomadic youth spent between many of the Bay Area's cities; as well as Alaska for birthing his career. There was a deep musical undercurrent added to his early years by a clan which boasted a number of ministers, extending from his great-grandfather through a number of cousins, who all played instruments as well. His great uncle, Saunders King, a respected jazz/blues guitarist, offered the West Coast the first family hit in the 1940's—‘The S.K. Blues'—adding to the musical backdrop of King's childhood. In 1986, King starting the independent record label JAY Records to release the Timex Social Club hit ‘Rumors' and ushered in the biggest selling single of 1986 (3.5 million copies) and becoming the #1 R&B single on the Billboard Charts. With a Top 10 single on the Billboard Pop charts for over 56 weeks, King watched his life change as his music became an unprecedented hit. What he'd produced was history-making, as nobody had before taken an R&B song from an indie label to such heights. Although having independently produced, pressed and marketed his own music King was without the money to compete at radio plays and had to be creative with promoting. “There were challenges. You couldn't reach out to stores, and social media didn't exist then so you couldn't let people know with a click of a button that you had something out. You had to get out and hustle. People were making fun of me and laughing because I was out hustling records.” Bypassing traditional methods, King utilized Macola Records because of its position as an indie manufacturer with no association to a major label.Such moves from a 24 year old entrepreneur made the year 1986 even more memorable, as he quickly followed up with a label/production deal with Warner Brother Records and his King Jay Records label, subsequently releasing the first Club Nouveau single ‘Jealousy' and the album, ‘Life, Love & Pain'. After ‘Jealousy' went to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts in September of 1986, followed by ‘Situation #9' (#4 Billboard R&B charts), 1987 came in with an even bigger bang when ‘Lean On Me' was released in February and became #1 Billboard Pop/#2 Billboard R&B platinum single, winning a Grammy for R&B Song of The Year.Club Nouveau's music is in heavy demand commercially in movies and is sampled in many of today's artists hit makers like Ashanti, Chris Brown and many more.The group is STILL on the scene, performing hundreds of LIVE concert a year & recording NEW music!© 2024 All Rights Reserved© 2024  Building Abundant Success!!Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

Photo1: Diana RossRaph_PH - DRossLongleat010722 (9 of 43)Usage: Wikipedia CC BY 2.0Photo 2: Lionel Richie Raph_PH - SWonderBSTHyde060719-2Usage: Wikipedia CC BY 2.0Acapella: Gail NoblesIntro music: SampleFocus.comhttps://samplefocus.com/samples/soul-violin-sample-vintage-chopUsage: Standard LicenseLast year I mentioned the National R&B Music Day which is observed on the first Saturday of March each year. It is a national day of recognition and celebration for R&B music declared by the US National Day Archives organization. To find out more, go to nationalarchives.com.So who do you think of when you think of R&B music? I think of the famous duet between Lionel Richie and Diana Ross singing Endless Love.Endless Love was written by Lionel Richie. In the ballad, the singers declare their endless love for one another. Billboard has named the original version as the greatest song duet of all time. There were other singers that covered the song, but I like the original the best.Lionel Richie and Diana Ross recorded the song for Motown, and it was used as the theme for Franco Zeffirelli's film adaptation of Scott Spencer's novel Endless Love.While the film Endless Love was a modest box-office success, the song became the second-biggest selling single of the year in the United States and reached number one on the Hot 100, where it stayed for nine weeks from August 15 to October 10, 1981. It also topped the Billboard R&B chart and the Adult Contemporary chart, and reached number seven in the United Kingdom.I'm Gail Nobles. Tune in next time for more.

Intro by: Gail NoblesFaith Hope and Charity was the name of a vocal group from Tampa, Florida.[1] They are best known for their 1975 hit, "To Each His Own". They were also an in-demand group of session singers in New York studios during the 1970s.The founding members of the group were Zulema Cusseaux, Brenda Hilliard and Al Bailey.Their song "So Much Love" hit #14 on the Billboard R&B chart[1] and #51 on the Hot 100 in 1970.The subsequent release "Baby Don't Take Your Love" reached #36 R&B and #96 in the Hot 100.I love Faith Hope and Charity's song Just One Look in soul, disco style. The band released the cover and it spent four weeks on the UK singles chart reaching number 38 on February 7, 1976. Just One Look is a song written by R&B singers Doris Troy and Gregory Carroll Carroll.I'm Gail Nobles. Today's topic: Faith Hope & Charity.

Grammy® Honoree, Hollywood Walk of FameLet's Celebrate a Golden PLUS Anniversary of Kool & The Gang! Robert's NEW Brand is.  La Kool. lKool had always envisioned having his own brand out of Europe. For many years, he sought out Grand Cru Vineyards from owners that have been selling for generations and decided to work with Paul Berthelot, a Multi-Vintage Grand Cru Producer since 1884. Kool & the Gang, officially launched in 1969, after performing for five years under various band titles, has influenced the music of three generations and the band has become true recording industry legends. Thanks to iconic songs like Celebration, Cherish, Jungle Boogie, Summer Madness and Open Sesame, they've earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten R&B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albumsIn 1969, Kool & the Gang released their self-titled debut album/ It was the introduction to a theme, music is the message, that Kool & the Gang stands by today. The instrumental album was an expression of their deep love of music. It was also an introduction to their signature sound and the fierce horn arrangements created by Khalis, Dee Tee, and Spike. Their debut album spawned their first Billboard R&B charted single Kool & the Gang and later Let the Music Take Your Mind. In 1970, their audacious sophomore set Live at the Sex Machine peaked at #6 on Billboard's R&B chart and yielded three hit singles: Funky Man, Who's Gonna Take the Weight, and I Want to Take You Higher. Next came The Best Of Kool & the Gang Featuring The Penguin, Kool & the Gang Live at PJ'S, Music Is The Message, and Good Times, all of which helped solidify a sound that wowed not only fans but such contemporaries as James Brown and Nina Simone.e 80's would see them dominate the mainstream, starting with the double platinum-selling album Celebrate (driven by the international monster hit Celebration, which spent six weeks atop the R&B chart and became a #1 Pop single). Celebration, which played as the American hostages returned from Iran, remains de rigueur at joyous occasions worldwide. The smashes Get Down On It, Take My Heart, Let's Go Dancing, Joanna, Tonight, Misled, the #1 R&B, #2 Pop giant Cherish and the #1 R&B anthem Fresh (these last three from the multi- platinum LP Emergency) solidified the group's international stardom. Kool & the Gang landed global commercial endorsements, supported countless charitable causes and were the only American group to participate in Band Aid's 1984 Do They Know It's Christmas project for famine victims in Africa. With the explosion of hip-hop in the 90's, Kool & the Gang's incredible catalog of grooves made them DJ favorites. They were second only to R&B icon James Brown as sources of rap music samples. Today, the group enjoys global fame and recognition and a following that spans generations due in part to the groups widely sampled catalogue.© 2023 Building Abundant Success!!2023 All Rights ReservedJoin Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

B. Cox and Domo fondly recollect on Toni Braxton's classic self-titled debut album as it turns 30. The Maryland native, who started in an R&B group with her now famous sisters, made her name first known after her standout performances on the wildly popular Boomerang Original Soundtrack the previous year with her debut on "Love Shoulda Brought You Home" and "Give U My Heart" featuring Babyface. Signed to LaFace Records, she began recording her debut album under the tutelage of Babyface and Antonio "LA" Reid as well as a group of dedicated writer and producers in what would be the young label's biggest project yet.The anticipation over Braxton, her smooth contralto voice with dynamic range that brought her immediate comparisons to Anita Baker, her look and the anticipation over what her debut album was overwhelming. The album was released not long after her first single "Another Sad Love Song", which reached the Top 10 of the Billboard R&B and top 100 charts. The next single, the mega ballad, "Breathe Again" was an even bigger hit, charting in the top five of both charts as well. The next two years would see the R&B radio stations littered with her singles from this album as she became superstar within the genre.The album garnered Braxton three Grammys for Best New Artists (1993) and back to back wins for Best R&B Vocal Performance (1994, 1995). She also won two American Music Awards in 1994 and another in 1995. The album has been RIAA certified 6 times platinum and has sold 10 million copies worldwide and is credited with making Braxton a choice solo act in the R&B genre for the rest of the decade.Visit The Vault Classic Music Reviews Onlinewww.vaultclassicpod.comBuy Exclusive The Vault Podcast Merchandise!www.vaultclassicpod.com/storeSupport The Vault Classic Music Reviews on Buy Me A Coffeehttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/vaultclassicpodBuild Your Own Amazing Podcast Website In Less Than 5 Minutes!https://www.podpage.com/?via=ivecre8Show NotesAlbumism: Toni Braxton's Eponymous Debut Album 'Toni Braxton Turns 30 | Album Anniversaryhttps://albumism.com/features/toni-braxton-eponymous-debut-album-anniversaryBET: Five Reasons Why Toni Braxton's Debut Is Still A Classic 30 Years Later https://www.bet.com/article/n25br0/five-reasons-why-toni-braxtons-debut-album-is-still-a-classic-30-years-laterShondaland: Classic Rewind-30 Years of 'Toni Braxton'https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/a44477970/classic-rewind-30-years-of-toni-braxton/Toni Braxton's Debut Turns 25: Ranking All Of The Trackshttps://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/toni-braxton-debut-ranking-tracks-8465382/Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vault-classic-music-reviews-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Grammy® Honoree, Hollywood Walk of FameLet's Celebrate a Golden PLUS Anniversary of Kool & The Gang! Robert's NEW Brand is.  La Kool. lKool had always envisioned having his own brand out of Europe. For many years, he sought out Grand Cru Vineyards from owners that have been selling for generations and decided to work with Paul Berthelot, a Multi-Vintage Grand Cru Producer since 1884. Kool & the Gang, officially launched in 1969, after performing for five years under various band titles, has influenced the music of three generations and the band has become true recording industry legends. Thanks to iconic songs like Celebration, Cherish, Jungle Boogie, Summer Madness and Open Sesame, they've earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten R&B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albumsIn 1969, Kool & the Gang released their self-titled debut album/ It was the introduction to a theme, music is the message, that Kool & the Gang stands by today. The instrumental album was an expression of their deep love of music. It was also an introduction to their signature sound and the fierce horn arrangements created by Khalis, Dee Tee, and Spike. Their debut album spawned their first Billboard R&B charted single Kool & the Gang and later Let the Music Take Your Mind. In 1970, their audacious sophomore set Live at the Sex Machine peaked at #6 on Billboard's R&B chart and yielded three hit singles: Funky Man, Who's Gonna Take the Weight, and I Want to Take You Higher. Next came The Best Of Kool & the Gang Featuring The Penguin, Kool & the Gang Live at PJ'S, Music Is The Message, and Good Times, all of which helped solidify a sound that wowed not only fans but such contemporaries as James Brown and Nina Simone.e 80's would see them dominate the mainstream, starting with the double platinum-selling album Celebrate (driven by the international monster hit Celebration, which spent six weeks atop the R&B chart and became a #1 Pop single). Celebration, which played as the American hostages returned from Iran, remains de rigueur at joyous occasions worldwide. The smashes Get Down On It, Take My Heart, Let's Go Dancing, Joanna, Tonight, Misled, the #1 R&B, #2 Pop giant Cherish and the #1 R&B anthem Fresh (these last three from the multi- platinum LP Emergency) solidified the group's international stardom. Kool & the Gang landed global commercial endorsements, supported countless charitable causes and were the only American group to participate in Band Aid's 1984 Do They Know It's Christmas project for famine victims in Africa. With the explosion of hip-hop in the 90's, Kool & the Gang's incredible catalog of grooves made them DJ favorites. They were second only to R&B icon James Brown as sources of rap music samples. Today, the group enjoys global fame and recognition and a following that spans generations due in part to the groups widely sampled catalogue.© 2023 Building Abundant Success!!2023 All Rights ReservedJoin Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

Madonna was hospitalized for a serious bacterial infection leading the Queen of Pop to postpone her tour. Get ready because Billboard R&B Hip Hop Live celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip hop is coming! Billboard counts down the best hip-hop groups ever in honor of the genre's 50th anniversary, here is the top 10. K-pop group Tomorrow x Together reveals five things you didn't know about them. And more! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kanye, Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, John Legend, Shirley Murdoch, H-Town, Chryssie Hynde, Rick James, James BrownThese artists & many more have recorded the Music Compositions of the Award Winning writing team of Jackie Members, Robert & Richard Poindexter!Music compositions can become legendary for decades after they first debut's by the original artist. New life & versions of compositions can keep artists alive for New Generations to enjoy. I stand with Jackie Poindexter on her fight for classic artist to get paid their royalties' & receive credit when any artist sample & or records their musicKanye West, Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, John Legend, Will Smith,  Damon Dash, Rick James, Annie Lennox, Bone Thugs and Harmony, Arrested Development have recorded, sampled, used a song title for Movies ofThe Poindexter's Music over the years. Jackie Members joined them as a vocalist and songwriter in 1966. She became Robert's wife.We talk about Richard  & Robert performing at the The Apollo Theatre in New York City,  legends Jimi Hendrix, The Ojay's  Maya Angelou, Florence Ballard, famed songwriter & vocalist Alonzo Tucker, member of The Royals.Hank Ballard & The Midnighters, Producer & Songwriter Jerry, Ragovoy & two of Their artists:The Persuaders are a New York City-based R&B vocal group best known for their gold hit single in the 1970s, "Thin Line Between Love and Hate". It sold over a million copies, topping the Billboard R&B chart, and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on October 29, 1971.Linda Jones was an American soul singer with a strong gospel-influenced style who had the 1967 top 10 R&B hit single, "Hypnotized" Jones was born in Newark, New Jersey,After her death in 1972 and in 2008, Linda's daughter Terry Jones, along with Helen Bruner, produced an album entitled, "Soul Talkin" featuring her mother's vocals. One of the tracks, "Baby I Know" was nominated for a Grammy Award at the 51st Awards Ceremony in 2008.On June 3, 2021, The Grammy Museum in Newark, New Jersey added artifacts of Jones to their New Jersey Legends Exhibit, which has been a feature since 2017, that includes Frank Sinatra, Dionne Warwick, The Sugar Hill Gang, The Rascals, Melba Moore, Naughty By Nature and others.On December 14, 2021, The City of Newark, New Jersey honored Jones with renaming Sherman Avenue, the street she lived on, to Linda Jones Way.Platinum and gold records awarded to the Poindexters include Slow Dance on the John Legend 2007 platinum album Once Again, He Can Only Hold Her on the Amy Winehouse 2007 platinum album Bacck to Black, Thin Line Between Love and Hate on the 1984 Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders platinum album Learning to Crawl, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate on the Annie Lennox 1996 platinum album Medusa, Willow is a Player on the Will Smith 2002 gold album Born to Reign, Girls Girls Girls remix on the Jay Z 2002 platinum album The Blue Print, A Thin Line Between Love and Hate on the H-Town 1996 gold single , A Thin Line Between Love and Hate on the Martin Lawrence 1996 gold movie soundtrack by the same title.© 2023 Building Abundant Success!!2023 All Rights ReservedJoin Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

Grammy® Honoree, Hollywood Walk of FameLet's Celebrate a Golden Anniversary of Kool & The Gang! Founding Member Brother Ronald Nathan Bell (November 1, 1951 – September 9, 2020), Robert's NEW Brand is.  La Kool. lKool had always envisioned having his own brand out of Europe. For many years, he sought out Grand Cru Vineyards from owners that have been selling for generations and decided to work with Paul Berthelot, a Multi-Vintage Grand Cru Producer since 1884.A couple years ago marked the official launch of Le Kool Champagne, and Kool also recently added a new rosé champagne to keep the summer season going through the winter. Kool & the Gang, officially launched in 1969, after performing for five years under various band titles, has influenced the music of three generations and the band has become true recording industry legends. Thanks to iconic songs like Celebration, Cherish, Jungle Boogie, Summer Madness and Open Sesame, they've earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten R&B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albums. From Nairobi to Newark, Kool & the Gang has performed continuously longer than any R&B group in history and their bulletproof funk and jazzy arrangements have also made them the most sampled R&B band of all time. A reviewer recently called their performance “a 24-karat show” and every year, even after a half-century on the road, yields a non-stop schedule of shows across the globe. The heavily-in-demand band has continued to tour the world, appearing most recently alongside Kid Rock, Dave Matthews Band, Elton John and The Roots and performing on a recent, 50-city tour with rock legends Van Halen. In 1964, Ronald Bell and his brother, Robert “Kool” Bell, joined Jersey City neighborhood friends Robert “Spike” Mickens, Dennis “Dee Tee” Thomas, Ricky Westfield, George Brown, and Charles Smith to create a unique musical blend of jazz, soul and funk. At first calling themselves the Jazziacs, the band went through various names – The New Dimensions, The Soul Town Band, Kool & the Flames – before settling on their famous moniker. Over the next several years they solidified their musical chemistry on the rough-and-tumble East Coast music scene supporting acts like Bill Cosby, Ritchie Havens and Richard Pryor. Their self-titled 1969 debut album introduced their signature instrumental sound and fierce horn arrangements and spawned their first Billboard R&B charted single, Kool & the Gang. In 1969, Kool & the Gang released their self-titled debut album/ It was the introduction to a theme, music is the message, that Kool & the Gang stands by today. The instrumental album was an expression of their deep love of music. It was also an introduction to their signature sound and the fierce horn arrangements created by Khalis, Dee Tee, and Spike. Their debut album spawned their first Billboard R&B charted single Kool & the Gang and later Let the Music Take Your Mind. In 1970, their audacious sophomore set Live at the Sex Machine peaked at #6 on Billboard's R&B chart and yielded three hit singles: Funky Man, Who's Gonna Take the Weight, and I Want to Take You Higher. Next came The Best Of Kool & the Gang Featuring The Penguin, Kool & the Gang Live at PJ'S, Music Is The Message, and Good Times, all of which helped solidify a sound that wowed not only fans but such contemporaries as James Brown and Nina Simone. The band's stellar reputation grew with each album, but 1973's gold disc Wild & Peaceful took Kool & the Gang to another level (#6 R&B, #33 Pop), spurred by the immortal party anthems Funky Stuff, Hollywood Swinging and the platinum smash Jungle Boogie. Hits like Higher Plane (#1 R&B), the classic Summer Madness (featured on the Grammy-winning movie soundtrack Rocky) and LPs Spirit of the Boogie, Love & Understanding and Open Sesame followed. The latter's title track was featured on the top-selling movie soundtrack of all time, Saturday Night Fever, earning the group their second Grammy. In 1979, Kool & the Gang unveiled a smooth new sound with Ladies Night. Produced by the legendary Pop/Jazz musician Eumir Deodato, it became their first platinum album. The #1 R&B title track reached #8 at Pop. It was followed by Too Hot (#3 R&B, #5 Pop). The 80's would see them dominate the mainstream, starting with the double platinum-selling album Celebrate (driven by the international monster hit Celebration, which spent six weeks atop the R&B chart and became a #1 Pop single). Celebration, which played as the American hostages returned from Iran, remains de rigueur at joyous occasions worldwide. The smashes Get Down On It, Take My Heart, Let's Go Dancing, Joanna, Tonight, Misled, the #1 R&B, #2 Pop giant Cherish and the #1 R&B anthem Fresh (these last three from the multi- platinum LP Emergency) solidified the group's international stardom. Kool & the Gang landed global commercial endorsements, supported countless charitable causes and were the only American group to participate in Band Aid's 1984 Do They Know It's Christmas project for famine victims in Africa. With the explosion of hip-hop in the 90's, Kool & the Gang's incredible catalog of grooves made them DJ favorites. They were second only to R&B icon James Brown as sources of rap music samples. Today, the group enjoys global fame and recognition and a following that spans generations due in part to the groups widely sampled catalogue. Kool & the Gang's drum beats, bass, guitar and signature horn lines lace the tracks of numerous artists including the Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Cypress Hill, and P. Diddy. Kool & the Gang is the most sampled band in hip-hop by far. Their music is also featured on the soundtracks for Rocky, Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction, Wreck-It Ralph and countless others. In 2014, they were honored with a BET Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award and in October 2015, in the town they sing about in one of their earliest hits, “Hollywood Swinging,” Kool & the Gang was honored to take their place as American musical icons with a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2016, they released a single, "Sexy (Where'd You Get Yours),” which rose to #15 on the Billboard Adult R& B chart. The song signifies a modernization of Kool & the Gang's unmistakable sound, down to the dance floor-tailored bass grooves and the perfectly timed horns. It was their first airplay chart hit in a decade. © 2023 Building Abundant Success!!2023 All Rights ReservedJoin Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

