News — Entertainer

William Leonard Roberts II, also known as Rick Ross, is a rapper, songwriter, and entrepreneur. Roberts was born on January 28, 1976, to William Leonard Roberts Sr. and Tommie Roberts in Clarksdale, Mississippi but the family relocated to Miami, Florida, when Ross was young. He attended Miami Carol City Senior High School graduating in 1994. He then attended Albany State University in Albany, Georgia, on a football scholarship before dropping out of college and taking a job in the local construction industry.

In 2000, Roberts’s music career began when he signed with Suave House Records and adopted the rap name, Teflon Don. He made an appearance on Eric Sermon’s 2000 rap album, Def Squad Presents Erick Onasis. Roberts later signed with Slip N Slide Records. In 2006, Roberts released his debut album, Port of Miami that feature hit songs like “Hustlin” and “Push It.” The album was certified platinum, selling over million units. In 2008, Roberts released his second album, Trilla, featuring the singles “Speedin,” “The Boss,” and “Here I Am.” The album would be certified gold, selling over 500,000 units.  In 2009, he released his third album, Deeper Than Rap that features the singles “Mafia Music,” “Magnificent,” “All I Really Want,” and “Maybach Music 2.” That album was also certified.

In 2010, Roberts released Teflon Don with the singles “Super High,” “B.M.F. (Blowin’ Money Fast), and “Aston Martin Music.” That album also sold more than 500,000 units. Two years later he released his fifth studio album, God Forgives, I Don’t featuring singles “Touch N’ You,” “So Sophisticated,” “Hold Me Back,” and “Diced Pineapples.” The album was certified gold, selling more than 500,000 units. 

Roberts released other albums including Mastermind (2014), Hood Billionare (2014), Black Market (2015), Rather Than You Me (2017), and Port of Miami 2 (2019).  In 2008, he launched his record label called Maybach Music Group, which signed Olubowale “Wale” Akintimehin, Robert “Meek Mill” Williams, Omari “Omarion” Grandberry, and Richard “Gunplay” Morales Jr. 

Despite his music success, Roberts was involved in several controversies, including rap feuds with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. Adding to the controversy, Roberts had legal issues, including a lawsuit from former drug kingpin Ricky “Freeway Rick” Ross, who accused him of stealing his name. He also has a history of health problems that included seizures. On January 27, 2013, Roberts and his girlfriend were targets of a drive-by shooting on his 37th birthday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They escaped uninjured. On March 2, 2018, Roberts suffered a heart attack after being found unresponsive at home in Miami, Florida. He was on life support for 48 hours but recovered. 

Despite the controversies, Roberts remains in the entertainment business as of 2021. Ross has four children including Toie Roberts, William Roberts III, Berkeley Hermes Roberts, and Billon Leonard Roberts. He was one time engaged to Lira “Galore” Mercer.

Legendary Composer, singer, lyricist Mary Wells was born Mary Esther Wells on May 13, 1943, in Detroit, Michigan to Arthur Wells and Geneva Campbell Wells. Her brothers were Thomas and Fletcher. When she was two years old, Wells was diagnosed with spinal meningitis and partial paralysis. She was visually and hearing impaired. At the age of 10, Wells tested positive for tuberculosis. She did regain her health and was able to function adequately and began singing in local clubs and played the clarinet. 

Wells graduated from Northwest High School in Detroit in 1960. Weeks later. she married R&B-blues singer, conductor, and dancer Herman Lewis Griffin from Selma, Alabama. Later that year she signed with and performed for the first time at Tamla Records, a division of Motown Records. Her first single composition was “Bye Bye Baby” which peaked at # 8 on the Billboard R&B chart and # 45 on the single pop chart in 1961. That same year, Wells signed a contract with the Motown record label. In 1962, she released “The One Who Loves You,” a single that made # 2 on the R&B chart and # 8 on Hot 100. Also, her single “Two Lovers” hit the Top 10 of Billboard’s Hot 100, peaking at # 7, thus becoming Wells’ second # 1 hit on the R&B chart. More than one million copies were sold, earning her a gold disc.

