Today is the 21st day of Black History Month. As we go through the month, I’m going to talk about a collection of Black artists. It’ll be fairly comprehensive and eclectic list — although it won’t be a complete list.
So far I’ve talked about:
- Rick James, who was born 76 years ago on February 1
- OutKast‘s Big Boi, who celebrated his 49th birthday on February 1
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- John Lee Hooker
- Patti LaBelle
- The Temptations‘ second and longest tenured lead vocalist Dennis Edwards, who was born 81 years ago on February 4
- Tina Turner
- Aretha Franklin
- Bobby Brown, who celebrated his 55th birthday on February 5
- Bob Marley, who was born 79 years ago on February 6
- The Supremes
- J. Dilla, who was born 50 years ago on February 7
- Queen Latifah
- Black Moon, DJ Evil Dee and Buckshot
- Dionne Warwick
- Big Mama Thornton
- Evelyn “Champagne” King
- Bad Brains
- Fishbone
- Grace Jones
- TLC
- Maceo Parker, who celebrated his 81st birthday on February 14
- SWV
- Meshell Ndegeocello
- Ice T, who celebrated his 66th birthday on February 16
- Dr. Dre, who celebrated his 59th birthday on February 18
- Seal, who celebrated his 61st birthday on February 19
- The great Smokey Robinson also celebrated his 84th birthday on February 19
- John Coltrane
Nina Simone is arguably one of the most uncompromising, unique and defiantly Black artists to have ever lived or created. Much of her work talked about the Black experience in America with an unvarnished honesty, frequently calling out the country’s hypocrisy, inequality, inequity and cruelty.
The grand priestess of soul was born 91 years ago today. Happy birthday, Nina! Happy birthday, wherever you are!
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