GRAMMY® winner Club Nouveau, Timex Social ClubGrammy Award winning singer and record label executive, Jay King, was elected CEO/President of the California Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) in June of 2019.GRAMMY® Award winning Jay King/Club Nouveau's music & samples have been featured in many Soundtracks including the #1 Hit Movie "US" by Director Jordan Peele!This week, I look at how a brand can stay relevant decade after decade.As a veteran mogul Jay King brings as much humility to the field as he does what has been called his genius. With three decades of continuous achievements in music, management, film/TV/radio, consulting and publishing; King has made an indelible impression. He claims Northern California in general as his hometown due to a nomadic youth spent between many of the Bay Area's cities; as well as Alaska for birthing his career. There was a deep musical undercurrent added to his early years by a clan which boasted a number of ministers, extending from his great-grandfather through a number of cousins, who all played instruments as well. His great uncle, Saunders King, a respected jazz/blues guitarist, offered the West Coast the first family hit in the 1940's—‘The S.K. Blues'—adding to the musical backdrop of King's childhood.Jay King broadened his own talent when he took up the trumpet in his freshman year of high school and when Popping and Breaking became popular; dance soon opened doors to his subsequent career in music. As his music and connections continued to develop, he found himself writing songs for Con Funk Shun whose members, Michael Cooper and Felton Pilate, encouraged King against the detractors who at the time didn't like his sound. In 1986, King starting the independent record label JAY Records to release the Timex Social Club hit ‘Rumors' and ushered in the biggest selling single of 1986 (3.5 million copies) and becoming the #1 R&B single on the Billboard Charts. With a Top 10 single on the Billboard Pop charts for over 56 weeks, King watched his life change as his music became an unprecedented hit. What he'd produced was history-making, as nobody had before taken an R&B song from an indie label to such heights. Although having independently produced, pressed and marketed his own music King was without the money to compete at radio plays and had to be creative with promoting. “There were challenges. You couldn't reach out to stores, and social media didn't exist then so you couldn't let people know with a click of a button that you had something out. You had to get out and hustle. People were making fun of me and laughing because I was out hustling records.” Bypassing traditional methods, King utilized Macola Records because of its position as an indie manufacturer with no association to a major label.Such moves from a 24 year old entrepreneur made the year 1986 even more memorable, as he quickly followed up with a label/production deal with Warner Brother Records and his King Jay Records label, subsequently releasing the first Club Nouveau single ‘Jealousy' and the album, ‘Life, Love & Pain'. After ‘Jealousy' went to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts in September of 1986, followed by ‘Situation #9' (#4 Billboard R&B charts), 1987 came in with an even bigger bang when ‘Lean On Me' was released in February and became #1 Billboard Pop/#2 Billboard R&B platinum single, winning a Grammy for R&B Song of The Year.Club Nouveau's music is in heavy demand commercially in movies and is sampled in many of today's artists hit makers like Ashanti, Chris Brown and many more.The group is STILL on the scene, performing hundreds of LIVE concert a year & recording NEW music!© 2023 All Rights Reserved© 2023 Building Abundant Success!!Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon Music ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBASAudacy:  https://tinyurl.com/BASAud

Troop is an American R&B group from Pasadena, California, United States The group has had three number-one singles and ten top-ten singles on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. They have also completed five albums, which include three certified gold and one certified platinum album

Troop is an American R&B group from Pasadena, California, United States The group has had three number-one singles and ten top-ten singles on the Billboard R&B Singles chart. They have also completed five albums, which include three certified gold and one certified platinum album

On our final episode of 2022, we look back at the music video/mini-movie for Michael Jackson's Thriller, on the fortieth anniversary on the release of the album which bore its name. ----more---- Transcript:   Hello, and welcome to The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today. If you're listening to this episode as I release it, on November 30th, 2022, today is the fortieth anniversary of the release of the biggest album ever released, Michael Jackson's Thriller. Over the course of those forty years, it has sold more than seventy million copies. It won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards. A performance of one of its signature songs, Billie Jean, for a televised concert celebrating the 25th anniversary of Motown Records would introduce The Moonwalk to an astonished audience, first in the auditorium and then on TV screens around the world. The album was so big, even MTV couldn't ignore it. Michael Jackson would become the first black artist to be put into regular rotation on the two year old cable channel. So what does all this have to do with movies, you ask. That's a good question. Because out of this album came one of the most iconic moments in the entertainment industry. Not just for MTV or the music industry, but for the emerging home video industry that needed that one thing to become mainstream. The music video for the album's title song, Thriller. Thriller was the sixth solo album by Michael Jackson, even though he was still a member of The Jacksons band alongside his brothers Jackie, Jermaine, Marlon, Randy and Tito. Although The Jacksons were still selling millions of albums with each release, Michael's 1979 solo album Off the Wall made him a solo star, selling more than ten million copies worldwide in its first year of release, almost as much as all of the previous Jacksons albums combined. After the completion of The Jackson's 1980 album Triumph, Jackson would re-team with his Off the Wall producer, the legendary Quincy Jones, to try and craft a new album that would blow Off the Wall out of the water. Jackson wanted every song on the album to be a killer. Every song a hit. Over the course of 1981 and 1982, Jackson and Jones would work on no less than thirty songs that could be included on the final album, and assembled some of the biggest names in the music industry to play on it, including David Foster, James Ingram, Paul McCartney, Rob Temperton, Eddie Van Halen, and the members of the band Toto, who were having a great 1982 already with the release of their fourth album, which featured such seminal hits at Africa and Rosanna. Recording on the album would begin in April 1982 with the Jackson-penned The Girl is Mine, a duet with Paul McCartney that Jackson hoped would become even bigger than Ebony and Ivory, the former Beatle's duet with Stevie Wonder which had been released a few weeks earlier and was be the number one song in a number of countries at that moment. There would be three other songs on the final album written by Jackson, Beat It, Billie Jean, and Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', which Jackson would co-produce with Jones. The other five songs, Baby Be Mine, Human Nature, The Lady in My Life, P.Y.T. and the title track, would be written by other artists like James Ingram, Steve Pocaro of Toto, and Rob Temperton, who were also working on the album as backup singers and/or musicians. The final mixing of the album would continue up until three weeks before its expected November 30th, 1982 release, even though The Girl Is Mine had already been released as a single to radio stations and record stores on October 18th. While the song wouldn't exactly set the world on fire or presage the massive success of the album it had come from, the single would sell more than a million copies, and hit number two on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. When the album was released, it sold well, but it wouldn't be until Billie Jean, the second single from the album, was released on January 2nd, 1983, that things really started to take off. Within three weeks, the song would already hit #1 on the Billboard R&B charts. But it would still a few more weeks for white America to take notice. In early 1983, the music world was dominated by the cable channel MTV, which in less than two years had gone from being a small cable channel launched in only portions of New Jersey to making global stars of such musical acts as Duran Duran, Eurythmics, U2 and even Weird Al Yankovich. But they just were not playing black artists. The lack of black music on MTV was so noticeable that, in an interview with MTV VJ Mark Goodman timed to the release of his comeback album Let's Dance, David Bowie would admonish the VJ and the channel for not doing its part to promote black artists. MTV's excuse, for lack of a better word, was that the network's executives saw the channel as being rock centered, and Billie Jean was not “rock” enough for the channel. The president of Jackson's record label, CBS, was more than just enraged by the channel's refusal to show the video for Billie Jean. He threatened to pull every single CBS act off the air, and never give MTV another music video to air. Could MTV really afford to lose Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel and Journey and Toto and The Clash and Joe Jackson, Eddie Money, Chicago, Judas Priest, ELO, Adam Ant, Cheap Trick, Loverboy, Heart, Men at Work and a hundred other artists that accounted for more than a quarter of all the music videos in rotation on the channel at the time? MTV would add Billie Jean to its rotation on March 10th, 1983. Within a month, both the song and the album would hit #1 on their respective charts. Lost in all the hubbub about Billie Jean was that Beat It, with its blistering Eddie Van Halen guitar solo, had been released as a single on February 14th, and it too would become a #1 hit song. In fact, after Billie Jean topped the charts for seven weeks, Beat It would become the #1 song in the nation, after a single week of Dexy's Midnight Runners taking the top spot. Ironically, despite how they felt about Billie Jean just a few weeks earlier, MTV would actually be the first outlet to show the Beat It video, not three weeks after it finally relented on Billie Jean. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin', Human Nature, and P.Y.T. were all released as singles between May and September 1983, but none of them would have the success enjoyed by Billie Jean and Beat It, and sales for the Thriller album were starting to wane. There were only three songs left on the album that hadn't been released as singles yet, and neither Baby Be Mine not The Lady in My Life were the kinds of songs that would be featured as singles. That left Thriller. There never was a plan for Thriller to be released as a single. The label saw the song, with its vaguely spooky lyrics and ending narration by legendary horror actor Vincent Price, as a novelty song, not unlike a Weird Al Yankovic song. In early August 1983, Jackson would see An American Werewolf in London. He loved the movie, especially the scenes where actor David Naughton would transform into a werewolf on screen. The film's director, John Landis, was working in London at the time, and late one evening, the phone in his hotel room would ring. It was Michael Jackson. The singer wanted to know if Landis would come aboard to make a music video based on this song, and help turn him into a monster. “Michael, it's 2am in London,” Landis would exclaim to the excited singer on the other end of the line. “I will call you when I get back to Los Angeles in a couple weeks,” he'd say, before hanging up the phone and went back to sleep. Except Landis didn't wait for his return to the States to call Jackson back. The filmmaker and the singer would, despite the eight hour time difference, speak several times over the phone about ideas for a music video. For weeks, Landis, Landis's costume designer wife Deborah Nadoolman, and Rick Baker, the genius behind the practical makeup effects for An American Werewolf in London, would meet with Jackson to discuss story, choreography, makeup and costuming.  Landis and his producing partner, George Foley Jr., would come up with a final story that featured a story about a young man and a young woman who find themselves being chased by zombies through the streets of Los Angeles, before the boy becomes, at various times, a zombie himself and a werewolf-like cat creature. It was going to be Landis's homage to fun horror movies of the past, from I Was a Teenage Wereworld to Night of the Living Dead. Landis and Folsey would present the president of CBS Records with a script for the project, and a $900,000 budget, ten times more than the average music video cost to make at the time and nearly triple the previous record for the highest budget for a music video at that time. And unlike most videos made at the time, it would be shot using 35mm film and Arriflex cameras. It was not going to be just a music video. This was going to be a mini-movie. The record label president was not pleased. Album sales for Thriller had been slowing, and it did not make sense for them to spend nearly a million dollars to make a video for what would be the seventh and riskiest single off the album.  They refused to pay for it. So Folsey, Jackson and Landis would go to the major television networks, to see if they would be willing to finance the project, which they pitched as not only getting a fifteen minute music video from one of the biggest artists in the world, but also a thirty minute making-of documentary, so the entire program could be slotted for a full hour of airtime including commercials. They would all say no. Then they went to MTV, who had seen a dramatic spike in subscriptions since they started airing Billie Jean and Beat it, in the hopes they would want in on the action. They would also decline, because they had a policy of not financing ANY music videos. Music videos were promotions for the record labels. They should be paying for the making of them. They then went to cable movie channels like HBO and Showtime. Imagine having exclusive rights to a fifteen minute mini-movie from the biggest music star on the planet, they would suggest, as well as a forty-five minute making-of feature that could be slotted for a full hour of programming. Imagine how many new subscribers you'd get if your channel was the only place to see it! Showtime would agree to finance half the video in exchange for exclusive movie channel rights to screen Thriller. Sensing there might actually be a market for this, Jackson's record label would commit to throw in $100,000, if they could find another partner to cover the rest.  MTV would make up the difference, after deciding they were not financing a music video but indeed a short motion picture and a making-of featurette. Landis would bring a number of his regular collaborators with him. In addition to producing partner George Foley Jr. and costume designer Deborah Nadoolman, Landis would have his American Werewolf in London cinematographer Robert Paynter behind the camera, Malcolm Campbell, who had edited American Werewolf and Trading Places, assembling the final footage, and the legendary music composer Elmer Bernstein, who created the scores for Animal House and American Werewolf, to provide an incidental musical score to the movie inside the movie, and other sequences not directly related to Jackson's song. The vast majority of the shoot, which took place over four nights in October, the 11th through the 14th, would take place around Downtown Los Angeles. The scenes at the movie theatre were filmed at the Palace Theatre on Broadway, while the zombie dance was filmed a couple miles to the south at Calzona Street and Union Pacific Avenue and the final house sequence was filmed in the Echo Park neighborhood just northwest of downtown.  Side note: the Palace Theatre is still there, and still occasionally shows movies to this day, and both the intersection where the dance sequence was filmed and the neighborhood where the final chase sequence took place still look remarkably similar to what they did forty years ago. And how quickly did it take for Landis and his team to get the footage assembled? Thriller would have its first screening at the Crest Theatre in Westwood Village on November 14th, 1983, not thirty days after filming was complete. John Landis would tell Nancy Griffin in a 2010 Vanity Fair oral history about Thriller that despite having been to events like the Oscars, the Emmys and the Golden Globes, he had never seen a turnout like the one he witnessed that night. Diana Ross, who had discovered the Jacksons nearly twenty years earlier, was there. As was Prince and Eddie Murphy and Warren Beatty. Ola Ray, Jackson's co-star in the film, was there too, and before the screening, she noticed Jackson was nowhere to be found. She would find him a few moments later, hiding in the projection booth with the projector operator. Ray would do her best to lure Jackson out, to mingle with the crowd. This was his night, after all. But Jackson would only compliment Ray on her dress, and tell her to go enjoy herself. Once the crowd was seated, Landis would warm the crowd up with some light banter and a screening of a new print of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Band Concert, that Jackson was able to get Disney to strike just for this occasion. It's one of Disney's best cartoons, and the crowd would enjoy it. But they were here to see what amazing thing Michael would pull off this time. Finally, the main event would begin. And the first thing the audience would see was a disclaimer… “Due to my strong personal convictions, I wish to stress that this film in no way endorses a belief in the occult. Michael Jackson.” This was in reaction to word that Jackson had gotten a couple weeks earlier from the leaders of the Jehovah's Witnesses, to which he was a practicing member of at the time, that he risked being excommunicated from the church. The church was worried the film, which, incidentally, they had not seen yet, would promote demonology to younger people. At first, Jackson would call his assistant and order them to destroy the negatives to the film. The assistant, with the help of the production team, would instead lock the negatives up in a safe place until a compromise could be reached. It would be Jackson's assistant who came up with the pre-roll statement, which was acceptable to Jackson, to the church, and to the production team. At the end of the screening, Jackson, Landis and the film received a standing ovation. Eddie Murphy screamed out “Show the damn thing again!” And they did. John Landis hadn't made a music video. He made a short movie musical. And he wanted recognition for his efforts. So despite his standing in the industry as a semi-pariah due to the ongoing legal troubles concerning the Twilight Zone accident, Landis wanted an Oscar for his work. The movie was that good. Even though he had never worked with Disney in the past, Landis was able to convince the studio to allow him to screen the PG-rated Thriller mini-movie in front of the G-rated Fantasia, which was going to be released on Thursday, November 24th, on one screen in Los Angeles. The L.A. Times newspaper ad would be a split image. On the top half, Mickey in his Sorcerer's Apprentice getup, and on the bottom, listed as an “extra added attraction,” Michael in his leather jacket, in a nearly identical pose to the cartoon mouse above him. Five shows a day for seven days, with an extra late show on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Academy members and one guest could present their membership card at the box office for free tickets to see Thriller on the Avco Cinema Center, then stay and watch Fantasia as well. If you want to see a not exceptional image of the newspaper ad, make sure you head over to this episode's entry on our website, the80smoviepodcast.com Now, I'm not sure how many free tickets were given away to Academy members that week, but practically every screening was sold out. While the $52,000 worth of tickets sold in those seven days would be credited to Disney and Fantasia, it was clear from the audiences who were leaving after the fourteen minute short was done what they were there to see. And for that week, this was the only way to see Thriller on the entire planet. On December 2nd, MTV would show Thriller for the first time in prime time. Ten times the regular audience would turn in to watch. At the end of the video, MTV told their viewers they would watch it again if they wanted at the top of the hour. And they would show it every hour at the top of the hour for twenty-four straight hours. It would be MTV's biggest day to date. In February 1984, Showtime would air the video and its corresponding making-of featurette six times, and those airings would be amongst their biggest days in their nearly decade-long history. Vestron Home Video, a smaller videotape distributor based in Connecticut, would pay for the home video rights to the video and making-of featurette, and release it later in the spring. It would sell more than 900,000 copies at $29.99 MSRP. It would be the first major sell-through home video title, and usher in the mindframe that collecting movies on VHS was a totally normal thing, like a record collection.  And the album? It would quickly return to the top of the charts within weeks of the release of the video no one really wanted to make outside of Michael Jackson, and it would go on to sell another ten million copies just in 1984. The red leather jacket worn by Jackson in the video, designed by Deborah Nadoolman, would become as iconic in pop culture as Indiana Jones' fedora, which Nadoolman also hand-picked for that character. Shooting a music video as if it were a movie, and on 35mm film, would soon become the norm instead of the exception. Future filmmakers like Spike Jonze would use Thriller as a template for what they could get away with when they started making music videos in the 90s. Over the years, Thriller has been deemed THE single best music video of all time by a number of news organizations and fans all around the world. An official 4K remastered version of the video was uploaded to YouTune in October 2009, a few months after Jackson's unfortunately and untimely passing, where it has amassed more than 865m views over the past 13 years. And that's just for that one version of the video. There are dozens more copies available on YouTube, each with millions of views of their own. Thank you for joining us.  And with that, we wrap up 2022 and our fourth season. We'll talk again in early January 2023, when the podcast will return for its fifth season, as we take a much needed vacation to Thailand for Christmas and New Years.  2022 has been the best year for this podcast so far, and I want to thank every single one of you for spending some of your valuable time listening to me talk about older movies. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate all of you. Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about Michael Jackson's Thriller. The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment. Thank you again. Good night.

A note from Justin & Gurdip: "This episode takes some pretty sharp turns. We hope that after you hear us 'give it the old college try,' you all will appreciate and understand the approach that we eventually landed on for the Patreon-picked main topic on the abundance of conspiracy theories that loomed over pop culture after Elvis's death in 1977, and our pivot to discussing some great music from 1953 before bringing it full circle in a very unexpected way." For Song of the Week, Gurdip is given "Ain't That Loving You Baby," the Clyde Otis-Ivory Joe Hunter cut recorded in 1958 but held unreleased until the mid-1960s. Then, Justin brings it home with "Bridge Over Troubled Water," the Paul Simon-penned classic that clearly meant a lot to Elvis from the time he recorded it in 1970 all the way to what may very well have been Elvis's last great performance in 1977. If you enjoy TCBCast, please consider supporting us with a donation at Patreon.com/TCBCast. If you are unable to support us via Patreon, but want to support us another way, please make sure to leave a positive review or mention our show to another like-minded music history and movie enthusiast.