In 1963, Wells’ “You Beat Me to the Punch” was nominated for Best Rock & Roll Recording. By that point she divorced Griffin and began dating guitarist Cecil Dale Womack from Cleveland, Ohio when she was 21 and working on the song “My Guy.” Released in 1964 the song hit # 1 on the U.S R&B chart and was especially popular in Great Britain. That year Wells became the first Motown artist to perform in the United Kingdom, opening for the Beatles on a British tour.

Wells left Motown in 1965 and signed a contract with Atlantic Records in 1966. Later that year her son, “Dear Lover” reached the R&B top 10.  She also married Womack with whom she had two sons, Cecil Jr. and Harry, and one daughter, Stacy.

Wells retired from performing at 27 in 1970 to nurture her family. The retirement, however, was short-lived since from 1971 through 1974, she was back in the studio recording on the Reprise label. She divorced Cecil Womack in 1977 and began living with his brother, Howard Curtis Womack. They had a daughter together named Sugar.

In 1985, Wells appeared and was celebrated at “Motown’s 25th Anniversary “television special, and in 1989, she received an honorary Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation.

Mary Esther Wells died in Los Angeles, California, on July 26, 1992, of laryngeal cancer. She was 49 years old. After her death, the composition “My Guy” was posthumously inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 and in 2006 she was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.

27-year-old multi-hyphenate entertainer Keke Palmer is taking her viral Instagram comedy sketches to Amazon. Palmer has teamed up with Amazon Original Stories, an imprint of Amazon Publishing, to publish new short story series based on her original Instagram characters and sketch comedy videos.

A press release said readers and listeners will be able to download the collection as a Kindle eBook or as an Audible audiobook, performed by Palmer herself.

The idea for her comedy sketches was born nearly five years ago on Instagram. Her short binge-able sketches have amassed over 100 million views, with the headlining character, Lady Miss Jacqueline, gaining over 60 million views. 

“What started as an Instagram sketch, led me to one of my most beloved characters, Lady Miss Jacqueline. She’s always been larger than life—and a huge symbol of the moment when I realized I wanted to create worlds for my audience to get lost in. In effect, she was the beginning of my production journey. The opportunity to share what makes her not only funny but important, is exciting!” said Palmer. 

Palmer told Variety that Amazon shares in her plans for her sketches, and now she can co-produce her works with the giant media platform. The collection of comedy sketches will be published by Amazon Original Stories in fall 2021.

“The team at Amazon Original Stories and I have a shared vision and what they have already been able to accomplish pushes me to bring my best and then some. I can’t wait to together share a new side of Lady Miss, her truth, and comedy with the world!” said Palmer. 

So far, she has tackled issues about class, race, femininity, and culture in her short stories and is thrilled to embark on this new phase with Amazon, exploring more themes that are more relatable to people growing up in this millennium. 

“I think there are a lot of important themes that are going to be very relatable to the growing person in this millennium, and so I’m excited to see how they feel it’s expressed.”

Amazon Original Stories publisher Julia Sommerfeld said, “We are thrilled to team up with Keke to help expand her unique vision and an unforgettable cast of characters into a broader literary universe. 

“We like to think of Amazon Original Stories as serving as a playground for an innovator like Keke, to bring her ground-breaking characters to life in new ways and to push the boundaries of storytelling.”

Palmer’s short stories, featuring illustrations throughout, will take readers and listeners into the “hilarious and fully realized world of her beloved characters, expanding on their backstories and building a plot that answers the most asked questions from her fans,” according to the release.

Readers and listeners are not going to get a new story each time but will get a different point of view each time from the same story, Palmer said.

Marsai Martin is proof that age is not an excuse to put dreams on hold. The Guinness World Record holder for the youngest Hollywood executive producer has the green light from Disney to produce a Disney Channel original comedy series, Saturdays.

The 16-year-old, according to Deadline, will produce the pilot for Saturdays under her Genius Entertainment production company which she runs with her parents, Joshua and Carol Martin. This was after Disney ordered a single episode of the series.

