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Meet Mamie Smith, the first African American singer who gained instant fame but died broke

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Mamie Smith, on record as the first Black female singer, released a record titled “Crazy Blues” in 1920, making her the first to record and release a Blues song. This kicked down a previously locked door for Black female artists and their fans that kept them out of mainstream music.

The record became a smash hit in Black communities across the country, revolutionizing the blues genre and opening the doors of popular music to Black female artists.

More importantly, the success of “Crazy Blues” proved to the music industry that Black women could make hit records, and that there was a thriving market for Black, popular music.

Born in Cincinnati in 1891, she began her career in show business as a dancer with the Four Dancing Mitchells. By 1910, Smith was touring the Midwest and East Coast with the Smart Set Company, a Black minstrel troupe. She married singer William “Smitty” Smith in 1912. The couple moved to New York, where she began working as a cabaret dancer, pianist, and singer. Her first major break came in 1918 when she appeared in Perry Bradford’s musical “Made in Harlem.”

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Bradford had long dreamed of having Black singers record blues tunes for a mass market, but it was a tough sell for recording studios at the time. Eventually, Otto Heinemann, the president of fledgling OKeh Records, decided to take Bradford up on his idea, but Frederick Hager, the company’s recording manager, wanted Sophie Tucker, a white singer, to record the songs. Because Tucker signed with another label, Bradford convinced Hager to take a chance on Smith.

According to music critic Daphne Brooks, Smith, her fans, and the rallying behind the blues artists that followed her breakout success, helped pave the way for the fan armies that continue to surround Black women artists more than a century later, such as Beyonce’s “BeyHive” or Nicki Minaj’s “Barbz.”

“Mamie Smith almost singlehandedly jump-started the popularity of blues music in American culture,” says music journalist and author, Jas Obrecht, who profiled Smith for Living Blues magazine in 2019. “I would argue everybody who loves music and performs blues music, whether they know it or not, they owe a debt of appreciation to Mamie Smith.”

Smith’s popularity shot through the roof following “Crazy Blues,” which netted her about $100,000 in royalties, a fortune at the time. Her stage appearances, characterized by her signature glam style of shimmering gowns, plumes and diamond tiaras, raked in up to $1,500 a week. She later appeared in films, like the 1929 theatrical short “Jail House Blues” and 1939’s “Paradise in Harlem. But the success didn’t last, reports say.

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By the time of her death in 1946, Smith was reportedly penniless, without even a tombstone to mark her grave in Staten Island, New York. But what the singer lacked in material wealth, she made up for in cultural influence, setting the precedent for Black female artists to become pop music divas.

According to Brooks, Smith’s legacy has ironically been overshadowed by the Black female recording artists who came after her, even though it was Smith who kicked off the classic blues women’s era of the 1920s.

Source: face2faceafrica.com

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Mohbad’s wife reveals shocking allegation against father in-law’s counsel

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Olawumi Aloba, wife of late Nigerian singer, Mohbad, makes shocking allegation against her father-in-law’s attorney, Ayodele Famuyiwa demanding a DNA test for her son, Liam.

Notably, Wunmi and her father-in-law, Joseph Aloba, have been embroiled in a controversy, with him accusing her of involvement in Mohbad’s death.

In a recent Instagram post, Wunmi accused her father-in-law’s attorney of plotting to harm her son.

According to Wunmi, she has remained silent amid the controversy in 2023, due to lack of courage, citing how he used social media to attack her and her son.

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Furthermore, Wunmi claimed that the purpose of a DNA test is to compel her father-in-law to lay Mohbad to rest.

Her post reads, “Ayodele Famuyiwa has threatened to take Liam out of the way.He’s my father-in-law power of attorney. Nigerians please help me beg me father-in-law to do DNA.If not anything but for the sake of Mohbad, I’ve been ready to speak since 2023. I didn’t just have the courage to speak up because of how he has used the media to attack my son and I.Liam doesn’t deserve to go through all this”.

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Another headache for VDM as Mercy Chinwo files N1.1bn defamation against him

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Popular gospel singer, Mercy Chinwo, has filed a N1.1 billion lawsuit against social media commentator Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan over alleged defamation.

The lawsuit, dated March 3, follows allegations made by VeryDarkMan in February, in which he accused Chinwo of diverting funds from shows without paying her former record label, owned by Ezekiel Onyedikachukwu, also known as EeZee T.

He further claimed that the singer breached her contract with the label before her exit.

Chinwo’s lawyer, Pelumi Olajengbesi, described VeryDarkMan’s remarks as “libellous, malicious, and damaging” to her reputation.

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He argued that VeryDarkMan was not directly involved in the dispute between Chinwo and EeZee T but had misrepresented the matter in a way that harmed her public image.

According to Olajengbesi, VeryDarkMan shared multiple videos with his vast audience, allegedly portraying Chinwo in a “caricaturist and disdainful” manner while supporting EeZee T’s side of the dispute. He contended that these videos were intended to ridicule the singer.

In the lawsuit, Olajengbesi stated, “The Claimant avers that she has neither had any form of relationship with the Defendant nor was the Defendant involved in the issue between the Claimant and Mr. EeZee T in any material particular.

“The Claimant avers that the statements which the Defendant made in the videos he published on his Instagram page were as though the Defendant was personally involved in the issues between the Claimant and Mr. EeZee T; however, these statements were not only false but damning and injurious to the Claimant’s public image and reputation.”

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Chinwo is seeking a court order compelling VeryDarkMan to delete the alleged defamatory posts from all his social media platforms. Her lawyer also demanded that VeryDarkMan issue a public retraction and an unreserved apology in two widely circulated national newspapers and across his social media platforms.

Also, Olajengbesi is asking the court to award N1 billion as general damages for defamation, N100 million as punitive and aggravated damages, N25 million as the cost of the suit, and 10% interest on the judgment sum per annum until full payment.

He also requested that VeryDarkMan publish the apology in four national dailies for 14 consecutive days.

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Sad! Dolly Parton’s husband Carl Dean is dead

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Carl Dean, the longtime husband of country music star, Dolly Parton, died on Monday at the age of 82.

Dean, who was famously private throughout his nearly 60-year marriage to Parton, died in Nashville, Tennessee, according to a statement she posted on social media.

Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared for over 60 years. Thank you for your prayers and sympathy,” the statement read.

Two years later, on May 30, 1966, the couple exchanged vows at a private ceremony in Ringgold, Georgia.

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Throughout their marriage, Dean remained out of the public eye, choosing instead to focus on his asphalt-paving business in Nashville.

Though he largely stayed out of the limelight, Dean continued to influence Parton’s work, most notably inspiring her classic hit “Jolene.”

She told US media in 2008 that the song was about a bank teller who developed a crush on Dean. “She got this terrible crush on my husband,” Parton said. ”

And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us—when I was saying, hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money. So it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”

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Parton and Dean’s relationship remained such a mystery that rumours started that he did not exist – but Parton joked about that.
“A lot of people say there’s no Carl Dean, that he’s just somebody I made up to keep other people off me,” she said to the Associated Press in 1984.

Parton and Dean had no children together.

He is survived by his siblings, Sandra and Donnie, Parton’s statement said.

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