GRAMMY® winner Club Nouveau, Timex Social ClubGrammy Award winning singer and record label executive, Jay King, was elected CEO/President of the California Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) in June of 2019.GRAMMY® Award winning Jay King/Club Nouveau's music was featured in the #1 Hit Movie "US" by Director Jordan Peele!This week, I look at how a brand can stay relevant decade after decade.As a veteran mogul Jay King brings as much humility to the field as he does what has been called his genius. With three decades of continuous achievements in music, management, film/TV/radio, consulting and publishing; King has made an indelible impression. He claims Northern California in general as his hometown due to a nomadic youth spent between many of the Bay Area's cities; as well as Alaska for birthing his career. There was a deep musical undercurrent added to his early years by a clan which boasted a number of ministers, extending from his great-grandfather through a number of cousins, who all played instruments as well. His great uncle, Saunders King, a respected jazz/blues guitarist, offered the West Coast the first family hit in the 1940's—‘The S.K. Blues'—adding to the musical backdrop of King's childhood.Jay King broadened his own talent when he took up the trumpet in his freshman year of high school and when Popping and Breaking became popular; dance soon opened doors to his subsequent career in music. As his music and connections continued to develop, he found himself writing songs for Con Funk Shun whose members, Michael Cooper and Felton Pilate, encouraged King against the detractors who at the time didn't like his sound. In 1986, King starting the independent record label JAY Records to release the Timex Social Club hit ‘Rumors' and ushered in the biggest selling single of 1986 (3.5 million copies) and becoming the #1 R&B single on the Billboard Charts. With a Top 10 single on the Billboard Pop charts for over 56 weeks, King watched his life change as his music became an unprecedented hit. What he'd produced was history-making, as nobody had before taken an R&B song from an indie label to such heights. Although having independently produced, pressed and marketed his own music King was without the money to compete at radio plays and had to be creative with promoting. “There were challenges. You couldn't reach out to stores, and social media didn't exist then so you couldn't let people know with a click of a button that you had something out. You had to get out and hustle. People were making fun of me and laughing because I was out hustling records.” Bypassing traditional methods, King utilized Macola Records because of its position as an indie manufacturer with no association to a major label.Such moves from a 24 year old entrepreneur made the year 1986 even more memorable, as he quickly followed up with a label/production deal with Warner Brother Records and his King Jay Records label, subsequently releasing the first Club Nouveau single ‘Jealousy' and the album, ‘Life, Love & Pain'. After ‘Jealousy' went to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts in September of 1986, followed by ‘Situation #9' (#4 Billboard R&B charts), 1987 came in with an even bigger bang when ‘Lean On Me' was released in February and became #1 Billboard Pop/#2 Billboard R&B platinum single, winning a Grammy for R&B Song of The Year.Club Nouveau's music is in heavy demand commercially in movies and is sampled in many of today's artists hit makers like Ashanti, Chris Brown and many more.The group is STILL on the scene, performing hundreds of LIVE concert a year & recording NEW music!All Rights Reserved © 2022 Building Abundant Success!!Join Me on ~ iHeart Media @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBAS

GRAMMY® winner Club Nouveau, Timex Social ClubGrammy Award winning singer and record label executive, Jay King, was elected CEO/President of the California Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) in June of 2019.GRAMMY® Award winning Jay King/Club Nouveau's music was featured in the #1 Hit Movie "US" by Director Jordan Peele!This week, I look at how a brand can stay relevant decade after decade.As a veteran mogul Jay King brings as much humility to the field as he does what has been called his genius. With three decades of continuous achievements in music, management, film/TV/radio, consulting and publishing; King has made an indelible impression. He claims Northern California in general as his hometown due to a nomadic youth spent between many of the Bay Area's cities; as well as Alaska for birthing his career. There was a deep musical undercurrent added to his early years by a clan which boasted a number of ministers, extending from his great-grandfather through a number of cousins, who all played instruments as well. His great uncle, Saunders King, a respected jazz/blues guitarist, offered the West Coast the first family hit in the 1940's—‘The S.K. Blues'—adding to the musical backdrop of King's childhood.Jay King broadened his own talent when he took up the trumpet in his freshman year of high school and when Popping and Breaking became popular; dance soon opened doors to his subsequent career in music. As his music and connections continued to develop, he found himself writing songs for Con Funk Shun whose members, Michael Cooper and Felton Pilate, encouraged King against the detractors who at the time didn't like his sound. In 1986, King starting the independent record label JAY Records to release the Timex Social Club hit ‘Rumors' and ushered in the biggest selling single of 1986 (3.5 million copies) and becoming the #1 R&B single on the Billboard Charts. With a Top 10 single on the Billboard Pop charts for over 56 weeks, King watched his life change as his music became an unprecedented hit. What he'd produced was history-making, as nobody had before taken an R&B song from an indie label to such heights. Although having independently produced, pressed and marketed his own music King was without the money to compete at radio plays and had to be creative with promoting. “There were challenges. You couldn't reach out to stores, and social media didn't exist then so you couldn't let people know with a click of a button that you had something out. You had to get out and hustle. People were making fun of me and laughing because I was out hustling records.” Bypassing traditional methods, King utilized Macola Records because of its position as an indie manufacturer with no association to a major label.Such moves from a 24 year old entrepreneur made the year 1986 even more memorable, as he quickly followed up with a label/production deal with Warner Brother Records and his King Jay Records label, subsequently releasing the first Club Nouveau single ‘Jealousy' and the album, ‘Life, Love & Pain'. After ‘Jealousy' went to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts in September of 1986, followed by ‘Situation #9' (#4 Billboard R&B charts), 1987 came in with an even bigger bang when ‘Lean On Me' was released in February and became #1 Billboard Pop/#2 Billboard R&B platinum single, winning a Grammy for R&B Song of The Year.Club Nouveau's music is in heavy demand commercially in movies and is sampled in many of today's artists hit makers like Ashanti, Chris Brown and many more.The group is STILL on the scene, performing hundreds of LIVE concert a year & recording NEW music!All Rights Reserved © 2022 BuildingAbundantSuccess!!Join Me on ~ iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBASSpot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBAS

Siergio is a gifted performer with a warm, dusky voice and an emotive, deeply personal approach to forward-thinking R&B. A native of Chicago, Siergio grew up in a musical family with a grandmother who was also a singer. Under her influence, he came into contact with the music of artists like Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Sam Cooke, and others. After taking a hiatus following his sophomore album debut on the Billboard R&B Charts at #10, R&B Singer/Songwriter Siergio is back with new brand new music. His first single, the DJ Cool-produced ‘Take You Out' debuted January 21st and quickly shot to #13 on the iTunes R&B Chart and has already become one of his most popular songs Spotify and Apple Music. During his hiatus, the Sprite Way artist developed a new direction and sound inspired by his journey that sets the stage for his forthcoming third studio album Before It's Too Late available everywhere now. @siergio Current Single/ Video: https://youtu.be/yvEPMqrzXNI Social Media Links Youtube Channel youtube.com/c/ChipBakerTheSuccessChronicles LinkedIn http://linkedin.com/in/chip-baker-thesuccesschronicles-825887161 Facebook https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100014641035295 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/chipbakertsc/ Twitter twitter.com/chipbaker19 Linktree https://linktr.ee/ChipBakerTSC Online Store http://chip-baker-the-success-chronicles.square.site/ Chip Baker- The Success Chronicles Podcast https://anchor.fm/chip-baker

B. Cox reviews R&B singer Adriana Evans self-titled debut album Adriana Evans as it turns 25. The daughter of jazz singer Mary Stallings, Evans emerged in the mid-90s featuring on her future collaborator and producer (and also future husband) Jonathan 'Dred' Scott's 1994 album Breakin' Combs. After starting with Capitol Records when she started recording her debut, she landed on hip-hop powerhouse label Loud Records to finish and release her album. Working with Scott and musician and arranger Rastine Calhoun III, the album featured 12 tracks of power packed music; featuring a blend of jazz and classic soul music with contemporary R&B and hip-hop serving as the soundtrack to her sweet yet powerful vocals. The album featured two singles: "Seeing Is Believing" and "Love Is All Around" which both charted on the Billboard R&B charts.Unfortunatey, due what seems to be a lack of substansial promotion and marketing from the label and a release that was timed during a explosively successful year in the R&B game, her debut went largely unnoticed from the masses, aside from a group of dedicated fans who praised the album's content her effortless vocal abilities. After taking a hiatus from the music industry following her debut, she emerged seven years later after a sabbatical in Brazil and released four more albums after fading from the public eye after 2012.In her absence in the public eye, her debut album has attracted a cult following in the years gone by. Fans continue to praise the album and even a quarter of century later, it is still being discovered by fans every day. Due to the album not being available on streaming services, physical copies are a commodity and widely sought after; making the album one of the rarest finds on the secondary market.Visit The Vault Classic Music Reviews Onlinewww.vaultclassicpod.comLearn More About the "Podcast GPS" BootCamp Course!www.vaultclassicpod.com/podcastgpsSupport The Vault Classic Music Review on Buy Me A Coffeehttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/vaultclassicpodShow NotesDiscogs: Adriana Evans-Adriana Evans (1997). Release Infohttps://www.discogs.com/release/1570592-Adriana-Evans-Adriana-EvansThe R&B Representers: Catch That! Episode 21: Dart Adams-Adriana Evans self titled debuthttps://youtu.be/gKlmSPzclvMSinematic06 Youtube Page: Adriana Evans Planet Groove BET Live in Washington D.C. 1997 Part 1 and Part 2 https://youtu.be/0ACD1tD5OUkhttps://youtu.be/9yaeYPQVN1QGFM Podcast Network: Adriana Evans Interview (2011)https://open.spotify.com/episode/5jUxyG0QSFybkYRGjQuS2eFacebook: Adriana Evans at the SF Jazz Center (circa 2017-One of her latest known taped live performances) https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1429905660386329Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vault-classic-music-reviews-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

B. Cox briefly looks back at En Vogue's second album 1992's Funky Divas. On the heels of their successful debut 1990s' Born To Sing, the Oakland based R&B quartet (Dawn Robinson, Maxine Jones, Terry Ellis and Cindy Herron) came out blazing with their 2nd album which eclipsed their debut. Teaming up once again with producers and songwriters Thomas McElroy and Denzil Foster, the group scored a commercial hit with the album, placing scoring two Billboard R&B and Soul #1 hits in "Never Gonna Get It" and "Giving Him Something He Can Feel" and selling 3.5 million copies in the U.S.Upon its release in 1992, the album recieved mixed reviews from the critics, but since then, it has garnered more widespread acclaim and praises for its vocal excellence and production depth. It is the group's best selling album to date.Visit The Vault Classic Music Reviews Onlinewww.vaultclassicpod.comLearn More About the "Podcast GPS" BootCamp Course!www.vaultclassicpod.com/podcastgpsSupport The Vault Classic Music Review on Buy Me A Coffeehttps://www.buymeacoffee.com/vaultclassicpodShow NotesAlbumism: Never Gonna Get It: Celebrating 30 Years of En Vogue's "Funky Divas" | Anniversary Retrospectivehttps://albumism.com/features/tribute-celebrating-30-years-of-en-vogue-funky-divasThis is Dig: En Vogue Celebrates 30 Years of Funky Divashttps://www.thisisdig.com/en-vogue-celebrate-30-years-of-funky-divas/Audacy: Run That Back: En Vogue's "Funky Divas" Turns 30https://www.audacy.com/music/hip-hop-r-b/run-that-back-en-vogues-funky-divas-turns-30Music Musings and Such: Free Your Mind: En Vogue's Funky Diva's at Thirtyhttps://www.musicmusingsandsuch.com/musicmusingsandsuch/2022/2/9/feature-free-you-mind-en-vogues-funky-divas-at-thirtySupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vault-classic-music-reviews-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

GRAMMY® winner Club Nouveau,Timex Social Club Grammy Award winning singer and record label executive, Jay King, was elected CEO/President of the California Black Chamber of Commerce (CBCC) in June of 2019.GRAMMY® Award winning Jay King/Club Nouveau's music was featured in the #1 Hit Movie "US" by Director Jordan Peele!This week, I look at how a brand can stay relevant decade after decade.As a veteran mogul Jay King brings as much humility to the field as he does what has been called his genius. With three decades of continuous achievements in music, management, film/TV/radio, consulting and publishing; King has made an indelible impression. He claims Northern California in general as his hometown due to a nomadic youth spent between many of the Bay Area's cities; as well as Alaska for birthing his career. There was a deep musical undercurrent added to his early years by a clan which boasted a number of ministers, extending from his great-grandfather through a number of cousins, who all played instruments as well. His great uncle, Saunders King, a respected jazz/blues guitarist, offered the West Coast the first family hit in the 1940's—‘The S.K. Blues'—adding to the musical backdrop of King's childhood. Jay King broadened his own talent when he took up the trumpet in his freshman year of high school and when Popping and Breaking became popular; dance soon opened doors to his subsequent career in music. As his music and connections continued to develop, he found himself writing songs for Con Funk Shun whose members, Michael Cooper and Felton Pilate, encouraged King against the detractors who at the time didn't like his sound. In 1986, King starting the independent record label JAY Records to release the Timex Social Club hit ‘Rumors' and ushered in the biggest selling single of 1986 (3.5 million copies) and becoming the #1 R&B single on the Billboard Charts. With a Top 10 single on the Billboard Pop charts for over 56 weeks, King watched his life change as his music became an unprecedented hit. What he'd produced was history-making, as nobody had before taken an R&B song from an indie label to such heights. Although having independently produced, pressed and marketed his own music King was without the money to compete at radio plays and had to be creative with promoting. “There were challenges. You couldn't reach out to stores, and social media didn't exist then so you couldn't let people know with a click of a button that you had something out.You had to get out and hustle. People were making fun of me and laughing because I was out hustling records.” Bypassing traditional methods, King utilized Macola Records because of its position as an indie manufacturer with no association to a major label. Such moves from a 24 year old entrepreneur made the year 1986 even more memorable, as he quickly followed up with a label/production deal with Warner Brother Records and his King Jay Records label, subsequently releasing the first Club Nouveau single ‘Jealousy' and the album, ‘Life, Love & Pain'. After ‘Jealousy' went to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts in September of 1986, followed by ‘Situation #9' (#4 Billboard R&B charts), 1987 came in with an even bigger bang when ‘Lean On Me' was released in February and became #1 Billboard Pop/#2 Billboard R&B platinum single, winning a Grammy for R&B Song of The Year. Club Nouveau's music is in heavy demand commercially in movies and is sampled in many of today's artists hit makers like Ashanti, Chris Brown and many more. The group is STILL on the scene, performing hundreds of LIVE concert a year & recording NEW music! All Rights Reserved © 2022 BuildingAbundantSuccess!! Join Me on ~ iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23baAmazon ~ https://tinyurl.com/AmzBAS

Welcome to Episode #13 of the 90s State of Mind podcast - a collaborative project between 4ever in Electric Dreams and Blue-in-Green:RADIO. This podcast series sees Imran (London, UK) and Rhonda (California, USA) delve into some of their favourite releases from the 90s and for this episode, the pair revisit Bobby Brown's, 'Bobby'. Released 25th August 1992 through MCA Records, the album served as the third solo outing for the R&B vocalist following his departure from R&B collective New Edition. Bobby peaked at number two on the US Billboard 200 Album Chart and spawned three major US Billboard Hot 100 singles; "Humpin' Around" (US #3), "Good Enough" (US #7), and "Get Away" (US #14). The album also reached number one on the Billboard R&B Albums chart, and reached the top 10 in Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden. Brown received his second Grammy Award nomination for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance at the 35th Grammy Awards for the single "Humpin' Around" and the album was certified double platinum by the RIAA. Imran & Rhonda delve deep into this definitive 90s R&B album looking at the project, the singles, the collaborators, the remixes and look at the album in the context of the New Jack Swing's twilight years. www.4everinelectricdreams.com/ Blue-in-Green:RADIO is a London-based online internet radio station which celebrates 21st century soul, jazz, funk, Latin & hip-hop music. www.blueingreenradio.com TuneIn: bit.ly/2LBK0BD

Terry is a graduate at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington. He landed backing vocalist jobs for the freestyle/pop group Sweet Sensation, and hip-hop group The Boogie Boys. In 1987, he signed a recording contract with Epic/CBS Records. Terry's first single, "She's Fly", was released the same year, and peaked at number 10 on the Billboard R&B singles chart. Forever Yours, Terry's debut album for Epic, was released in 1988, and reached the Top 40 of Billboard's R&B albums chart. The follow-up single, "Lovey Dovey", reached number four on the R&B charts, and "Forever Yours" climbed into the R&B Top 20.In 1989, Tony was also featured in a duet with label mate Flame on the song "On The Strength", which reached number 59 on the Billboard R&B singles chart and number 11 on the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart.

Georgy Porgy!!! Episode 26 is all about the smooth vocalist that we all know as Mr. Eric Benet. Eric Benét is a contemporary R&B singer with mild hip-hop and strong adult contemporary influences. As a teenager, he performed in a family vocal group (appropriately named Benét) with his sister and cousin. The group signed with EMI and released an eponymous album in 1992 that largely went unnoticed. Eric blazed his own trail as a solo artist shortly afterward, signing to Warner Bros. and releasing his debut album, True to Myself, in the fall of 1996. A Day in the Lifefollowed in 1999. Its first single, a cover of Toto's "Georgy Porgy," was a moderate radio hit, but it was the album's second single, "Spend My Life with You" (featuring Tamia), that helped put him on the map. The song went to number one on the Billboard R&B chart, was certified gold, and received a nomination for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group. Benét's popularity was on the rise, and A Day in the Life went platinum and earned a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Album, Male. To enjoys Jaie's entier playlist and get a heads up on songs to come.. Follow Jaie's playlist on Apple Music https://music.apple.com/profile/jamiemichelle531 To hear todays songs including Jaie's Mental Jukebox and Song of the Week, click the link below and listen on Apple Music https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/eric-benét/pl.u-PDb4YVpTLdWDLlK FOLLOW JOIN THE FAMILY ON FACEBOOK.. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2686975681604527 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Qianathegoddess and DJ FMI had a chance once again to interview the legendary music duo, The System. The first interview, which featured their new song "Everybody Get Up!" as a push to get American citizens to vote, was published in November 2020, just days before the presidential election in the United States. During this interview, FMI and Qianathegoddess get more into detail on Mic's upcoming album and the thought process behind it, as well as other projects featuring the group together. The System's greatest success came in 1987 with the release of the single "Don't Disturb This Groove," from the album of the same name and the duo achieved their biggest US Pop hit, "Don't Disturb This Groove". The single reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 3 on the Hot 100. The follow-up single, "Nighttime Lover," was also a top 10 R&B hit, peaking at No. 7. The duo came back together in 2000 and are in the process of crafting more projects together that will be releasing in 2020 and 2021. Follow The System- @TheSystemMusic @Thesystemmicmurphy @davidfrankthesystem and www.thesystemmusic.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/vpr-radio/message

TONIGHT on an all new The Steven Knight Show we are back with the latest in MOVIE REVIEWS, SPORTS, FASHION and the BEST INDIE MUSIC out there. Then we welcome Spotify verified R&B/Pop recording artist Roger Ortega. Plus we welcome Rising R&B Singer-Songwriter who recently scored Her First TOP 30 Billboard R&B Single "SITUATIONSHIPS", Miya Guggs. As always we weigh in on all of the HOT TOPICS that everyone is talking about. There is A LOT to discuss. Remember now you can watch us at www.youtube.com/thestevenknightshow. It all goes down, Monday, April 12, 2021 at 10PM EST / 7PM PST. TUNE IN VIA www.TheStevenKnightShow.com #thestevenknightshow #internetradio #onlineradio #radio #sports #fashion #moviereviews #music #artistspotlight #hottopics #stevensplaylist #questionoftheday #atlanta #podcast #newyork #miami #losangeles #newmusic #worldwide #season11 #celebritynews #celebritygossip #currentevents #rogerortega #miyaguggs Other Related Links Click below for more on Roger Ortega: https://www.rogerortega.com/ Click below for more on Miya Guggs: https:/ https://www.instagram.com/miyaguggs Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/thestevenknightshow Click below to check out our new merch!: https://teespring.com/stores/the-steven-knight-show-merch Find Genera's Weekly Sales at GenGenuinely: http://gengenuinely.com/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/thestevenknightshow/support

411. Part 2 of our interview with Hardette Harris on North Louisiana Cooking. Chef Harris is originally from Minden, Louisiana and was recently named by Louisiana Life Magazine as a “2017 Louisianian of the Year.” She also has a recurring column called “Up North” in the Louisiana Kitchen & Culture magazine and is a recipe contributor to LOLA Magazine. As a private chef, Chef Harris has provided a number of services to private individuals, busy corporate VIPs and executives. “My love for home cooking and home cooks is my total inspiration,” said Chef Harris.  She is the owner of  Pure Louisiana Soul and has worked in Houston, San Antonio and now back in her native Louisiana. This week in Louisiana history. April 3, 1793. Pope Pius VI establishes the first Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas. This week in New Orleans history. Ernie K-Doe hit the Billboard R&B charts on April 3, 1961 with his smash hit 'Mother-In-Law'. The tune went on to become #1 on the R&B charts. Born in New Orleans, K-Doe recorded as a member of the group the Blue Diamonds in 1954 before making his first solo recordings the following year. "Mother-in-Law," written by Allen Toussaint, was his first hit, and was #1 on both the Billboard pop and R&B charts. This week in Louisiana. Biking in Louisiana. Thousands of miles of biking trails loop their way across every region of Louisiana. Enjoy off-road bike rides through bayous of the south or explore the forests of the north. Go for a leisurely ride on the Mississippi River or take a ride down south Baton Rouge's River Road. Pack the mountain bikes for a camping weekend. Bring your bike or rent one for a ride along the 31-mile Tammany Trace rail trail. There are nice bike trails in every area of the state. The site has links to off-road trails, good roads for cycling, various routes, and biking events. Postcards from Louisiana. Maude Caillat and the Afrodiziacs at the Pythian Market, New Orleans.Listen on iTunes.Listen on Google Play.Listen on Google Podcasts.Listen on Spotify.Listen on Stitcher.Listen on TuneIn.The Louisiana Anthology Home Page.Like us on Facebook. 