Martin could not hide her joy as she celebrated the news on Instagram, writing, “Y’all see me seeing you, right? 😉 can’t wait for this! @disneychannel.”

Writer and executive producer Norman Vance Jr., who executive produced Moesha, Roll Bounce, and Girlfriends, will do the same for Saturdays, and Charles Stone III from Drumline and Black-ish fame will be the director. 

As Deadline reports of the show’s plot, “Saturdays follows Paris, who, since the age of four, has been honing her skills on the cool parquet floor of Saturdays, a local skating rink owned and operated by a former ’90s hip-hop back-up dancer.

“With its neon lights, galaxy-painted rink and killer D.J. spinning the latest music, Saturdays is the place to show and prove. Paris is the leader of a skate crew and is determined to take them all the way to the top. However, she has sickle cell disease, and when it flares up, it’ll take every ounce of determination to prove the doubters wrong, including her concerned family.”

Many are excited about the representation this project will bring for those who have been diagnosed with sickle cell disease. The lead character has sickle cell, a disease that affects mostly Blacks.

Although there is no apparent premiere date, the show’s principal cast has been revealed. Danielle Jalade as Paris Johnson will star as the determined 13-year-old roller skater who is determined to excel in her chosen sports despite her disability. Golden Brooks and Omar Gooding will play Paris’ parents and Jermaine Harris, her brother. Daria Johns and Samantha Smith will be her ride-or-die besties and per Deadline, rapper Yolanda “Yo-Yo” Whitaker was cast as the owner of Saturdays.

Though Martin broke into Hollywood after she was cast to play the role of Diane Johnson in popular sitcom Black-ish in 2014, the teen proved her talent went beyond acting when it was announced she was going to executive produce the movie, Little.

Then 14 years and 241 days at the time of the movie’s release in 2019, Martin wrote her name in the history books as Hollywood’s youngest ever executive producer. Martin, who successfully pitched the story to Black-ish creator Kenya Barris, said she had the idea for the movie when she was as young as 10 years old.

Besides executive producing the movie, Martin also starred in it alongside Issa Rae and Regina Hall. In the film, Martin plays the role of a younger Regina Hall after a little curse takes the strict businesswoman back to her little 13-year-old self.

Country music singer Mickey Guyton is set to sprinkle some Black girl magic at the 56th Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM Awards). This makes Guyton the first Black woman to host the yearly awards ceremony and she will be sharing the stage with Australian native country singer, Keith Urban.

This will be Urban’s second time hosting the show. He took the reins last year and even played the piano to accompany Guyton’s performance of her critically acclaimed hit, “What Are You Gonna Tell Her?”

Guyton has a lot to celebrate this year. She’s become one of the most celebrated people in the Nashville music community in recent times although she is yet to release a full album.

She is a first-time mom, welcoming her child in February. The singer has been nominated for New Female Artist of the Year for the ACMs and has another nomination for best country solo performance for the ever-timely song “Black Like Me” at this year’s Grammys which will air on Sunday, March 14.

Making another history as the first Black female solo artist to be nominated in the country category at the Grammys, Guyton will perform her nominated song at the ceremony, according to Billboard.

She has become more vocal in recent times on gender and racial issues and her Grammy nomination is for a song that was released at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement.

“As I’ve said before ‘if you can see it, you can be it,’ and it’s such an honor to step onto the ACM stage as the first-ever Black woman to host the show.

“Over the years, the Academy of Country Music has always been a home for me through opportunities both onstage and throughout their work on diversity and inclusion. This is a moment of great significance for me, and I am so thrilled to share it with all the fans.”

In the promotional video for the ACMs, Urban playfully asks Guyton to be his co-host. “I’m beyond thrilled to be co-hosting with my friend Mickey,” said Urban in a statement. “I love that finally, everyone will get to see her infectious energy and uber-creative spirit in full light.”

According to Variety, there are prominent Black male country singers but not so much for Black female country singers. Guyton has been in the game since 2011, working her way into the hearts of country lovers with her outstanding vocals.

Guyton is signed to Capitol Records Nashville. She released a self-titled EP in 2015 which earned her a nomination for her first Academy of Country Music Award for New Female Vocalist in 2016.

