Category: black entertainers

Rudy Ray Moore AKA Dolemite Early Rap Pioneer

October 26, 2019
Many people say that hip-hop was birthed by DJ Kool Herc on a 1973 summer evening in the Bronx. Others point to the release of the 1979 Sugarhill Gang song “Rapper’s Delight” as the moment when the genre was catapulted into the national consciousness. But several years before either of those moments, Rudy Ray Moore…

See hip-hop evolve through photos at the African American History and Culture Museum

September 9, 2018
Public Enemy in 1987 by Jack Mitchell. (Image courtesy Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture) In the late 1970s, hip-hop burst onto the scene in the Bronx in a cultural explosion of rapping, breakdancing and beatboxing, but it didn’t happen in a vacuum. Hip-hop built on traditions developed over decades by African-American

Jesse Williams Speech 2016 BET Awards

July 4, 2016
Jesse Williams  Speaks on Police Brutality 2016 BET Awards Grey’s Anatomy actor and social activist Jesse Williams prophetically addressed America during his awards speech at the 16th annual BET Awards on June 26, at the Microsoft Theatre at L.A. Live. Presented with the Humanitarian Award by BET Chairman/CEO Debra Lee, Williams used the stage to

The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture)

November 2, 2015
The Black Arts Movement: Literary Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s (The John Hope Franklin Series in African American History and Culture) (9780807855980): James Smethurst: Books

Black Musicians In Rock n Roll You Should Know

January 3, 2015
Chill out and rock out with these  Black  Rock n Roll musicians. 1. Ma Rainey Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=S8EB78QYrCM. Via YouTube Future Influences: Bessie Smith (who was her pupil), Janis Joplin 2. Bessie Smith Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=go6TiLIeVZA. Via YouTube Future Influences: Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin 3. Sister Rosetta Tharpe Video available at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=JeaBNAXfHfQ. Via