Artists all over the country know that if they want to secure a mega hit, all they have to do is contact super-producer DJ Montay. Montay Humphrey exploded with back to back Top 10 hits in 2008 alone. His most successful claim to fame is producing the number one smash hit "Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain. "Low" stood at the number one spot for 10 weeks on the Billboard singles chart, and was one of the biggest songs of 2008, with 450,000 digital downloads in one week and earning two Grammy nominations. It also helped Montay secure a Producer of the Year nomination at the Ozone Awards as well as several BMI music awards. "Low" has topped every chart including: iTunes, Billboard’s Top Digital download, Billboard Pop singles, Billboard Top R&B/ Rap singles, Billboard Top Rap singles, and countless others. This single features an instantly recognizable bangin’ beat, a signature T-Pain hook and a hot, lyrical flow from Flo Rida. Describing how the song broke nationwide, DJ Montay said, "It started with DJ Khaled in Miami and I was playing it here in the ATL, and it took off from there." By 2006 DJ Montay assembled an impressive list of production credits, but it was the smash hit single "Walk it Out," produced for fellow Oomp Camp member Unk, that solidified him as a household name. The song started on the radio in Atlanta in early 2006 and then eventually took off, peaking at number one on the Billboard R&B singles. It instantly became a club classic that had people running to dance floors all across America. The DJ Montay- produced remix, which featured Andre 3000, Unk, Jim Jones and Big Boi, became an instant hit in its own right as a digital download favorite. Shortly after the breakthrough success, DJ Montay delivered another club banger "2 Step," the follow- up single from Unk's debut album "Beat’n Down Yo Block" distributed by Koch Entertainment. Its booming bass drops and unique melody reached the Billboard Top Five. And as with any other DJ Montay-produced hit, the remix featured appearances from big names like T-Pain, Jim Jones and E-40. Incredibly, "Walk it Out" and "2 Step" have generated over 2 million ringtone purchases combined. Not one to rest, DJ Montay produced "Who the F#k​ is that" by Konvict Music/ Jive Records late artist Dolla featuring Akon & T-Pain. He also produced "I’d Rather" for the Academy Award-winning group Three 6 Mafia and "Creepin" by Chamillionaire featuring Ludacris. His credits also include Ice Cube's "It is What it Is" off of his "I Am the West" album, "Twisted" by Gorilla Zoe featuring Lil Jon and the irresponsibly catchy "Everybody Drunk" off of Ludacris' "Battle of the Sexes" album. In addition he produced the hit record "Foolish" for Atlanta-bred rapper Shawty Lo and songs for the Ying Yang Twins, DJ Kay Slay and Sheek Louch from the Lox. His newer production credits include rapper T.I.’s “Can You Learn” off his “Trouble Man” album featuring R. Kelly, Lil Jon’s “Pop that P**$y” and a track for Memphis rapper 8 Ball. Montay has assembled a production discography that can’t be messed with. His latest hits include “Mainstream Ratchet” and “So We Can Live” by 2 Chainz and “Money Can’t Buy” by Ne-Yo featuring Young Jeezy. He’s also responsible for producing popular songs like “Up Down” (Remix) by T-Pain, “Geronimo” by Clinton Sparks and “Mexico” by Cash Out. DJ Montay has firmly established himself as one of the top producers in the country and his musical resume continues to grow. He’s the product of hard work and –even though he’s already achieved so much- he’s still in the studio six days a week. With his relentless work ethic, you never know whose hit he might produce next."I’m trying to be versatile- not just ATL projects. You never know what to expect –R&B, Pop, Rap, the list goes on. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

This week, Justin & Gurdip dig into a little bit of information on Elvis' attendance at a Juneteenth celebration night at Libertyland in Memphis on June 19, 1956, and then look at his chart placement with "Heartbreak Hotel" and "I Want You I Need You I Love You" among his peers on the R&B best sellers chart from three days earlier, June 16. Gurdip's right at home listening to classics by Little Richard, Clyde McPhatter and Fats Domino, but Justin reveals to Gurdip's dismay that he's not the biggest fan of one of the singles featured on the chart. Then, for Song of the Week, Gurdip keeps the early rock & roll theme going by highlighting Elvis' live cover of Chuck Berry's country-influenced smash "Maybelline." Justin, meanwhile, goes in the complete opposite direction and makes perhaps the strongest case ever made for the oft-maligned "Speedway" cut "He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad," including an in-depth lyrical breakdown of all its references. You will not find a more thorough analysis of this song anywhere else but TCBCast, we can definitely promise you that. Whether that's a good thing remains to be seen. Featured Songs of the Week: Gurdip: Maybelline Justin: He's Your Uncle, Not Your Dad

H-Town is an American R&B vocal group from Houston, Texas, United States. H-Town was founded in 1990 by twin brothers Keven "Dino" Conner (November 18, 1974 - January 28, 2003[1]), Solomon “Shazam" Conner (November 18, 1974) and their longtime friend Darryl "GI" Jackson (April 10, 1974), H-Town is best known for their hits during the early to mid–1990s.Formation[edit]The group grew up together in Houston's Yellowstone neighborhood located on the south side of the city. While attending Jack Yates High School, in 1991, Keven and Solomon Conner formed a band with Darryl Jackson. They were known as "The Gents" and recorded their first album, "It's No Dream," with producer Phil Blackmon. Shazam was chosen as lead singer at the time of recording this album, which featured the ballad "A Time for Us". The album was released locally and was not a huge commercial success. The group continued recording and performed at talent shows and plays when a local producer sent their demo tape to 2 Live Crew rapper and record label executive Luther "Luke" Campbell. After an impromptu audition, Campbell signed the group to his label, Luke Records. Producer Bishop "Stick" Burrell became their producer and positioned Dino as lead singer, seeing his potential and rare voice as the formula for success in the group and built his sound around him. [2] They took the name of the group, "H-Town", from the local nickname for the city of Houston, Texas, in which they grew up.Fever for Da Flavor (1993)[edit]H-Town's debut album Fever for Da Flavor was released on April 15, 1993.[4] The group achieved hit status in the United States with "Knockin' Da Boots", which became H-Town's biggest hit and also their signature song. "Boots" was a #1 hit on the R&B charts,[5] and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.[6] "Lick U Up", the band's follow-up single, peaked at #21. They signed on as a part of the 1993 Coca-Cola Summer Fest tour, which included fellow R&B hit groups Shai, SWV, Jade, Naughty by Nature, Silk and also included multi-platinum rap artist LL Cool J.[7] In 1994, H-Town won the Soul Train Music Award for Best New Artist. They also appeared on the Above the Rim soundtrack with their single "Part Time Lover", which was produced by DeVante Swing of Jodeci. It peaked at #9 on the R&B Charts.Beggin' After Dark (1994), Ladies Edition, Woman's World (1997)[edit]In late 1993, H-Town returned to the studio to record their second album Beggin' After Dark . It was released on November 8, 1994.[8] The most popular single from this album was "Emotions". It became a #11 hit on the Billboard R&B chart and reached #51 on the Hot 100.[6] Other tracks from the album included "Back Seat (Wit No Sheets)", "Full Time", "One Night Gigolo", "Tumble & Rumble", "Buss One", featuring reggae singer Papa Reu, and "Baby I Love Ya" featuring Roger Troutman. By the time H-Town returned to the studio to record Ladies Edition, they had undergone some changes. They recorded a cover version of The Persuaders' "A Thin Line Between Love and Hate" featuring Shirley Murdock for the 1996 film of the same name. The song became H-Town's first Top 40 pop hit in three years, peaking at #37.[6] They then cut ties with Luther Campbell, underwent a spiritual awakening of sorts, and became more aware of women's issues on their third album Ladies Edition, Woman's World.[9] It was released on October 28, 1997.[10] The album's general theme centers on a man's penitence for his past transgressions with his woman, a theme conveyed in songs such as "Don't Sleep on the Female," "Julie Rain" (a sobering account of spousal abuse), and "Jezebel." According to the liner notes, the album was dedicated to Nicole Brown Simpson and "all the women of the world." Twenty national women's telephone helplines were also listed on the back cover. Their one and only single from the album, "They Like It Slow" was released on September 23, 1997, and peaked at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100. Founding member Dino Conner was killed along with his girlfriend in an automobile accident in 2003.[4] In 2004, the band self-released Imitations of Life. The surviving members continued to record and tour into the 2010s, collaborating with Pretty Ricky and Jodeci on a 2010 single "Knockin' Your Heels." See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you grew up as a hip-hop fan in the early 1990s, you probably remember seeing videos for the classic cuts "Blue Cheese" and "One to Grow On" airing on shows like Yo! MTV Raps and Rap City (later Rap City: The Basement) on BET. The group behind those classic tracks were The UMCs, consisting of rapper/producer Haas G and Kool Kim. Their debut album, Fruits of Nature, dropped in Oct. 1991 and was followed up by their sophomore LP, the harder edged Unleashed, in 1994, peaking at #63 on the Billboard R&B charts (it would be a while before hip-hop would get its own categories).Then the duo went their separate ways with Kool Kim retiring from the music business ... And "New York's Original International Lover (NYOIL)" emerging.On this episode of A Tight 45, Kool Kim joins Tabari for a thorough conversation about his music career, the record industry and being black in America as well as talking about how his group's poster ended up on the wall of an iconic 90s sitcom ... And what in the world "Blue Cheese" was really about. Check out this episode and others you may have missed at https://atight45.buzzsprout.com/or wherever you get your podcasts today! For more on Tabari or ask a question, be sure to visit www.tabarimccoy.com or email tabari@tabarimccoy.com.

Artists all over the country know that if they want to secure a mega hit, all they have to do is contact super-producer DJ Montay. Montay Humphrey exploded with back to back Top 10 hits in 2008 alone. His most successful claim to fame is producing the number one smash hit "Low" by Flo Rida featuring T-Pain. "Low" stood at the number one spot for 10 weeks on the Billboard singles chart, and was one of the biggest songs of 2008, with 450,000 digital downloads in one week and earning two Grammy nominations. It also helped Montay secure a Producer of the Year nomination at the Ozone Awards as well as several BMI music awards. "Low" has topped every chart including: iTunes, Billboard's Top Digital download, Billboard Pop singles, Billboard Top R&B/ Rap singles, Billboard Top Rap singles, and countless others. This single features an instantly recognizable bangin' beat, a signature T-Pain hook and a hot, lyrical flow from Flo Rida. Describing how the song broke nationwide, DJ Montay said, "It started with DJ Khaled in Miami and I was playing it here in the ATL, and it took off from there." By 2006 DJ Montay assembled an impressive list of production credits, but it was the smash hit single "Walk it Out," produced for fellow Oomp Camp member Unk, that solidified him as a household name. The song started on the radio in Atlanta in early 2006 and then eventually took off, peaking at number one on the Billboard R&B singles. It instantly became a club classic that had people running to dance floors all across America. The DJ Montay- produced remix, which featured Andre 3000, Unk, Jim Jones and Big Boi, became an instant hit in its own right as a digital download favorite. Shortly after the breakthrough success, DJ Montay delivered another club banger "2 Step," the follow- up single from Unk's debut album "Beat'n Down Yo Block" distributed by Koch Entertainment. Its booming bass drops and unique melody reached the Billboard Top Five. And as with any other DJ Montay-produced hit, the remix featured appearances from big names like T-Pain, Jim Jones and E-40. Incredibly, "Walk it Out" and "2 Step" have generated over 2 million ringtone purchases combined Follow + Like + Subscribe to all & stay updated !!! https://linktr.ee/plutpodcast ____________________________________________ HOST & GUESTS IG / WEBSITE Toya : https://www.instagram.com/toya.veganmomiana/ https://linktr.ee/Veganmami Alex: https://www.instagram.com/alexemillerofficial/ https://www.alexemiller.com Guest: https://instagram.com/djmontay?igshid=1b47ysgag4ayc http://www.djmontay.com/aboutmontay ______________________________________________ MUSIC BY Liasmrainey https://www.instagram.com/doobiedabadgirl/ ______________________________________________ COMPANY AND ALL INQUIRES The DG Company: http://thedgco.com/ Diaz: https://www.instagram.com/presidentdiaz/ © 2020 All right reserved by The DG Company LLC. & PLUT Podcast --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/plut-podcast/support

His song 'Twist & Turn" which features "Drake & Partynextdoor" which is from his latest fixtape debuted at number 50, this is his first track to make it to this particular Billboard chart.

Luh Kel is an 18 year old American recording artist He gained popularity after releasing his first professional single "Wrong" in 2019 which placed at number 37 on the Billboard R&B top 100. @lifewluhkel

Professor Ladhar's class returns after a long summer vacation for a look at the chart where Elvis' last Top 10 R&B hit peaked. The Beatles haven't quiet yet came to the US, Motown is beginning to take hold, and things are about the change... but for the moment, Elvis is in good company alongside all-time great female vocalists like Doris Troy and Martha & the Vandellas, as well as icons such as Brook Benton and Marvin Gaye. Then, for Song of the Week, Gurdip continues his R&B kick with the 1960 blues number "Like A Baby," while Justin highlights "And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind", the only studio cut Elvis made written by the "Jewish Elvis" himself, Neil Diamond! Featured Songs of the Week: Gurdip: Like A Baby Justin: And The Grass Won't Pay No Mind

Grammy® Honoree, Hollywood Walk of Fame Let's Celebrate a Golden Anniversary of Kool & The Gang! Ronald Nathan Bell (November 1, 1951 – September 9, 2020), Kool & the Gang, officially launched in 1969, after performing for five years under various band titles, has influenced the music of three generations and the band has become true recording industry legends. Thanks to iconic songs like Celebration, Cherish, Jungle Boogie, Summer Madness and Open Sesame, they’ve earned two Grammy Awards, seven American Music Awards, 25 Top Ten R&B hits, nine Top Ten Pop hits and 31 gold and platinum albums. From Nairobi to Newark, Kool & the Gang has performed continuously longer than any R&B group in history and their bulletproof funk and jazzy arrangements have also made them the most sampled R&B band of all time. A reviewer recently called their performance “a 24-karat show” and every year, even after a half-century on the road, yields a non-stop schedule of shows across the globe. The heavily-in-demand band has continued to tour the world, appearing most recently alongside Kid Rock, Dave Matthews Band, Elton John and The Roots and performing on a recent, 50-city tour with rock legends Van Halen. In 1964, Ronald Bell and his brother, Robert “Kool” Bell, joined Jersey City neighborhood friends Robert “Spike” Mickens, Dennis “Dee Tee” Thomas, Ricky Westfield, George Brown, and Charles Smith to create a unique musical blend of jazz, soul and funk. At first calling themselves the Jazziacs, the band went through various names – The New Dimensions, The Soul Town Band, Kool & the Flames – before settling on their famous moniker. Over the next several years they solidified their musical chemistry on the rough-and-tumble East Coast music scene supporting acts like Bill Cosby, Ritchie Havens and Richard Pryor. Their self-titled 1969 debut album introduced their signature instrumental sound and fierce horn arrangements and spawned their first Billboard R&B charted single, Kool & the Gang. In 1969, Kool & the Gang released their self-titled debut album/ It was the introduction to a theme, music is the message, that Kool & the Gang stands by today. The instrumental album was an expression of their deep love of music. It was also an introduction to their signature sound and the fierce horn arrangements created by Khalis, Dee Tee, and Spike. Their debut album spawned their first Billboard R&B charted single Kool & the Gang and later Let the Music Take Your Mind. In 1970, their audacious sophomore set Live at the Sex Machine peaked at #6 on Billboard’s R&B chart and yielded three hit singles: Funky Man, Who’s Gonna Take the Weight, and I Want to Take You Higher. Next came The Best Of Kool & the Gang Featuring The Penguin, Kool & the Gang Live at PJ’S, Music Is The Message, and Good Times, all of which helped solidify a sound that wowed not only fans but such contemporaries as James Brown and Nina Simone. The band’s stellar reputation grew with each album, but 1973’s gold disc Wild & Peaceful took Kool & the Gang to another level (#6 R&B, #33 Pop), spurred by the immortal party anthems Funky Stuff, Hollywood Swinging and the platinum smash Jungle Boogie. Hits like Higher Plane (#1 R&B), the classic Summer Madness (featured on the Grammy-winning movie soundtrack Rocky) and LPs Spirit of the Boogie, Love & Understanding and Open Sesame followed. The latter’s title track was featured on the top-selling movie soundtrack of all time, Saturday Night Fever, earning the group their second Grammy. In 1979, Kool & the Gang unveiled a smooth new sound with Ladies Night. Produced by the legendary Pop/Jazz musician Eumir Deodato, it became their first platinum album. The #1 R&B title track reached #8 at Pop. It was followed by Too Hot (#3 R&B, #5 Pop). The 80’s would see them dominate the mainstream, starting with the double platinum-selling album Celebrate (driven by the international monster hit Celebration, which spent six weeks atop the R&B chart and became a #1 Pop single). Celebration, which played as the American hostages returned from Iran, remains de rigueur at joyous occasions worldwide. The smashes Get Down On It, Take My Heart, Let’s Go Dancing, Joanna, Tonight, Misled, the #1 R&B, #2 Pop giant Cherish and the #1 R&B anthem Fresh (these last three from the multi- platinum LP Emergency) solidified the group’s international stardom. Kool & the Gang landed global commercial endorsements, supported countless charitable causes and were the only American group to participate in Band Aid’s 1984 Do They Know It’s Christmas project for famine victims in Africa. With the explosion of hip-hop in the 90’s, Kool & the Gang’s incredible catalog of grooves made them DJ favorites. They were second only to R&B icon James Brown as sources of rap music samples. Today, the group enjoys global fame and recognition and a following that spans generations due in part to the groups widely sampled catalogue. Kool & the Gang’s drum beats, bass, guitar and signature horn lines lace the tracks of numerous artists including the Beastie Boys, Jay-Z, Madonna, Janet Jackson, Cypress Hill, and P. Diddy. Kool & the Gang is the most sampled band in hip-hop by far. Their music is also featured on the soundtracks for Rocky, Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction, Wreck-It Ralph and countless others. In 2014, they were honored with a BET Soul Train Lifetime Achievement Award and in October 2015, in the town they sing about in one of their earliest hits, “Hollywood Swinging,” Kool & the Gang was honored to take their place as American musical icons with a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2016, they released a single, "Sexy (Where’d You Get Yours),” which rose to #15 on the Billboard Adult R& B chart. The song signifies a modernization of Kool & the Gang’s unmistakable sound, down to the dance floor-tailored bass grooves and the perfectly timed horns. It was their first airplay chart hit in a decade. All Rights Reserved © 2020 BuildingAbundantSuccess!! Join Me on ~ iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS' Spot Me on Spotify ~ https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23ba