Last September, amid the pandemic, Guyton released another EP, “Bridges”, which has the Grammy-nominated “Black Like Me”. The protest-themed song made it to the Top 2020 songs by NPR, Billboard, and Associated Press.

Also making Black history at this year’s ACM Awards are three other artists — first-time nominee John Legend, Kane Brown, and Jimmie Allen.

The 56th ACM Awards will air via CBS on Sunday, April 18, at three different centers in Nashville — the Grand Ole Opry House, the Ryman Auditorium, and the Bluebird Café. They were the same venues for last year’s show due to COVID-19 safety protocols.

Seasoned comedian Cedric The Entertainer is adamant Bill Cosby deserves to be honored for his contributions to the Black community both on and off the set despite being convicted for aggravated sexual assault.

The 56-year-old initially paid homage to Cosby in an Instagram post on February 26 where he said the disgraced comedian “did a lot for the culture and the community.”

“The controversy of his current situation is not what these [sic] post are about!,” he clarified before adding: “He was one of the first Black Men we saw on TV that was truly his own boss. He taught us to know our worth in this business, He showed us how to give back to our communities and institutions.”

Cedric continued: “He was/ is Prolific, Funny and Audacious! He ruled on damn near every platform. Thursday nights became must see TV because of him, Film, Stage, Books, Animation, Recordings, all were places he reigned supreme. So he had to be shouted out, for his contribution to the Black History of Comedy. Show the Legend some Recognition!!”

In a follow-up interview with TMZ on Wednesday, Cedric re-echoed his initial sentiments, saying Cosby’s transgressions shouldn’t overshadow his influence and the good he has done for the Black community.

“We all live a full life with a lot of good things and some bad things. You pay the cost for all of it. If you get convicted, people wanna wipe out the [good] things that you did,” he said.

He added: “What I wanted to say was that for so many years of our lives Bill Cosby was the litmus…. Everything he did, the way he contributed and showed love to black people, the way he taught us how to do that for ourselves, the way we all learned to take pride in our culture and our history.”

Cedric also lauded Cosby’s media acumen, saying he laid the groundwork and foundation for the likes of Jay-Z and Tyler Perry to thrive.

Cosby was sentenced to three to 10 years in prison in 2018 on three counts of aggravated assault for drugging and sexually assaulting former basketball player Andrea Constand in his home in 2004. The comedian and actor’s case was the first high-profile celebrity conviction of the #MeToo era which was initiated to raise awareness of sexual harassment and sexual abuse in the workplace. Cosby also had several other women coming out to accuse him of sexual misconduct going back to almost 30 years.

The allegations against the actor and his eventual conviction were also followed by him losing several honors and business partnerships as well as people shelving his sitcom and anything that has to do with him.

Asked if Cosby could be forgiven for the crimes he committed, Cedric replied: “Redemption for certain crimes are going to be hard to come by. Abuse of the ladies, taking advantage of people that are unaware of their circumstance, I don’t know how much redemption you deserve for that.”

That notwithstanding, it appeared Cedric’s sentiments caught the ears of Cosby as he responded to his Instagram post in a tweet on Wednesday. “I plan to do more, too. Thank you very much for feeling, knowing & keeping the legacy alive through your great work,” Cosby’s Twitter account posted. “Thank You, Thank You & Thank You.”

Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall have disclosed that they were forced to put a White actor in Coming to America in order to prevent the cast in the iconic 1988 movie from being all-Black.

The two comedians and actors opened up on the reason behind that directive and also explained how Louie Anderson was ultimately cast during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, Independent reported. Anderson played the character Maurice, an employee at McDowell’s. The fictional restaurant was owned by Cleo McDowell (John Allen Amos Jr.), the father of Prince Akeem’s love interest, Lisa.

“I love Louie, but I think we were forced to put Louie in it,” Hall revealed to the show’s host. “We were forced to put [in] a White person.”

“The whole cast was Black and this was back in the Eighties,” Murphy added. “So it was like ‘We have to have a White person, there has to be a White person in the movie.”