GRAMMY® winner Club Nouveau,Timex Social Club GRAMMY® Award winning Jay King/Club Nouveau's music was featured in the 2019 #1 Hit Movie "US" by Director Jordan Peele! This week, I look at how a brand can stay relevant decade after decade. As a veteran mogul Jay King brings as much humility to the field as he does what has been called his genius. With three decades of continuous achievements in music, management, film/TV/radio, consulting and publishing; King has made an indelible impression. He claims Northern California in general as his hometown due to a nomadic youth spent between many of the Bay Area’s cities; as well as Alaska for birthing his career. There was a deep musical undercurrent added to his early years by a clan which boasted a number of ministers, extending from his great-grandfather through a number of cousins, who all played instruments as well. His great uncle, Saunders King, a respected jazz/blues guitarist, offered the West Coast the first family hit in the 1940’s—‘The S.K. Blues’—adding to the musical backdrop of King’s childhood. Jay King broadened his own talent when he took up the trumpet in his freshman year of high school and when Popping and Breaking became popular; dance soon opened doors to his subsequent career in music. As his music and connections continued to develop, he found himself writing songs for Con Funk Shun whose members, Michael Cooper and Felton Pilate, encouraged King against the detractors who at the time didn’t like his sound. In 1986, King starting the independent record label JAY Records to release the Timex Social Club hit ‘Rumors’ and ushered in the biggest selling single of 1986 (3.5 million copies) and becoming the #1 R&B single on the Billboard Charts. With a Top 10 single on the Billboard Pop charts for over 56 weeks, King watched his life change as his music became an unprecedented hit. What he’d produced was history-making, as nobody had before taken an R&B song from an indie label to such heights. Although having independently produced, pressed and marketed his own music King was without the money to compete at radio plays and had to be creative with promoting. “There were challenges. You couldn’t reach out to stores, and social media didn’t exist then so you couldn’t let people know with a click of a button that you had something out.You had to get out and hustle. People were making fun of me and laughing because I was out hustling records.” Bypassing traditional methods, King utilized Macola Records because of its position as an indie manufacturer with no association to a major label. Such moves from a 24 year old entrepreneur made the year 1986 even more memorable, as he quickly followed up with a label/production deal with Warner Brother Records and his King Jay Records label, subsequently releasing the first Club Nouveau single ‘Jealousy’ and the album, ‘Life, Love & Pain’. After ‘Jealousy’ went to #8 on the Billboard R&B charts in September of 1986, followed by ‘Situation #9’ (#4 Billboard R&B charts), 1987 came in with an even bigger bang when ‘Lean On Me’ was released in February and became #1 Billboard Pop/#2 Billboard R&B platinum single, winning a Grammy for R&B Song of The Year. Club Nouveau's music is in heavy demand commercially in movies and is sampled in many of today's artists hitmakers like Ashanti, Chris Brown and many more. The group is STILL on the scene, performing hundreds of LIVE concert a year & recording NEW music! All Rights Reserved © 2020 BuildingAbundantSuccess!! Join Me on ~ iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23ba

Tamar Estine Braxton[3] (born March 17, 1977)[4] is an American singer, actress, and television personality.Braxton began her career in 1990 as a founding member of The Braxtons, an R&B singing group formed with her sisters. The Braxtons released their debut album, So Many Ways, as a trio in 1996, and disbanded shortly afterward. In 2000, she released her debut self-titled album through DreamWorks Records. Following a thirteen-year break, Braxton released her second studio album, Love and War (2013), through Epic Records, which reached the number two position on the Billboard 200 chart.[5] She later released her fourth and fifth albums, Calling All Lovers (2015) and Bluebird of Happiness (2017), respectively. Braxton has won a BET Award and three Soul Train Music Awards throughout her career.[6][7][8][9] She has also been nominated for four Grammy Awards.Since 2011, Braxton has starred in the We TV reality television series Braxton Family Values alongside her mother and sisters. She also served as a co-host of the Fox Broadcasting Company syndicated daytime talk show The Real from 2013 until 2016. She has received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations for her work on The Real.[10][11] In 2019, she was the winner of the second season of Celebrity Big Brother. 1977–1999: Early life and career beginnings[edit]Tamar Estine Braxton was born to Michael and Evelyn Braxton in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Braxton started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. She and her sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, and Trina, signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life". "Good Life" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records.[citation needed]In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC.[12][13] After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. She and her sisters Traci, Towanda, and Trina were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album.[citation needed]In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him to take the group to Atlantic also.[13][14] It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor.[15] However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time.[16]In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[17] At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard Magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards.[18] So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart.[19] Braxton and her fellow group members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998.[20]2000–2009: Tamar and label troubles[edit]Later, Braxton met Christopher "Tricky" Stewart. She recorded her solo debut album, Ridiculous, so-named for the many different musical styles on the album.[21] The album spawned two buzz singles ("Let Him Go" and "Just Cuz") in hopes of garnering attention from the public eye; however, when the songs failed to gain impact on urban radio outlets, the album was pushed back and canceled.[22] That same year, Braxton was featured on Sole's, "4 The Love of You." Instead of shelving the album, Dreamworks Records abandoned 3 old tracks, added new ones, and renamed it Tamar. The lead single "Get None" was produced by Jermaine "J.D." Dupri and also featured rap verses from him as well as former Jay-Z protégée Amil. The song also included uncredited background vocals and songwriting by R&B singer Mýa. As soon as the song began to pick up airplay, Braxton announced the album would be released in early 2000, alongside a second single, "If You Don't Wanna Love Me". The album featured production from Missy Elliott, Tim & Bob, and Tricky Stewart, but still peaked at number 127 on the Billboard 200. When the album's second single failed to gain significant radio airplay, her label dropped her from their roster.In 2001, Braxton's previously unreleased song "Try Me" appeared on the soundtrack album for the film Kingdom Come. She also began to work alongside her sister Toni Braxton in a number of songs and music video cameos, including the video for "He Wasn't Man Enough." She performed, co-wrote and sang background vocals on songs for Toni's albums, The Heat (2000), Snowflakes (2001), More than a Woman (2002), Libra (2005) and Pulse (2010). When her sister launched her Las Vegas revue Toni Braxton: Revealed, Braxton again sang backup until she was replaced by singer Sparkle.[citation needed]By 2004, Braxton was signed to Tommy Mottola's reactivated Casablanca Records and began work on her second album. A "Grindin'"-influenced single, "I'm Leaving," was released with a guest appearance from Bump J. alongside promotional remixes featuring Sheek Louch, Styles P. and Ali Vegas.2010–2013: Television debut and Love and War[edit]Braxton at the 2012 Eye on Black: Salute to DirectorsIn 2010, Braxton signed to Universal Records, where she released a single "The Heart In Me" in July of that year which was included on the Adidas 2: The Music compilation. Her momentum with Universal would not rise to a satisfactory level to launch a second album. In January 2010, We TV confirmed that it had signed Braxton and her mother and sisters for a reality television series titled Braxton Family Values. The show premiered on April 12, 2011.[23] On December 15, 2011, it was confirmed that Braxton and her husband Vincent would star in their own reality series centered on her solo career and their married life. In November 2011, Braxton performed "Love Overboard" at the 2011 Soul Train Awards for Lifetime Achievement recipient Gladys Knight.[24] In September 2012, news broke that Braxton had inked a fresh recording contract with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records founded by Vincent.[25] Later that month, her television show Tamar & Vince premiered on We TV.Braxton was the featured model for the "Front Row Couture" collection during the "ELLE/Style360" NYC Fashion Week event.[26] Braxton was co-host on Tameka Cottle's late night talk show Tiny Tonight on VH1.[27] Basketball Wives star Tami Roman became a co-host after Braxton. Later Braxton hosted, The Culturelist, a show on BET's sister channel Centric. Former Destiny's Child member LeToya Luckett became the host after her. Braxton announced she was pregnant with her first child on March 13, 2013, during an interview on Good Morning America promoting the new season of Braxton Family Values. She gave birth to a son, Logan Vincent Herbert, on June 6, 2013.In March 2013, it was revealed that Braxton had signed to Epic Records ahead of the release of her second album, Love and War.[28] The album's lead single, the title track, was released on December 6, 2012. The song was a commercial success, spending 9 weeks at #1 on the Adult R&B Songs chart.[29] Although the single reached number one on the US iTunes chart,[30] it peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[31][32] Braxton released "The One" as the second single from Love and War on May 7, 2013; it peaked at number 34 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[32] The third single, "All the Way Home," was released August 21, 2013; it peaked at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[31][32] The song was followed by the release of Love and War on September 3, 2013.[33] The album was a commercial success in the United States, selling 114,000 copies in its opening week, and debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[34] Outside the US, it debuted at number 34 on the UK R&B Albums Chart.[35]In 2013, Braxton became a co-host of the syndicated daytime talk show The Real alongside Adrienne Bailon, Loni Love, Jeannie Mai, and Tamera Mowry, which premiered on July 15, 2013.[36] The second season of Tamar & Vince premiered on September 5, 2013. The second season is centered on the preparation and birth of the couple's baby, and her launch of Love and War. Braxton's special Listen Up: Tamar Braxton premiered on Centric in September 2013. Braxton's first Christmas album, Winter Loversland, was released on November 11, 2013; it debuted at number 43 on the Billboard 200 with 8,000 copies sold in its first week.[5] In December 2013, Braxton received three nominations for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards; Best Urban Contemporary Album for Love and War, and Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for its title track.[37]2014–2018: Studio albums and Dancing with the Stars[edit]On February 25, 2014, the remix of Robin Thicke's single "For the Rest of My Life" which features Braxton, was released as a digital single.[38] Season 3 of Tamar & Vince premiered in October 2014, and it consisted of 10 episodes just like the previous seasons. On October 6, Braxton's new single "Let Me Know" featuring rapper Future peaked at #2 on the Billboard Trending 140 chart, less than an hour after its premiere on Braxton's official SoundCloud account and eventually reached #1 by 12:00 AM October 7.[39] Billboard.com gave the song 4 out of 5 stars in its review of "The Best and Worst Singles of the Week" for the second week of October.[40] At the same time, Braxton, and sisters Toni and Trina guest starred on their sister Traci's music video "Last Call".[41]On May 27, 2015, the single "If I Don't Have You" was released.[42] The song peaked at number 6 on the US Adult R&B Songs chart.[43] Braxton's new album, Calling All Lovers, was released on October 2, 2015.[44] The album peaked at number two on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.[32] On September 2, 2015, Braxton was revealed as one of the celebrities who would be competing on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with reigning champion, Valentin Chmerkovskiy.[45] On November 11, Braxton revealed that she would have to withdraw from the competition due to health problems. Braxton and Chmerkovskiy finished in fifth place overall.[46]In October 2015, the group The Braxtons, including all five Braxton sisters, released a holiday album titled Braxton Family Christmas.[47][48] On November 21, Braxton Family Christmas debuted at number 27 on the US Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums,[49] number 10 on the US R&B Chart and number 12 on US Top Holiday Albums on November 21, 2015.[50][51] The album charted at number 4 on the US Heatseekers Albums on December 12, 2015.[52] On December 7, 2015, Braxton received one Grammy nomination for "If I Don't Have You" at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards; Best R&B Performance from her latest album titled Calling All Lovers.[53]In May 2016, Braxton departed The Real.[54] The following month, it was announced on The Steve Harvey Morning Show that Steve Harvey had signed Braxton to produce her own talk show and television series with East 112th Street Productions.[55] In April 2017, it was announced that Braxton left Epic Records to sign with Entertainment One for a $1 million deal with the label.[56] On April 27, 2017, Braxton released "My Man" from her fifth album, Bluebird of Happiness.[57][58] The song peaked at number three on the US Adult R&B Songs Billboard.[59] Bluebird of Happiness was released on September 29, 2017, through Logan Land Records and Entertainment One,[60][61] with "Blind" released as its second single.[62][63] The album reached the top of the Billboard Independent chart[64][32][65][66]On March 23, 2018, Braxton and sister Towanda guest starred on their sister Toni's music video "Long as I Live".[67] In the same year, she appeared on Hip Hop Squares.[68] On March 28, 2018, Braxton was featured on the Todrick Hall title "National Anthem", from his album Forbidden.[69][70] On October 5, Braxton co-starred in the stage play Redemption of a Dogg opposite Snoop Dogg.[71] In Parallel, she was featured on the song "Lions And Tigers And Bears", from the Todrick Hall musical Straight Outta Oz.[72][73]2019–present: Television ventures[edit]On January 13, 2019, it was confirmed that she would appear as a contestant in the second season of the American reality television series Celebrity Big Brother.[74][75] The show premiered on CBS on January 21, 2019 and concluded on February 13, 2019.[76][77] On February 13 she made Big Brother history as she became the second unanimous winner with a vote of 9-0.[78][79] Braxton's win made history becoming the first African-American to ever win a season of Big Brother in the United States.[80] In Big Brother tradition, Braxton appeared on the American television soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful, portraying a character named Chef Chambre.[81][82] She taped her episode on February 20, 2019. The episode aired on Friday, March 29, 2019.[83]Braxton starred in the film True To The Game 2 alongside Vivica A. Fox, which premiered on April 10, 2020.In support of the film, she released a new song titled "Crazy Kind of Love", produced by Hitmaka,[85] which was officially released on March 20, 2020 Braxton is also set to star in the upcoming film GangLand, directed by Jean-Claude La Marre] In April 2020, it was announced that Braxton would be hosting a reality television series for VH1 entitled To Catch A Beautician] the series premiered in June] She will also star in the We TV Docuseries Tamar Braxton: Get Ya Life!, which is set to premiere on July 30 #PrayersUpTamar See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Anthony Cornelius Hamilton (born January 28, 1971 is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer who rose to fame with his platinum-selling second studio album Comin' from Where I'm From (2003), which featured the title track single "Comin' from Where I'm From" and the follow-up "Charlene". Nominated for 17 Grammy Awards, he is also known for the song "Freedom" from the soundtrack album of Django Unchained co-written and sung as a duo with indie soul singer Elayna Boynton. Career-Hamilton started singing in his church's choir at age 10. He attended South Mecklenburg High School where he sang in their award-winning choir under the direction of Mark Setzer. In 1992, he met producer Mark Sparks who encouraged Hamilton to leave Charlotte and head to New York City where he signed with Andre Harrell's Uptown Records. Hamilton co-wrote the 1999 hit "U Know What's Up" for singer Donell Jones.] In 2000, he joined soul singer D'Angelo's international tour in promotion of the Voodoo album, on which he was a backup singer. On March 25, 2016, he released his ninth studio album What I'm Feelin' featuring guitarists Gary Clark, Jr. and Vince Gill with tracks produced by Mark Batson, Salaam Remi, and James Poyser. After one week, the project ranked number two on the Billboard R&B chart, representing his highest career debut. Hamilton works with the background singers the HamilTones,] often performing soul renditions of hip hop tracks.]Roots]Hamilton was first introduced to mainstream audiences with his singing of the chorus of Nappy Roots 2002 single "Po' Folks" which earned a Grammy Award nomination for "Best Rap/Sung Collaboration" in 2003.[8] "Po' Folks" is the second single from the multi-platinum Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz album] Hamilton followed up with three collaborations on Nappy Roots next Atlantic Records release Wooden Leather with "Sick & Tired", "Push On", "Organic" and then one feature on The Humdinger on the single "Down N' Out".[10][11] Nappy Roots and Hamilton have a song together called "Bluegrass Stain'd" with Mark Ronson that was released through Elektra Records.2004 to present[edit]Hamilton was featured on Jadakiss' 2004 hit "Why" (which was nominated for the "Best Rap/Song Collaboration" Grammy in 2005) and two of 2Pac's remixed songs. Hamilton contributed to 2002's "Thugz Mansion" (7" remix) and 2006's "Dear Mama" (Frank Nitty Remix). Hamilton's first compilation album, Soulife, was composed of songs recorded during the early part of his career. These previous works were released in June 2005. Ain't Nobody Worryin', his gold-selling third studio album, was released on December 13, 2005.Hamilton was featured on a track from The RH Factor's 2003 album Hard Groove called "Kwah/Home". He appeared on Angie Stone's "Stay For A While" in 2004. He made a guest appearance on blues singer-guitarist Buddy Guy's 2005 album Bring 'Em In, contributing vocals to a cover version of Bob Dylan's 1969 "Lay Lady Lay," which featured Robert Randolph.At the 2006 BET Awards, Hamilton won the BET J "Cool Like That" Award. Comedian Dave Chappelle had Hamilton as a musical guest on his show Chappelle's Show in episode 6, Season 2 that premiered on Comedy Central. He made a guest appearance on the UPN show All of Us in Season 2. Hamilton made a cameo as a soul singer in the film American Gangster, to whose soundtrack he contributed. During the 2008 BET Awards, Hamilton performed Al Green's "Tired of Being Alone" during a tribute to Green's career. Later in 2008, he was featured on The Recession the certified Gold selling album by Young Jeezy.]In July 2011, Jill Scott released her hit single "So In Love" featuring Hamilton. The track spent 19 weeks at the number one spot on the Urban AC charts.2012 found Hamilton on two successful Def Jam releases: Big K.R.I.T.'s Live from the Underground and Life Is Good by Nas, which debuted at #1 on Billboard 200. Later on in 2012 Hamilton was featured on the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained in the track "Freedom" in a duo with indie soul singer Elayna Boynton. British DJ Ben Pearce sampled vocals from Hamilton's song, "Cornbread, Fish & Collard Greens" in his 2013 song, "What I Might Do". In 2015, Hamilton made a guest appearance on the song "That One", the first single from Teedra Moses' second album Cognac & Conversation.Further demonstrating his diversity, Hamilton made a cameo appearance on the hit Fox show, EMPIRE, where he performed "Point of It All" as part of main character Luscious Lyon's proposal to his girlfriend.] The episode aired February 4, 2015.On February 24, 2016, Hamilton performed at the last "In Performance at the White House" hosted by President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle as part of a tribute to iconic singer Ray Charles. On March 25, he released his 9th studio album "What I'm Feelin", which he describes as an "emotional" cleanse reflecting on some of the hurdles he has faced. Hamilton partnered with Cracker Barrel Old Country Store to release a deluxe version of the album sold online and in stores across the country. On March 28, 2016 Hamilton performed on NPR's critically acclaimed Tiny Desk Concerts where he performed his new single "Amen," "Best of Me," "Cool," and "Charlene." ] Chris Brown recruited Hamilton to perform on the "Legends" remix to his hit single "Back to Sleep," which was released on April 10, 2016. On April 21st, Hamilton embarked on a nationwide tour with Fantasia.Hamilton was featured on the track "Carnival" from virtual band Gorillaz' 2017 album Humanz.On May 15, 2020, Hamilton released his single "Back Together" featuring the late Rick James via his new imprint My Music Box, in partnership with BMG. The song was co-written by Hamilton and Ed D. Kane, and produced by 9th Wonder. It is the first single off his new album that will release in summer 2020. https://www.instagram.com/anthonyhamiltonofficial/ Twitter @HamiltonAnthony See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Call Me Ace is an independent hip hop artist, millennial professional and disruptor who challenges the status quo. His corporate résumé is one thing – e.g. Ivy League grad, MBA from Top 10 business school, work experience at top Fortune 500 companies. His music résumé is another – e.g. in 2019, his debut album, Airplane Mode, debuting #3 on the iTunes Top 40 US Hip-Hop Album Chart as well as #50 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Album Sales chart. We talked to Ace about his history with tech, getting employed in Silicon Valley and how to balance a corporate rap career. Follow Ace on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/callmecacelegit Follow Dorian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doriangroup82 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/82pointsofview/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/82pointsofview/support

Recording artist and songwriter, born and Raised in the Westwood area of South Memphis, TN. is today's contemporary urban/R&B “It Girl”. PORCELAN couldn’t help but ultimately pursue her musical aspirations, having immediately absorbed her historic musical surroundings from a young age while growing up in a family of instinctively musical people. “I don’t really remember it being anything I heard on the radio; I really m remember it being my family, like my Mom singing,” recalls the breakout songstress, when asked about the source of her first musical impression. “My parents are singers and musicians, so at family reunions it was really like `a thing'. Spurred by the encouragement of a fifth grade teacher who heard her voice early on, along with long car rides with her Mom listening and singing along to the likes of Bobby Womack, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, school-aged PORCELAN found herself auditioning and performing for school graduation ceremonies which soon thereafter uncovered another musical gift…writing. “I started writing poetry I middle-school and realized I was good at it,” PORCELAN recounts. In keeping with that momentum, PORCELAN focused on building her reputation in music circles, doing everything from appearing on BET’s 106th & Park, collaborating on material with super-producer Timbaland, opening for Tank and gaining invaluable performance experience via a three-month tour of China with a cover band. “Doing show bands is totally different from being an original artist, so I had to learn how to entertain in that realm. Even though I was new to it, I started being around a lot of seasoned people who showed me the ropes." PORCELAN soon found herself in the studio with David Porter and fellow Made In Memphis songwriters/producers Hamilton Hardin and DeNarious Holmes recording her smoothed-out adult R&B debut single “The Real Thing Don’t Change” (along with “The One” and “Can You Hear Me Now”), which soon thereafter facilitated notable and buzz-worthy live bookings at SXSW (South By Southwest) and Essence music festivals. Once audience members and radio programmers increasingly grew aware of her simultaneously promoted EP, response to her second single release – the infectiously sumptuous beat ballad, “Lois Lane” – PORCELAN found her dream unfolding as she made her way up the Billboard R&B chart straight into the Top 15. While newfound fans await the forthcoming debut album, "Mood Ring", scheduled to be released later this spring, a steady-on-her-grind PORCELAN delivered her first Christmas album, "Joyful Hearts: A Season of Love", this past Holiday season. A most contemporary-sounding Christmas set which further displayed her knack for composing vibrantly soulful songs amidst thoroughly-pleasing, contemporary production. CONNECT WITH PORCELAN: Twitter: @PorcelanMusic Instagram: @PorcelanMusic Facebook: /PorcelanMusic --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Kenny Lattimore(born April 10, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter. Lattimore first developed his interest for music in the high school band program at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Maryland. He often acknowledges Dr. Barbara Baker for setting him on his current path. Lattimore spoke at the 2005 Eleanor Roosevelt High School Graduation.[1] He is an alumnus of Howard University in Washington, D.C.Career[edit]1988-1991: Maniquin[edit]A stint as session vocalist for R&B group Maniquin led to an official place in the group as lead singer.[2] D'Extra Wiley of the 1990s R&B group II D Extreme was also a member of Maniquin, briefly before signing to MCA Records. The group released a lone self-titled album for Epic Records in 1989. Its lead single "I Wanna Ride" was an answer to the hit single "Mercedes Boy" by Pebbles in both sound and lyric. Both artists' singles were produced and co-written by Charlie Wilson of Gap Band fame.[3] Lattimore soon left Maniquin to pursue a solo career, and the group subsequently disbanded.[4]1992-1999: Kenny Lattimore and From the Soul of Man[edit]His own debut album Kenny Lattimore was released on Columbia Records in 1996.[2] That set included a pair of Top 20 hits: "Never Too Busy" and the Grammy-nominated "For You",[2] written by high school friend Kenny Lerum. The album earned Lattimore a win for Best New Artist at the NAACP Image Awards in 1996,[5] and eventually achieved Gold sales status.He followed up his debut with From the Soul of Man, another critically acclaimed set of classically styled soul music in 1998,[2] yielding the hits "Days Like This" and "If I Lose My Woman" along with a standout cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."2000-2006: Arista Records and Weekend[edit]After a short hiatus, the singer re-emerged on Arista Records when, then president Clive Davis signed him to a new contract.[2] He eventually released a more contemporary R&B album, 2001's Weekend under L.A. Reid's regime as Davis was only allowed to take a small defined number of artists to his next venture, J Records. The title track and first single was anchored by a sample of Blondie's "Rapture" and became a radio favorite on both sides of the Atlantic.[6] Davis may have had a different vision for his career, but, he ended up recording three albums for Arista Records as Reid also had a vision that included a modern-day version of a classic soul duo with his new bride, the Gold level artist, Chante Moore whom he recorded two duet albums that were both critically and commercially acclaimed. In keeping with the "lover man" image that came to the fore with the hits that launched his career, Lattimore is known for his dramatic stage shows, vocal agility, and romantic ambiance. The New York Times called him as a "modern soul man" on stage.[7] The singer has long established in interviews his personal mission to show the "strong, but sensitive and caring side of Black men."[8]In 2003, Lattimore and his then-wife Chante Moore released a duet album entitled Things That Lovers Do consisting of classic soul songs from the 1970s and 1980s plus two new original songs. The standout singles were the smooth and contemporary "Loveable (From Your Head to Your Toes)" and a cover of René & Angela's "You Don't Have To Cry". Lattimore and Moore continued promoting the album with a successful touring stage show.Following Things That Lovers Do, Lattimore released another collaborative album with Moore. The duo released their second collaborative album entitled Uncovered/Covered (2006). The album peaked at number-ten on the Billboard R&B Charts and number-two on the Billboard Gospel charts. The duo's cover version of "You're All I Need to Get By" served as the theme song for the BET reality series The Family Crews.2008-present: Recent activities[edit]In 2008, Lattimore released a cover album with Verve Records entitled Timeless on September 9, 2008. The lead single "You Are My Starship" was originally performed by Norman Connor featuring Michael Henderson.[9] Lattimore was also featured on the uptempo dance song "Another Love" by Brian Culbertson.Lattimore began his own record company SincereSoul Records in 2012. He released his album Back 2 Cool on January 22, 2013.[10] The album's first single "Find a Way" produced by Ivan "Orthodox" Barias & Carvin "Ransum" Higgins hit radio on Valentine's Day 2012. The second single "Back 2 Cool" featured Kelly Price. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tamar Estine Braxton[3] (born March 17, 1977)[4] is an American singer, actress, and television personality.Braxton began her career in 1990 as a founding member of The Braxtons, an R&B singing group formed with her sisters. The Braxtons released their debut album, So Many Ways, as a trio in 1996, and disbanded shortly afterward. In 2000, Braxton was briefly signed with DreamWorks Records and released her debut self-titled album, but was dropped by the label following the album's poor commercial performance.[5] Braxton reunited with her sisters for the WE TV reality series Braxton Family Values (2011–present).[6][7]Following a thirteen-year break, Braxton released her second studio album, Love and War (2013), through Epic Records.[8] The record proved to be a commercial success, receiving 3 Grammy Award nominations, including Best Contemporary Album. Braxton's third album, Calling All Lovers (2015), achieved similar success and spawned the Grammy-nominated single "If I Don't Have You". Her fourth album, Bluebird of Happiness (2017), topped the Billboard Independent chart.[9][9][10][11] She has received four Grammy Award nominations. Braxton also served as a co-host of the Fox Broadcasting Company's talk show The Real from 2013 until 2016.[12][13][14] In 2019, she was the winner of the second season of Celebrity Big Brother, becoming the first African American to ever win Big Brother in the United States.[15]Braxton has won four awards from 15 nominations, including one BET Award and three Soul Train Music Awards. Tamar Estine Braxton was born to Michael and Evelyn Braxton in Severn, Maryland on March 17, 1977. The youngest of the Braxtons' six children, Tamar started singing as a toddler. The Braxton children would eventually enter in their church choir, where their father Michael Braxton was a pastor. Sisters Toni, Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar Braxton signed their first record deal with Arista Records in 1989. In 1990, they released their first single, "Good Life". "Good Life" was unsuccessful only peaking at No. 79 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles chart. At the time of the single's release, the members' age differences created a problem with marketing. Subsequently, The Braxtons were dropped from Arista Records.[citation needed]In 1991, during a showcase with L.A. Reid and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who were in the process of forming LaFace Records, Toni Braxton, minus her four sisters, was chosen and signed as the label's first female solo artist. At the time, the remaining members were told that LaFace was not looking for another girl group since it had just signed TLC.[22][23] After Toni's departure from the group, the remaining Braxtons members became backup singers for Toni's first tour, music videos, and promotional appearances. Traci, Towanda, Trina, and Tamar were featured in the music video for Toni Braxton's third single, "Seven Whole Days", from her self-titled debut album.[citation needed]In 1993, LaFace Records A&R Vice President, Bryant Reid, signed The Braxtons to LaFace. However, the group never released an album or single for the label. When Reid moved on to work for Atlantic Records, he convinced executives at LaFace to allow him to take the group to Atlantic also.[23][24] It was reported in Vibe magazine that in 1995, Traci Braxton had left the group to pursue a career as a youth counselor.[25] However, it was not confirmed until a 2011 promotional appearance on The Mo'Nique Show, that Traci was not allowed to sign with Atlantic because of her pregnancy at the time.[26]In 1996, Tamar, Trina, and Towanda returned with a new album entitled So Many Ways, which peaked at No. 26 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[27] At the time of its release, Reid told Billboard Magazine, "I had a vision for them then that was about young sophistication with sex appeal." The trio also performed a remixed version of "So Many Ways" with rapper Jay-Z on September 9, 1996 at the Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards.[28] So Many Ways went on to peak at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart.[29] Braxton and her fellow The Braxtons members served as the opening act for Toni Braxton on the European Leg of her Secrets Tour in 1997. The Braxtons decided to part ways as a group after lead singer Tamar Braxton left to pursue a solo career with DreamWorks Records in 1998. In 2010, Braxton signed to Universal Records, where she released a single "The Heart In Me" in July of that year which was included on the Adidas 2: The Music compilation. Her momentum with Universal would not rise to a satisfactory level to launch a second album. In January 2010, WE tv confirmed that it had signed Braxton and her mother and sisters for a reality series, Braxton Family Values. The show debuted April 12, 2011.[37] On December 15, 2011, it was confirmed that Braxton and her husband Vincent would star in their own reality series centered on her solo career and their married life. In November 2011, Braxton performed "Love Overboard" at the 2011 Soul Train Awards for Lifetime Achievement recipient Gladys Knight.[38] In September 2012, news broke that Braxton had inked a fresh recording contract with Streamline Records, an imprint of Interscope Records founded by Vincent.[39] Later that month, her television show Tamar & Vince premiered on WE tv. The first season features multiple scenes of Tamar recording her second album.Tamar was the featured model for the "Front Row Couture" collection during the "ELLE/Style360" NYC Fashion Week event.[40] Tamar was co-host on Tameka Cottle's late night talk show Tiny Tonight on VH1.[41] Basketball Wives star Tami Roman became a co-host after Braxton. Later Braxton hosted, The Culturelist, a show on BET's sister channel Centric. Former Destiny's Child member LeToya Luckett became the host after her. Braxton announced she was pregnant with her first child on March 13, 2013, during an interview on Good Morning America promoting the new season of Braxton Family Values. She gave birth to a son, Logan Vincent Herbert, on June 6, 2013.In March 2013, it was revealed that Braxton had signed to Epic Records ahead of the release of her second album, Love and War.[42] The album's lead single, the title track, was released on December 6, 2012. The song was a commercial success, spending 9 weeks at #1 on the Adult R&B Songs chart.[43] Although the single reached number one on the US iTunes chart,[44] it peaked at number 57 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 13 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[45][10] Braxton released "The One" as the second single from Love and War on May 7, 2013; it peaked at number 34 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[10] The third single, "All the Way Home," was released August 21, 2013; it peaked at number 96 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 37 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.[45][10] The song was followed by the release of Love and War on September 3, 2013.[46] The album was a commercial success in the United States, selling 114,000 copies in its opening week, and debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.[47] Outside the US, it debuted at number 34 on the UK R&B Albums Chart.[48] The second season of Tamar & Vince premiered on September 5, 2013. The second season is centered on the preparation and birth of the couple's baby, and her launch of Love and War. Braxton's special Listen Up: Tamar Braxton premiered on Centric in September 2013. Braxton's first Christmas album, Winter Loversland, was released on November 11, 2013; it debuted at number 43 on the Billboard 200 with 8,000 copies sold in its first week.[8] In December 2013, Braxton received three nominations for the 56th Annual Grammy Awards; Best Urban Contemporary Album for Love and War, and Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance for its title track.[49]2014–15: Calling All Lovers and The Braxtons reunion[edit]On February 25, 2014, the remix of Robin Thicke's single "For the Rest of My Life" which features Braxton, was released as a digital single.[50] Season 3 of Tamar & Vince premiered in October 2014, and it consisted of 10 episodes just like the previous seasons. On October 6, Braxton's new single "Let Me Know" featuring rapper Future peaked at #2 on the Billboard Trending 140 chart, less than an hour after its premiere on Braxton's official SoundCloud account and eventually reached #1 by 12:00 AM October 7.[51] Billboard.com gave the song 4 out of 5 stars in its review of "The Best and Worst Singles of the Week" for the second week of October.[52] At the same time, Braxton, and sisters Toni and Trina guest starred on their sister Traci's music video "Last Call".[53]On May 27, 2015, the single "If I Don't Have You" was released.[54] The song peaked at number 6 on the US Adult R&B Songs chart.[55] Braxton's new album, Calling All Lovers, is set to be released October 2, 2015.[56] The album peaked at number 2 on the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.[10] On September 2, 2015, Braxton was revealed as one of the celebrities who will compete on the 21st season of Dancing with the Stars. She was paired with reigning champion, Valentin Chmerkovskiy.[57] The single "Catfish" was released on September 10, 2015 along with the album Calling All Lovers available for pre-order on iTunes.[58] On September 18, 2015, the single "Angels & Demons" was released.[59] In October 2015, the group The Braxtons including Toni, Tamar, Traci, Trina and Towanda, will be releasing a new material titled Braxton Family Christmas as five members. The album was released on October 30 and pre-order on October 16th https://www.instagram.com/tamarbraxton/?hl=en @TrueToTheGameMovie@TamarBraxton@MannyhalleyHashtags: #TrueToTheGameMovie #TrueToTheGame2#TamarBraxton#Imanirecords acom See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode seventy-six of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Stagger Lee” by Lloyd Price, and how a barroom fight 125 years ago led to a song performed by everyone from Ma Rainey to Neil Diamond. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “That Crazy Feeling” by Kenny Rogers. I have also beeped out some expletives in the song excerpts this week, so as not to be censored by some podcast aggregators, and so I’ve uploaded an unbeeped version for backers. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/  —-more—- Resources As always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. The bulk of the information in this episode came from Stagolee Shot Billy, by Cecil Brown, the person who finally identified Lee Shelton as the subject of the song. I also got some information from Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me: African-American Narrative Poetry from the Oral Tradition by Bruce Jackson, Unprepared to Die by Paul Slade, and Yo’ Mama!: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes and Children’s Rhymes from Urban Black America edited by Onwuchekwa Jemie. Lloyd Price has written a few books. His autobiography is out of print and goes for silly money (and don’t buy the “Kindle edition” at that link, because it’s just the sheet music to the song, which Amazon have mislabelled) but he’s also written a book of essays with his thoughts on race, some of which shed light on his work. The Lloyd Price songs here can be found on The Complete Singles As & Bs 1952-62 . And you can get the Snatch and the Poontangs album on a twofer with Johnny Otis’ less explicit album Cold Shot. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we start today’s episode, a brief note. Firstly, this episode contains a description of a murder, so if you’re squeamish about that sort of thing, you may want to skip it. Secondly, some of the material I’m dealing with in this episode is difficult for me to deal with in a podcast, for a variety of reasons. This episode will look at a song whose history is strongly entwined both with American racism and with black underworld culture. The source material I’ve used for this therefore contains several things that for different reasons are difficult for me to say on here. There is frequent use of a particular racial slur which it is not okay under any circumstances for me as a white man to say; there are transcripts of oral history which are transcribed in rather patronising attempts at replicating African-American Vernacular English, which even were those transcripts themselves acceptable would sound mocking coming out of my English-accented mouth; and there is frequent use of sexual profanity, which I personally have no problem with at all, but would get this podcast an explicit rating on several of the big podcast platforms. There is simply no way to tell this story while avoiding all of those things, so I’ve come up with the best compromise I can. I will not use, even in quotes, that slur. I will minimise the use of transcripts, but when I have to use them, I will change them from being phonetic transcripts of AAVE into being standard written English, and I will include the swearing where it comes in the recordings I want to use but will beep it out of the version that goes up on the main podcast feed. I’ll make an unexpurgated version available for my Patreon backers, and I’ll put the unbleeped recordings on Mixcloud. The story we’re going to tell goes back to Christmas Day 1895, but we’re going to start our story in the mid 1950s, with Lloyd Price. [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Stagger Lee”] You may remember us looking at Lloyd Price way back in episode twelve, from Christmas 2018, but if you don’t, Price was a teenager in 1952, when he wandered into Cosimo Matassa’s studio in New Orleans, at the invitation of his acquaintance Dave Bartholomew, who had produced, co-written, and arranged most of Fats Domino’s biggest hits. Price had a song, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, which was loosely based around the same basic melody as Domino’s earlier hit “The Fat Man”, and they recorded it with Bartholomew producing, Domino on piano, and the great Earl Palmer on drums: [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”] That was one of the first R&B records put out on Specialty Records, the label that would later bring Little Richard, Larry Williams, Sam Cooke and others to prominence, and it went to number one on the R&B charts. Price had a couple more big R&B hits, but then he got drafted, and when he got back the musical landscape had changed enough that he had no hits for several years. But then both Elvis Presley and Little Richard cut cover versions of “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, and that seemed to bring Price enough extra attention that in 1957 he got a couple of songs into the lower reaches of the Hot One Hundred, and one song, “Just Because” went to number three on the R&B charts: [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Just Because”] But it wasn’t until 1958 that Price had what would become his biggest hit, a song that would kickstart his career, and which had its roots in a barroom brawl in St. Louis on Christmas Day 1895: [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Stagger Lee”] The Lee Line was a line of steamboats that went up and down the Mississippi, run by the Lee family. Their line was notorious, even by Mississippi riverboat standards, for paying its