The 59-year-old continued: “I was like, ‘What?’ So who was the funniest White guy around? We knew Louie was cool, so that’s how Louie got in the movie.”

Hall said he was presented with a list of three White actors to choose from, and he opted for Louie. “It was official. I had a list. They gave me a list with three White guys. They said, ‘Who would you rather work with?’ I said ‘Louie.’”

In the first installment of the movie, Prince Akeem (Eddie Murphy) leaves the Kingdom of Zamunda to America, where he seeks a wife. He is accompanied by his personal aide and best friend, Semmi (Arsenio Hall). For the second installment which is set to be premiered on March 5 on Amazon Prime, Prince Akeem finds out he has a son in America and travels back to Queens, NYC, with Semmi in search of the next heir of the Kingdom of Zamunda.

As previously reported, Coming 2 America features some popular Black actors and celebrities joining Murphy, Hall and some of the original cast members. The new faces in the sequel include Jermaine Fowler, Leslie Jones, Wesley Snipes, Tracy Morgan and Teyana Taylor.

In 2020 when Nissim Black introduced his new single ‘Mothaland Bounce’, it was aimed at “giving tribute to both his urban past” and current Orthodox Jewish life in Israel. Growing up in the Seward Park neighborhood of Seattle before moving to Israel in 2016, the African-American rapper said he had had to deal with questions like “‘Well, are you still Black? How Black are you? How does that work? But you’re also Jewish? Jews are white?’”

In ‘Mothaland Bounce’, the rapper revealed all that there is to know — the fact that he’s Black, Jewish, from Seattle, living in Jerusalem. He is a devout family man who reads the Torah, observes the Sabbath, keeps a kosher house, and dresses modestly. Interestingly, he continues to rap, showing up usually in a Black hat and coat as well as a white shirt with peyot (sidecurls) to perform.

Here’s his journey.

Black, formerly known as D. Black, was born on December 9, 1986, in a tough neighborhood in Seattle to James “Captain” Church Croone and Mia Black, who were both rappers in the late 1970s belonging to the rap groups Emerald Street Boys and Emerald Street Girls, respectively. At the age of two, his parents separated and his mom remarried.

Growing up in a family of drug dealers and takers, Black was raised by his mother and stepfather, as well as his maternal grandfather, who was a devout Muslim, making Islam Black’s first introduction to religion. All the while, Black was selling drugs and started smoking as well. At 13, he converted to Christianity after attending a summer camp.

“I had healthy relationships, not just dysfunctional ones. It felt like the home I never had.I never got to be a normal kid till I got to this place,” Black told The Guardian.

Converting to Christianity made him get away from the street mentality for a long time, he said. Then he started seeing changes in his music career, after having started rapping aged 13. At 17, a record label told him they would love to sign him but before that, he had to change his persona.

“50 Cent was huge in hip hop at the time. He moved the rap world back to gangsta rap. [The record company] asked me to toughen up my message; they wanted an edgier sound, cursing and so on. I wasn’t comfortable with that, it countered my Christian values. But then they faxed over a half-million-dollar proposal, so I started to curse pretty quick after that,” Black said.

He would subsequently release his first singles on an independent label under the name D. Black but just when he started rising in music, he got into an altercation with another artiste in 2008, and this led to a “kill-or-be-killed situation,” he told The Times of Israel. Black started praying about his situation, and those prayers eventually led him to Judaism. The move wasn’t surprising to him though considering he had grown up in a Jewish neighborhood in Seattle which had a synagogue.

Soon, Black and his wife both converted to Orthodox Judaism and remarried after their conversion in an Orthodox marriage ceremony in 2013. In three years, he and his wife, and their kids, made the journey to start their new lives in Israel and they have since not regretted it though it was tough from the beginning. “I come from a different background, you know, [a] more urban — trying to be nice and say this! — background,” he told Times of Israel. “Usually when you step on my shoe, or you bump into me, or you push me out of the way, that means that you want to fight. In Israel, it doesn’t mean it,” 33-year-old Black said, adding that he is getting used to his environment.