staff badly, but also for being friendly to prostitution and gambling. This meant that some people, at least, enjoyed working on the ships despite the low pay. There is a song, whose lyrics were quoted in an article from 1939, but which seems to have been much older, whose lyrics went (I’ve changed these into standard English, as I explained at the start): Reason I like the Lee Line trade Sleep all night with the chambermaid She gimme some pie, and she gimme some cake And I give her all the money that I ever make The Lee Line was one of the two preferred steamboat lines to work on for that reason, and it ended up being mentioned in quite a few songs, like this early version of the song that’s better known as “Alabamy Bound”, but was here called “Don’t You Leave Me Here”: [Excerpt: Little Harvey Hull and Long Cleve Reed, “Don’t You Leave Me Here”] The line, “If the boat don’t sink and the Stack don’t drown” refers to one of the boats on the Lee Line, the Stack Lee, a boat that started service in 1902. But the boat was named, as many of the Lee Line ships were, after a member of the Lee family, in this case one Stack Lee, who was the captain in the 1880s and early 90s of a ship named after his father, James Lee, the founder of the company. In 1948 the scholar Shields McIlwayne claimed that the captain, and later the boat, were popular enough among parts of the black community that there were “more colored kids named Stack Lee than there were sinners in hell”. But it was probably the boats’ reputation for prostitution that led to a thirty-year-old pimp in St. Louis named Lee Shelton taking on the name “Stack Lee”, at some time before Christmas Day 1895. On that Christmas Day, a man named Bill Lyons entered the Bill Curtis Saloon. Before he entered the saloon, he stopped to ask his friend to give him a knife, because the saloon was the roughest in the whole city, and he didn’t want any trouble. Bill Lyons was known as “Billy the Bully”, but bully didn’t quite, or didn’t only, mean what it means today. A “bully”, in that time and place, was a term that encompassed both being a pimp and being a bagman for a political party. There was far more overlap in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries between politics and organised crime than many now realise, and the way things normally operated in many areas was that there would be a big man in organised crime whose job it would be to raise money for the party, get people out to vote, and tell them which way to vote. Lyons was not a popular man, but he was an influential man, and he was part of a rich family — one of the richest black families in St. Louis. He was, like his family, very involved with the Republican Party. Almost all black people in the US were Republicans at that time, as it was only thirty years since the end of the Civil War, when the Republican President Lincoln had been credited with freeing black people from slavery, and the Bridgewater Saloon, owned by Lyons’ rich brother-in-law Henry Bridgewater, was often used as a meeting place for local Republicans. Lyons had just ordered a drink when Lee Shelton walked into the bar. Shelton was a pimp, and seems to have made a lot of money from it. Shelton was also a Democrat, which in this time and place meant that he was essentially a member of a rival gang. [Excerpt: Duke Ellington, “Stack-A-Lee Blues”] Shelton was very big in the local Democratic party, and from what we can tell was far more popular among the black community than Lyons was. While the Democrats were still the less popular of the two major parties among black people in the area, some were starting to feel like the Republicans talked a good game but were doing very little to actually help black people, and were considering taking their votes elsewhere. He was also a pimp who seems to have had a better reputation than most among the sex workers who worked for him, though like almost everything in this story it’s difficult to know for certain more than a hundred and twenty years later. When he walked into the bar, he was wearing mirror-toed shoes, a velvet waistcoat, an embroidered shirt, and gold rings, and carrying an ebony cane with a gold top. He had a slightly crossed left eye, and scars on his face. And he was wearing a white Stetson. Lee asked the crowd, “Who’s treating?” and they pointed to Lyons. There was allegedly some bad blood between Lyons and Shelton, as Lyons’ step-brother had murdered Shelton’s friend a couple of years earlier, in the Bridgewater Saloon. But nonetheless, the two men were, according to the bartenders working there, who had known both men for decades, good friends, and they were apparently drinking and laughing together for a while, until they started talking about politics. They started slapping at each other’s hats, apparently playfully. Then Shelton grabbed Lyons’ hat and broke the rim, so Lyons then snatched Shelton’s hat off his head. Shelton asked for his hat back, and Lyons said he wanted six bits — seventy-five cents — for a new hat. Shelton replied that you could buy a box of those hats for six bits, and he wasn’t going to give Lyons any money. Lyons refused to hand the hat back until Shelton gave him the money, and Shelton pulled out his gun, and told Lyons to give him the hat. Lyons refused, and Shelton hit him on the head with the gun. He then threatened to kill Lyons if he didn’t hand the hat over. Lyons pulled out the knife his friend had given him, and said “You cock-eyed son of a bitch, I’m going to *make* you kill me” and came at Shelton, who shot Lyons. Lyons staggered and clutched on to the bar, and dropped the hat. Shelton addressed Lyons using a word I am not going to say, and said “I told you to give me my hat”, picked it up, and walked out. Lyons died of his wounds a few hours later. [Excerpt: Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians, “Stack O’ Lee Blues”] Shelton was arrested, and let go on four thousand dollars bail — that’s something like a hundred and twenty thousand in today’s money, to give you some idea, though by the time we go that far back comparisons of the value of money become fairly meaningless. Shelton hired himself the best possible lawyer — a man named Nat Dryden, who was an alcoholic and opium addict, but was also considered a brilliant trial lawyer. Dryden had been the first lawyer in the whole of Missouri to be able to get a conviction for a white man murdering a black man. Shelton was still at risk, though, simply because of the power of Henry Bridgewater in local politics — a mob of hundreds of people swamped the inquest trying to get to Shelton, and the police had to draw their weapons before they would disperse. But something happened between Shelton’s arrest and the trial that meant that Bridgewater’s political power waned somewhat. Shelton was arraigned by Judge David Murphy, who was regarded by most black people in the city as on their side, primarily because he was so against police brutality that when a black man shot a policeman, claiming self defence because the policeman was beating him up at the time, Murphy let the man off. Not only that, when a mob of policemen attacked the defendant outside the court in retribution, Murphy had them jailed. This made him popular among black people, but less so among whites. [Excerpt: Frank Westphal and his Orchestra, “Stack O’Lee Blues”] The 1896 Republican National Convention was held in St. Louis, and one of the reasons it was chosen was that the white restaurants had promised the party that if they held the convention there, they would allow black people into the restaurants, so the black caucus within the party approved of the idea. But when the convention actually happened, the restaurants changed their minds, and the party did nothing. This infuriated many black delegates to the convention, who had seen for years how the system of backhanders and patronage on which American politics ran never got so far as to give anything to black people, who were expected just to vote for the Republicans. James Milton Turner, one of the leaders of the radical faction of the Republicans, and the first ever black US ambassador, who was a Missouri local and one of the most influential black politicians in the state, loudly denounced the Republican party for the way it was treating black voters. Shortly afterwards, the party had its local convention. Judge Murphy was coming up for reelection, and the black delegates voted for him to be the Republican nominee again. The white delegates, on the other hand, voted against him. This was the last straw. In 1896, ninety percent of black voters in Missouri voted Democrat, for the first time. Shelton’s faction was now in the ascendant. Because Murphy wasn’t reselected, Shelton’s trial wasn’t held by him, but Nat Dryden did an excellent job in front of the new judge, arguing that Shelton had been acting in self-defence, because Lyons had pulled out a knife. There was a hung jury, and it went to a retrial. Sadly for Shelton, though, Dryden wasn’t going to be representing him in the second trial. Dryden had hidden his alcoholism from his wife, and she had offered him a glass of sherry. That had triggered a relapse, he’d gone on a binge, and died. At his next trial, in late 1897, Shelton was convicted, and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison — presumably the influence of his political friends stopped him from getting the death penalty, just as it got him paroled twelve years later. Two years after that, though, Shelton was arrested again, for assault and robbery, and this time he died in prison. But even before his trial — just before Dryden’s death, in fact — a song called “Stack-A-Lee” was mentioned in the papers as being played by a ragtime pianist in Kansas City. The story gets a bit hazy here, but we know that Shelton was friends with the ragtime pianist Tom Turpin. Ragtime had become popular in the US as a result of Scott Joplin’s performance at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair — the same fair, incidentally, that introduced the belly dancers known as “Little Egypt” who we talked about in the episode on the Coasters a few weeks back. But a year before that, Turpin, who was a friend of Joplin’s, had written “Harlem Rag”, which was published in 1897, and became the first ragtime tune written by a black man to be published: [Excerpt: Ragtime Dorian Henry, “Harlem Rag”] Turpin was another big man in St. Louis politics, and he was one of those who signed petitions for Shelton’s release. While we can’t know for sure, it seems likely that the earliest, ragtime, versions of the “Stagger Lee” song were written by Turpin. It’s been suggested that he based the song on “Bully of the Town”, a popular song written two years earlier, and itself very loosely based on a real murder case from New Orleans. That song was popularised by May Irwin, in a play which is also notable for having a love scene filmed by Edison in 1897, making it possibly the first ever love scene to be filmed. Irwin recorded her version in 1909, but she uses a racial slur, over and over again, which I am not going to allow on this podcast, so here’s a 1920s version by Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers: [Excerpt: Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers, “Bully of the Town”] That song, in its original versions, is about someone who goes out and kills a bully — in the same sense that Billy Lyons was a bully — and so becomes the biggest bully himself. It’s easy to see how Turpin could take that basic framework and add in some details about how his friend had done the same thing, and turn it into a new song. By 1910, the song about Stack Lee had spread all across the country. The folklorist and song collector John Lomax collected a version that year that went “Twas a Christmas morning/The hour was about ten/When Stagalee shot Billy Lyons/And landed in the Jefferson pen/O lordy, poor Stagalee”. In 1924, two white songwriters copyrighted a version of it, called “Stack O’Lee Blues”, and we’ve heard instrumental versions of that, from 1923 and 24, earlier in this episode — that’s what those instrumental breaks were. Lovie Austin recorded a song called “Skeg-A-Lee Blues” in 1924, but that bears little lyrical resemblance to the Stagger Lee we know about: [Excerpt: Ford & Ford, “Skeg-A-Lee Blues”] The first vocal recording of the song that we would now recognise as being Stagger Lee was by Ma Rainey, in 1925. In her version, the melody and some of the words come from “Frankie and Johnny”, another popular song about a real-life murder in St. Louis in the 1890s: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, “Stack O’Lee Blues”] According to Wikipedia, Louis Armstrong is playing cornet on that song. It doesn’t sound like him to me, and I can’t find any other evidence for that except other sites which get their information from Wikipedia. Sites I trust more say it was Joe Smith, and they also say that Coleman Hawkins and Fletcher Henderson are on the track. By 1927, the song was being recorded in many different variants. Long Cleve Reed and Little Harvey Hull recorded a version that clearly owes something to “the Bully of the Town”: [Excerpt: Long Cleve Reed and Little Henry Hull — Down Home Boys, “Original Stack O’Lee Blues”] And in possibly the most famous early version, Mississippi John Hurt asks why the police can’t arrest that bad man Stagger Lee: [Excerpt: Mississippi John Hurt, “Stack O’Lee (1928 version)”] By this point, all connection with the real Lee Shelton had been lost, and it wouldn’t be until the early nineties that the writer Cecil Brown would finally identify Shelton as the subject of the song. During the thirties and forties, the song came to be recorded by all sorts of musicians, almost all of them either folk musicians like Woody Guthrie, blues musicians like Ivory Joe Hunter, or field recordings, like the singer known as “Bama” who recorded this for the Lomaxes: [Excerpt: Bama, “Stackerlee”] None of these recorded versions was a major hit, but the song became hugely well known, particularly among black musicians around Louisiana. It was a song in everyone’s repertoire, and every version of the song followed the same basic structure to start with — Stagger Lee told Billy Lyons he was going to kill him over a hat that had been lost in a game of craps, Billy begged for his life, saying he had a wife and children, and Stagger Lee killed him anyway. Often the bullet would pass right through Billy and break the bartender’s glass. From there, the story might change — in some versions, Lee would go free — sometimes because they couldn’t catch him and sometimes because crowds of women implored the judge to let him off. In other versions, he would be locked up in jail, and in yet other versions he would be sentenced to death. Sometimes he would survive execution through magical powers, sometimes he would be killed, and crowds of women would mourn him, all dressed in red. In the versions where he was killed, he would often descend to Hell, where he would usurp the Devil, because the Devil wasn’t as bad as Stagger Lee. There were so many versions of this song that the New Orleans pianist Doctor John was, according to some things I’ve read, able to play “Stagger Lee” for three hours straight without repeating a verse. Very few of these recordings had any commercial success, but one that did was a 1950 New Orleans version of the song, performed by “Archibald and His Orchestra”: [Excerpt: Archibald and His Orchestra, “Stack A’Lee”] That version of the song was the longest ever recorded up to that point, and took up both sides of a seventy-eight record. It was released on Imperial Records, the same label that Fats Domino was on, in 1950, and was recorded at Cosimo Matassa’s studio. It went top ten on the Billboard R&B charts, and was Archibald’s only hit. That’s the version that, eight years later, inspired Lloyd Price to record this: [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Stagger Lee”] That became a massive, massive hit. It went to number one on both the Hot One Hundred and the R&B charts — which incidentally makes Lloyd Price the earliest solo artist to have a number one hit on the Hot One Hundred and still be alive today. Price’s career was revitalised — and “Stagger Lee” was brought properly into the mainstream of American culture. Over the next few decades, the song — in versions usually based on Price’s — became a standard among white rock musicians. Indeed, it seems to have been recorded by some of the whitest people in music history, like Huey Lewis and the News: [Excerpt: Huey Lewis and the News, “Stagger Lee”] Mike Love of the Beach Boys: [Excerpt: Mike Love, “Stagger Lee”] and Neil Diamond: [Excerpt: Neil Diamond, “Stagger Lee”] But while the song had hit the white mainstream, the myth of Stagger Lee had an altogether different power among the black community. You see, up to this point all we’ve been able to look at are versions of the song that have seen commercial release, and they all represent what was acceptable to be sold in shops at the time. But as you may have guessed from the stuff about the Devil I mentioned earlier, Stagger Lee had become a folkloric figure of tremendous importance among many black Americans. He represented the bad man who would never respect any authority — a trickster figure, but one who was violent as well. He represented the angry black man, but a sort of righteous anger, even if that anger was chaotic. Any black man who was not respected by white society would be thought of as a Stagger Lee figure, at least by some — I’ve seen the label applied to everyone from O.J. Simpson to Malcolm X. Bobby Seale, the leader of the Black Panther Party, named his son Malik Nkrumah Stagolee Seale, and was often known to recite a version of “Stagger Lee” at parties. In an interview, later, Seale said “Now I transformed Stagolee, more or less in my own mind, into brothers standing on the block and all of the illegitimate activity. In effect, they were the lumpen proletariat in a high-tech social order, different from how ‘lumpen’ had been described historically. My point is this; that Malcolm X at one time was an illegitimate hustler. Later in life, Malcolm X grows to have the most profound political consciousness as far as I’m concerned. To me, this brother was really getting ready to move. So symbolically, at one time he was Stagolee.” The version of Stagger Lee that Seale knew is the one that came from something called “toasts”. Toasting is a form of informal storytelling in black American culture, usually rhyming, and usually using language and talking about subjects that would often be considered obscene. Toasting is now generally considered one of the precursors of rapping, and the style and subject matter are often very similar. Many of the stories told in toasts are very well known, including the story of the Signifying Monkey (which has been told in bowdlerised forms in many blues songs, including Chuck Berry’s “Jo Jo Gunne”), and the story of Shine, the black cook on the Titanic, who swims for safety and refuses to help the Captain’s daughter even after she offers sex in return for his help. Shine outswims the sharks who try to eat him, and arrives back on land before anyone there even knew the ship was sinking. Shine is, of course, another Stagger Lee style figure. These toasts remained largely unknown outside of the less respectable parts of the black community, until the scholar Bruce Jackson published his seminal book “Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me: African-American Poetry from Oral Tradition”, whose title is taken from a version of the story of Shine and the Titanic. Jackson’s field recordings, mostly recorded in prisons, have more recently been released on CD, though without the names of the performers attached. Here’s the version of Stagger Lee he collected — there will be several beeps in this, and the next few recordings, if you’re listening to the regular version of this podcast: [Excerpt: Unknown field recording, “Stagger Lee”] After Jackson’s book, but well before the recordings came out, Johnny Otis preserved many of these toasts in musical form on his Snatch and the Poontangs album, including “The Great Stack-A-Lee”, which clearly has the same sources as the version Jackson recorded: [Excerpt: Snatch and the Poontangs, “The Great Stack-A-Lee”] That version was used as the basis for the most well-known recentish version of the song, the 1995 version by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: [Excerpt: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Stagger Lee”] Cave has later said in interviews that they improvised the music and used the lyrics from Jackson’s book, but the melody is very, very, close to the Johnny Otis version. And there’s more evidence of Cave basing his version on the Johnny Otis track. There’s this line: [Excerpt: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Stagger Lee”] That’s not in the versions of the toast in Jackson’s book, but it *is* in a different song on the Snatch and the Poontangs album, “Two-Time Slim”: [Excerpt: Snatch and the Poontangs, “Two-Time Slim”] This is the Stagger Lee of legend, the Stagger Lee who is the narrator of James Baldwin’s great poem “Stagolee Wonders”, a damning indictment of racist society: [Excerpt: James Baldwin, reading an excerpt from “Stagolee Wonders” on “Poems for a Listener”,] Baldwin’s view of Stagger Lee was, to quote from the interview from which that reading is also excerpted, “a black folk hero, a singer essentially, who actually truly comes out of the auction block, by way of the cotton field, into the beginning of the black church. And Stagger Lee’s roots are there, and Stagger Lee’s often been a preacher. He’s one who conveys the real history.” It’s a far cry from one pimp murdering another on Christmas Day 1895. And it’s a mythos that almost everyone listening to Lloyd Price’s hit version will have known nothing of. As a result of “Stagger Lee”, Lloyd Price went on to have a successful career, scoring several more hits in 1959 and 1960, including the song for which he’s now best known, “Personality”: [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Personality”] Price also moved into other areas, including boxing promotion — he was the person who got Don King, another figure who has often been compared to Stagger Lee, the chance to work with Mohammed Ali, and he later helped King promote the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” fight. Lloyd Price is eighty-seven years old, now, and released his most recent album in 2016. He still tours — indeed, his most recent live show was earlier this month, just before the current coronavirus outbreak meant live shows had to stop. He opened his show, as he always does, with “Stagger Lee”, and I hope that when we start having live shows again, he will continue to do so for a long, long time.

Episode seventy-six of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Stagger Lee” by Lloyd Price, and how a barroom fight 125 years ago led to a song performed by everyone from Ma Rainey to Neil Diamond. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “That Crazy Feeling” by Kenny Rogers. I have also beeped out some expletives in the song excerpts this week, so as not to be censored by some podcast aggregators, and so I’ve uploaded an unbeeped version for backers. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/  —-more—- Resources As always, I’ve created a Mixcloud streaming playlist with full versions of all the songs in the episode. The bulk of the information in this episode came from Stagolee Shot Billy, by Cecil Brown, the person who finally identified Lee Shelton as the subject of the song. I also got some information from Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me: African-American Narrative Poetry from the Oral Tradition by Bruce Jackson, Unprepared to Die by Paul Slade, and Yo’ Mama!: New Raps, Toasts, Dozens, Jokes and Children’s Rhymes from Urban Black America edited by Onwuchekwa Jemie. Lloyd Price has written a few books. His autobiography is out of print and goes for silly money (and don’t buy the “Kindle edition” at that link, because it’s just the sheet music to the song, which Amazon have mislabelled) but he’s also written a book of essays with his thoughts on race, some of which shed light on his work. The Lloyd Price songs here can be found on The Complete Singles As & Bs 1952-62 . And you can get the Snatch and the Poontangs album on a twofer with Johnny Otis’ less explicit album Cold Shot. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we start today’s episode, a brief note. Firstly, this episode contains a description of a murder, so if you’re squeamish about that sort of thing, you may want to skip it. Secondly, some of the material I’m dealing with in this episode is difficult for me to deal with in a podcast, for a variety of reasons. This episode will look at a song whose history is strongly entwined both with American racism and with black underworld culture. The source material I’ve used for this therefore contains several things that for different reasons are difficult for me to say on here. There is frequent use of a particular racial slur which it is not okay under any circumstances for me as a white man to say; there are transcripts of oral history which are transcribed in rather patronising attempts at replicating African-American Vernacular English, which even were those transcripts themselves acceptable would sound mocking coming out of my English-accented mouth; and there is frequent use of sexual profanity, which I personally have no problem with at all, but would get this podcast an explicit rating on several of the big podcast platforms. There is simply no way to tell this story while avoiding all of those things, so I’ve come up with the best compromise I can. I will not use, even in quotes, that slur. I will minimise the use of transcripts, but when I have to use them, I will change them from being phonetic transcripts of AAVE into being standard written English, and I will include the swearing where it comes in the recordings I want to use but will beep it out of the version that goes up on the main podcast feed. I’ll make an unexpurgated version available for my Patreon backers, and I’ll put the unbleeped recordings on Mixcloud. The story we’re going to tell goes back to Christmas Day 1895, but we’re going to start our story in the mid 1950s, with Lloyd Price. [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Stagger Lee”] You may remember us looking at Lloyd Price way back in episode twelve, from Christmas 2018, but if you don’t, Price was a teenager in 1952, when he wandered into Cosimo Matassa’s studio in New Orleans, at the invitation of his acquaintance Dave Bartholomew, who had produced, co-written, and arranged most of Fats Domino’s biggest hits. Price had a song, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, which was loosely based around the same basic melody as Domino’s earlier hit “The Fat Man”, and they recorded it with Bartholomew producing, Domino on piano, and the great Earl Palmer on drums: [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”] That was one of the first R&B records put out on Specialty Records, the label that would later bring Little Richard, Larry Williams, Sam Cooke and others to prominence, and it went to number one on the R&B charts. Price had a couple more big R&B hits, but then he got drafted, and when he got back the musical landscape had changed enough that he had no hits for several years. But then both Elvis Presley and Little Richard cut cover versions of “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, and that seemed to bring Price enough extra attention that in 1957 he got a couple of songs into the lower reaches of the Hot One Hundred, and one song, “Just Because” went to number three on the R&B charts: [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Just Because”] But it wasn’t until 1958 that Price had what would become his biggest hit, a song that would kickstart his career, and which had its roots in a barroom brawl in St. Louis on Christmas Day 1895: [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Stagger Lee”] The Lee Line was a line of steamboats that went up and down the Mississippi, run by the Lee family. Their line was notorious, even by Mississippi riverboat standards, for paying its staff badly, but also for being friendly to prostitution and gambling. This meant that some people, at least, enjoyed working on the ships despite the low pay. There is a song, whose lyrics were quoted in an article from 1939, but which seems to have been much older, whose lyrics went (I’ve changed these into standard English, as I explained at the start): Reason I like the Lee Line trade Sleep all night with the chambermaid She gimme some pie, and she gimme some cake And I give her all the money that I ever make The Lee Line was one of the two preferred steamboat lines to work on for that reason, and it ended up being mentioned in quite a few songs, like this early version of the song that’s better known as “Alabamy Bound”, but was here called “Don’t You Leave Me Here”: [Excerpt: Little Harvey Hull and Long Cleve Reed, “Don’t You Leave Me Here”] The line, “If the boat don’t sink and the Stack don’t drown” refers to one of the boats on the Lee Line, the Stack Lee, a boat that started service in 1902. But the boat was named, as many of the Lee Line ships were, after a member of the Lee family, in this case one Stack Lee, who was the captain in the 1880s and early 90s of a ship named after his father, James Lee, the founder of the company. In 1948 the scholar Shields McIlwayne claimed that the captain, and later the boat, were popular enough among parts of the black community that there were “more colored kids named Stack Lee than there were sinners in hell”. But it was probably the boats’ reputation for prostitution that led to a thirty-year-old pimp in St. Louis named Lee Shelton taking on the name “Stack Lee”, at some time before Christmas Day 1895. On that Christmas Day, a man named Bill Lyons entered the Bill Curtis Saloon. Before he entered the saloon, he stopped to ask his friend to give him a knife, because the saloon was the roughest in the whole city, and he didn’t want any trouble. Bill Lyons was known as “Billy the Bully”, but bully didn’t quite, or didn’t only, mean what it means today. A “bully”, in that time and place, was a term that encompassed both being a pimp and being a bagman for a political party. There was far more overlap in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries between politics and organised crime than many now realise, and the way things normally operated in many areas was that there would be a big man in organised crime whose job it would be to raise money for the party, get people out to vote, and tell them which way to vote. Lyons was not a popular man, but he was an influential man, and he was part of a rich family — one of the richest black families in St. Louis. He was, like his family, very involved with the Republican Party. Almost all black people in the US were Republicans at that time, as it was only thirty years since the end of the Civil War, when the Republican President Lincoln had been credited with freeing black people from slavery, and the Bridgewater Saloon, owned by Lyons’ rich brother-in-law Henry Bridgewater, was often used as a meeting place for local Republicans. Lyons had just ordered a drink when Lee Shelton walked into the bar. Shelton was a pimp, and seems to have made a lot of money from it. Shelton was also a Democrat, which in this time and place meant that he was essentially a member of a rival gang. [Excerpt: Duke Ellington, “Stack-A-Lee Blues”] Shelton was very big in the local Democratic party, and from what we can tell was far more popular among the black community than Lyons was. While the Democrats were still the less popular of the two major parties among black people in the area, some were starting to feel like the Republicans talked a good game but were doing very little to actually help black people, and were considering taking their votes elsewhere. He was also a pimp who seems to have had a better reputation than most among the sex workers who worked for him, though like almost everything in this story it’s difficult to know for certain more than a hundred and twenty years later. When he walked into the bar, he was wearing mirror-toed shoes, a velvet waistcoat, an embroidered shirt, and gold rings, and carrying an ebony cane with a gold top. He had a slightly crossed left eye, and scars on his face. And he was wearing a white Stetson. Lee asked the crowd, “Who’s treating?” and they pointed to Lyons. There was allegedly some bad blood between Lyons and Shelton, as Lyons’ step-brother had murdered Shelton’s friend a couple of years earlier, in the Bridgewater Saloon. But nonetheless, the two men were, according to the bartenders working there, who had known both men for decades, good friends, and they were apparently drinking and laughing together for a while, until they started talking about politics. They started slapping at each other’s hats, apparently playfully. Then Shelton grabbed Lyons’ hat and broke the rim, so Lyons then snatched Shelton’s hat off his head. Shelton asked for his hat back, and Lyons said he wanted six bits — seventy-five cents — for a new hat. Shelton replied that you could buy a box of those hats for six bits, and he wasn’t going to give Lyons any money. Lyons refused to hand the hat back until Shelton gave him the money, and Shelton pulled out his gun, and told Lyons to give him the hat. Lyons refused, and Shelton hit him on the head with the gun. He then threatened to kill Lyons if he didn’t hand the hat over. Lyons pulled out the knife his friend had given him, and said “You cock-eyed son of a bitch, I’m going to *make* you kill me” and came at Shelton, who shot Lyons. Lyons staggered and clutched on to the bar, and dropped the hat. Shelton addressed Lyons using a word I am not going to say, and said “I told you to give me my hat”, picked it up, and walked out. Lyons died of his wounds a few hours later. [Excerpt: Fred Waring’s Pennsylvanians, “Stack O’ Lee Blues”] Shelton was arrested, and let go on four thousand dollars bail — that’s something like a hundred and twenty thousand in today’s money, to give you some idea, though by the time we go that far back comparisons of the value of money become fairly meaningless. Shelton hired himself the best possible lawyer — a man named Nat Dryden, who was an alcoholic and opium addict, but was also considered a brilliant trial lawyer. Dryden had been the first lawyer in the whole of Missouri to be able to get a conviction for a white man murdering a black man. Shelton was still at risk, though, simply because of the power of Henry Bridgewater in local politics — a mob of hundreds of people swamped the inquest trying to get to Shelton, and the police had to draw their weapons before they would disperse. But something happened between Shelton’s arrest and the trial that meant that Bridgewater’s political power waned somewhat. Shelton was arraigned by Judge David Murphy, who was regarded by most black people in the city as on their side, primarily because he was so against police brutality that when a black man shot a policeman, claiming self defence because the policeman was beating him up at the time, Murphy let the man off. Not only that, when a mob of policemen attacked the defendant outside the court in retribution, Murphy had them jailed. This made him popular among black people, but less so among whites. [Excerpt: Frank Westphal and his Orchestra, “Stack O’Lee Blues”] The 1896 Republican National Convention was held in St. Louis, and one of the reasons it was chosen was that the white restaurants had promised the party that if they held the convention there, they would allow black people into the restaurants, so the black caucus within the party approved of the idea. But when the convention actually happened, the restaurants changed their minds, and the party did nothing. This infuriated many black delegates to the convention, who had seen for years how the system of backhanders and patronage on which American politics ran never got so far as to give anything to black people, who were expected just to vote for the Republicans. James Milton Turner, one of the leaders of the radical faction of the Republicans, and the first ever black US ambassador, who was a Missouri local and one of the most influential black politicians in the state, loudly denounced the Republican party for the way it was treating black voters. Shortly afterwards, the party had its local convention. Judge Murphy was coming up for reelection, and the black delegates voted for him to be the Republican nominee again. The white delegates, on the other hand, voted against him. This was the last straw. In 1896, ninety percent of black voters in Missouri voted Democrat, for the first time. Shelton’s faction was now in the ascendant. Because Murphy wasn’t reselected, Shelton’s trial wasn’t held by him, but Nat Dryden did an excellent job in front of the new judge, arguing that Shelton had been acting in self-defence, because Lyons had pulled out a knife. There was a hung jury, and it went to a retrial. Sadly for Shelton, though, Dryden wasn’t going to be representing him in the second trial. Dryden had hidden his alcoholism from his wife, and she had offered him a glass of sherry. That had triggered a relapse, he’d gone on a binge, and died. At his next trial, in late 1897, Shelton was convicted, and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison — presumably the influence of his political friends stopped him from getting the death penalty, just as it got him paroled twelve years later. Two years after that, though, Shelton was arrested again, for assault and robbery, and this time he died in prison. But even before his trial — just before Dryden’s death, in fact — a song called “Stack-A-Lee” was mentioned in the papers as being played by a ragtime pianist in Kansas City. The story gets a bit hazy here, but we know that Shelton was friends with the ragtime pianist Tom Turpin. Ragtime had become popular in the US as a result of Scott Joplin’s performance at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair — the same fair, incidentally, that introduced the belly dancers known as “Little Egypt” who we talked about in the episode on the Coasters a few weeks back. But a year before that, Turpin, who was a friend of Joplin’s, had written “Harlem Rag”, which was published in 1897, and became the first ragtime tune written by a black man to be published: [Excerpt: Ragtime Dorian Henry, “Harlem Rag”] Turpin was another big man in St. Louis politics, and he was one of those who signed petitions for Shelton’s release. While we can’t know for sure, it seems likely that the earliest, ragtime, versions of the “Stagger Lee” song were written by Turpin. It’s been suggested that he based the song on “Bully of the Town”, a popular song written two years earlier, and itself very loosely based on a real murder case from New Orleans. That song was popularised by May Irwin, in a play which is also notable for having a love scene filmed by Edison in 1897, making it possibly the first ever love scene to be filmed. Irwin recorded her version in 1909, but she uses a racial slur, over and over again, which I am not going to allow on this podcast, so here’s a 1920s version by Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers: [Excerpt: Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers, “Bully of the Town”] That song, in its original versions, is about someone who goes out and kills a bully — in the same sense that Billy Lyons was a bully — and so becomes the biggest bully himself. It’s easy to see how Turpin could take that basic framework and add in some details about how his friend had done the same thing, and turn it into a new song. By 1910, the song about Stack Lee had spread all across the country. The folklorist and song collector John Lomax collected a version that year that went “Twas a Christmas morning/The hour was about ten/When Stagalee shot Billy Lyons/And landed in the Jefferson pen/O lordy, poor Stagalee”. In 1924, two white songwriters copyrighted a version of it, called “Stack O’Lee Blues”, and we’ve heard instrumental versions of that, from 1923 and 24, earlier in this episode — that’s what those instrumental breaks were. Lovie Austin recorded a song called “Skeg-A-Lee Blues” in 1924, but that bears little lyrical resemblance to the Stagger Lee we know about: [Excerpt: Ford & Ford, “Skeg-A-Lee Blues”] The first vocal recording of the song that we would now recognise as being Stagger Lee was by Ma Rainey, in 1925. In her version, the melody and some of the words come from “Frankie and Johnny”, another popular song about a real-life murder in St. Louis in the 1890s: [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, “Stack O’Lee Blues”] According to Wikipedia, Louis Armstrong is playing cornet on that song. It doesn’t sound like him to me, and I can’t find any other evidence for that except other sites which get their information from Wikipedia. Sites I trust more say it was Joe Smith, and they also say that Coleman Hawkins and Fletcher Henderson are on the track. By 1927, the song was being recorded in many different variants. Long Cleve Reed and Little Harvey Hull recorded a version that clearly owes something to “the Bully of the Town”: [Excerpt: Long Cleve Reed and Little Henry Hull — Down Home Boys, “Original Stack O’Lee Blues”] And in possibly the most famous early version, Mississippi John Hurt asks why the police can’t arrest that bad man Stagger Lee: [Excerpt: Mississippi John Hurt, “Stack O’Lee (1928 version)”] By this point, all connection with the real Lee Shelton had been lost, and it wouldn’t be until the early nineties that the writer Cecil Brown would finally identify Shelton as the subject of the song. During the thirties and forties, the song came to be recorded by all sorts of musicians, almost all of them either folk musicians like Woody Guthrie, blues musicians like Ivory Joe Hunter, or field recordings, like the singer known as “Bama” who recorded this for the Lomaxes: [Excerpt: Bama, “Stackerlee”] None of these recorded versions was a major hit, but the song became hugely well known, particularly among black musicians around Louisiana. It was a song in everyone’s repertoire, and every version of the song followed the same basic structure to start with — Stagger Lee told Billy Lyons he was going to kill him over a hat that had been lost in a game of craps, Billy begged for his life, saying he had a wife and children, and Stagger Lee killed him anyway. Often the bullet would pass right through Billy and break the bartender’s glass. From there, the story might change — in some versions, Lee would go free — sometimes because they couldn’t catch him and sometimes because crowds of women implored the judge to let him off. In other versions, he would be locked up in jail, and in yet other versions he would be sentenced to death. Sometimes he would survive execution through magical powers, sometimes he would be killed, and crowds of women would mourn him, all dressed in red. In the versions where he was killed, he would often descend to Hell, where he would usurp the Devil, because the Devil wasn’t as bad as Stagger Lee. There were so many versions of this song that the New Orleans pianist Doctor John was, according to some things I’ve read, able to play “Stagger Lee” for three hours straight without repeating a verse. Very few of these recordings had any commercial success, but one that did was a 1950 New Orleans version of the song, performed by “Archibald and His Orchestra”: [Excerpt: Archibald and His Orchestra, “Stack A’Lee”] That version of the song was the longest ever recorded up to that point, and took up both sides of a seventy-eight record. It was released on Imperial Records, the same label that Fats Domino was on, in 1950, and was recorded at Cosimo Matassa’s studio. It went top ten on the Billboard R&B charts, and was Archibald’s only hit. That’s the version that, eight years later, inspired Lloyd Price to record this: [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Stagger Lee”] That became a massive, massive hit. It went to number one on both the Hot One Hundred and the R&B charts — which incidentally makes Lloyd Price the earliest solo artist to have a number one hit on the Hot One Hundred and still be alive today. Price’s career was revitalised — and “Stagger Lee” was brought properly into the mainstream of American culture. Over the next few decades, the song — in versions usually based on Price’s — became a standard among white rock musicians. Indeed, it seems to have been recorded by some of the whitest people in music history, like Huey Lewis and the News: [Excerpt: Huey Lewis and the News, “Stagger Lee”] Mike Love of the Beach Boys: [Excerpt: Mike Love, “Stagger Lee”] and Neil Diamond: [Excerpt: Neil Diamond, “Stagger Lee”] But while the song had hit the white mainstream, the myth of Stagger Lee had an altogether different power among the black community. You see, up to this point all we’ve been able to look at are versions of the song that have seen commercial release, and they all represent what was acceptable to be sold in shops at the time. But as you may have guessed from the stuff about the Devil I mentioned earlier, Stagger Lee had become a folkloric figure of tremendous importance among many black Americans. He represented the bad man who would never respect any authority — a trickster figure, but one who was violent as well. He represented the angry black man, but a sort of righteous anger, even if that anger was chaotic. Any black man who was not respected by white society would be thought of as a Stagger Lee figure, at least by some — I’ve seen the label applied to everyone from O.J. Simpson to Malcolm X. Bobby Seale, the leader of the Black Panther Party, named his son Malik Nkrumah Stagolee Seale, and was often known to recite a version of “Stagger Lee” at parties. In an interview, later, Seale said “Now I transformed Stagolee, more or less in my own mind, into brothers standing on the block and all of the illegitimate activity. In effect, they were the lumpen proletariat in a high-tech social order, different from how ‘lumpen’ had been described historically. My point is this; that Malcolm X at one time was an illegitimate hustler. Later in life, Malcolm X grows to have the most profound political consciousness as far as I’m concerned. To me, this brother was really getting ready to move. So symbolically, at one time he was Stagolee.” The version of Stagger Lee that Seale knew is the one that came from something called “toasts”. Toasting is a form of informal storytelling in black American culture, usually rhyming, and usually using language and talking about subjects that would often be considered obscene. Toasting is now generally considered one of the precursors of rapping, and the style and subject matter are often very similar. Many of the stories told in toasts are very well known, including the story of the Signifying Monkey (which has been told in bowdlerised forms in many blues songs, including Chuck Berry’s “Jo Jo Gunne”), and the story of Shine, the black cook on the Titanic, who swims for safety and refuses to help the Captain’s daughter even after she offers sex in return for his help. Shine outswims the sharks who try to eat him, and arrives back on land before anyone there even knew the ship was sinking. Shine is, of course, another Stagger Lee style figure. These toasts remained largely unknown outside of the less respectable parts of the black community, until the scholar Bruce Jackson published his seminal book “Get Your Ass in the Water and Swim Like Me: African-American Poetry from Oral Tradition”, whose title is taken from a version of the story of Shine and the Titanic. Jackson’s field recordings, mostly recorded in prisons, have more recently been released on CD, though without the names of the performers attached. Here’s the version of Stagger Lee he collected — there will be several beeps in this, and the next few recordings, if you’re listening to the regular version of this podcast: [Excerpt: Unknown field recording, “Stagger Lee”] After Jackson’s book, but well before the recordings came out, Johnny Otis preserved many of these toasts in musical form on his Snatch and the Poontangs album, including “The Great Stack-A-Lee”, which clearly has the same sources as the version Jackson recorded: [Excerpt: Snatch and the Poontangs, “The Great Stack-A-Lee”] That version was used as the basis for the most well-known recentish version of the song, the 1995 version by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: [Excerpt: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Stagger Lee”] Cave has later said in interviews that they improvised the music and used the lyrics from Jackson’s book, but the melody is very, very, close to the Johnny Otis version. And there’s more evidence of Cave basing his version on the Johnny Otis track. There’s this line: [Excerpt: Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Stagger Lee”] That’s not in the versions of the toast in Jackson’s book, but it *is* in a different song on the Snatch and the Poontangs album, “Two-Time Slim”: [Excerpt: Snatch and the Poontangs, “Two-Time Slim”] This is the Stagger Lee of legend, the Stagger Lee who is the narrator of James Baldwin’s great poem “Stagolee Wonders”, a damning indictment of racist society: [Excerpt: James Baldwin, reading an excerpt from “Stagolee Wonders” on “Poems for a Listener”,] Baldwin’s view of Stagger Lee was, to quote from the interview from which that reading is also excerpted, “a black folk hero, a singer essentially, who actually truly comes out of the auction block, by way of the cotton field, into the beginning of the black church. And Stagger Lee’s roots are there, and Stagger Lee’s often been a preacher. He’s one who conveys the real history.” It’s a far cry from one pimp murdering another on Christmas Day 1895. And it’s a mythos that almost everyone listening to Lloyd Price’s hit version will have known nothing of. As a result of “Stagger Lee”, Lloyd Price went on to have a successful career, scoring several more hits in 1959 and 1960, including the song for which he’s now best known, “Personality”: [Excerpt: Lloyd Price, “Personality”] Price also moved into other areas, including boxing promotion — he was the person who got Don King, another figure who has often been compared to Stagger Lee, the chance to work with Mohammed Ali, and he later helped King promote the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” fight. Lloyd Price is eighty-seven years old, now, and released his most recent album in 2016. He still tours — indeed, his most recent live show was earlier this month, just before the current coronavirus outbreak meant live shows had to stop. He opened his show, as he always does, with “Stagger Lee”, and I hope that when we start having live shows again, he will continue to do so for a long, long time.