But being a Black religious Jew got him in the news in 2018 after his children were denied Jewish schools because they were Black. All in all, the African-American music star, who has about five albums to his credit including ‘Ali’yah’, ‘Nissim’ and ‘Lemala’, is optimistic that his music will break down the barriers between the African-American community and the more religious Jewish community.

“Quite honestly, I owe my life on a physical level, for sure, to the African-American community. They gave me everything I need — including my parents and everything. But then on a spiritual level, Judaism has given life to me. I feel like I owe my life [to Judaism],” he said.

“I’m willing to sacrifice even my standing and notoriety in [the] very religious world to be able to try to bring peace between the two because it means that much to me.”

Matthew Whitaker, from Hackensack, New Jersey, was born prematurely at 24 weeks, weighing 1 pound and 11 ounces. Doctors told his parents Moses and May Whitaker that he had less than a 50 percent chance of survival. He suffered many complications including retinopathy of prematurity, a disease caused by abnormal development of retinal blood vessels in premature infants which can lead to blindness.

His parents thought he wasn’t going to make it, and they did all they could to help him retain his vision. Over the course of two years, Whitaker underwent 11 surgeries. His parents decided to stop the procedures by the end of the second year as they felt “he was going through too much” and “the doctors weren’t seeing it was getting any better,” Whitaker’s dad, Moses, told 60 Minutes in an interview.

Doctors then warned that Whitaker might not be able to speak, walk or crawl since he had lost his eyesight. “…So a lot of his toys and stuff, we had to have sounds, so that he would want to crawl [and] want to reach those things,” Moses explained.

Whitaker did crawl to music. While an infant, he crawled to speakers just to feel the music. And by three years old, he was already exhibiting his musical prowess with a keyboard his grandfather gave to him as a present. Moses is still amazed at what little Whitaker did with that keyboard. To him, most kids do not play with both hands and do not play chords and harmonies but Whitaker did all of those.

Thus, Moses hired a piano teacher for him, who would later be shocked at his talent and creativity. Soon after he started taking his piano lessons, Whitaker, at age 11, began performing before crowds in various clubs and concert halls around the world, and he was doing so while completely blind. This caught the interest of Charles Limb, a surgeon and neuroscientist who has a musical background. Limb was interested in studying Whitaker’s brain to understand how he has mastered his talents.

With permission from Whitaker’s parents, he took the young prodigy to an MRI facility at the University of California, San Francisco, where he put him through a scanner with a small keyboard and asked him to play while the device took images of his brain. Whitaker also got involved in auditory tests while completing the MRI brain scan.

Scientists found that when the teen hears music, his entire visual cortex — the region that processes visual information — becomes activated. “Because he is blind we looked at his visual cortex. And we didn’t see any significant activity there at all,” Limb explained to 60 Minutes of the scans while Whitaker was listening to the lecture. “Then we switched the soundtrack for him and we put on a band that he knows quite well. … This is what changes in his brain.”

Limb and his team found that Whitaker’s entire brain is stimulated by music. They said it seems his brain is using the visual cortex region that is not being stimulated by sight to help him perceive music. “It’s sort of borrowing that part of the brain and rewiring it to help him hear music,” Limb said.

Whitaker thinks the results of his brain scans prove what he already knows — the fact that he loves music. And it is that love for music that has taken him to various tours both in the U.S. and abroad — in Italy, France, Indonesia, UK, Japan, Germany and Morocco.

The 19-year-old, who previously studied at The Harlem School of the Arts, has performed before The Youth Assembly at the United Nations headquarters in NYC, the Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, and Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC, among others. At just 10 years old, he was invited to perform at Stevie Wonder’s induction into the Apollo Theater’s Hall of Fame — a year after he had taught himself how to play the Hammond B3 organ. 

Having composed scores of original compositions, he recently appeared at the New Orleans Jazz Festival for the first time. Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night Producer Marion J. Caffey once said of Whitaker: “As composer, arranger and musician, Matthew Whitaker is beyond his years and focused on sharing his gifts and joy with the world. Enjoy, with the knowledge that there is more to come.”