Dennis Edwards died this week, at the "tender" age of 74, after a lengthy illness.
74 is not old. We all are expressing our love and appreciation and that's good. But this is how I see the "big picture ":
So many Black legends who gave us LIFE with their gifts, died sick, broke and broken... largely because the managers and label execs, through whom they shared their gifts, were "poverty pimps", exploiting our desperate Black desires to get out of the ghetto. They let them enjoy some screaming fans while packing tour dates and working like Georgia slaves to keep up unreasonable schedules (Example: Prince performed like an OLYMPIC ATHLETE show after show, for YEARS, then gets painted as a "drug addict" after he dies, for taking pain meds. Lady Gaga cancels a big chunk of her tour from pain, and a public doctor's statement is issued officially endorsing it as "understandable").
No such "understanding" has ever been granted Black artists, to my recollection... not from their contract owners OR us... the fans. Many of them grow old, sick, penniless and without insurance, and with no help from us.. the people who claim to love them so much, after they die in that state. I don't know if that was the case with Dennis Edwards, but I know it is way too common with the Black legendary performers who truly did give us "the soundtrack of our lives".
Furthermore, I'm stunned and ashamed to learn that my hometown, Chicago, where he also lived and died, not only paid no tribute, but two of the top Black stations, V103 and 106.3, decided to do a late, paltry, and ill-timed "tribute", this afternoon... not only on the low listener day of Sunday, but on SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!
I have to ask what Roberta Flack asked: "Where is the love?"
I remember going to a UNCF fundraiser in 1996, where The Ohio Players performed. The UNMATCHABLE guitar legend, Sugar foot, looked like he'd pulled himself out of a hospital bed to perform... scarily thin, more missing teeth than present ones... I can only imagine that he had to take the gig because he needed the money. Still, he flirted, from stage, with one of my friends and we all got a big kick out of that. Sadly, he died not long after that. I could tell he was sick!
These labels that own their catalogs, and profit enormously and eternally, at their expense, ought to, AT LEAST, set up a fund for the aging artists from whom they profit. The LEAST they can do is establish a housing and Healthcare fund for them. When Prince had "Slave" written across his cheek, he was right! Now, post death, they tried to profit off him with a hologram performance at today's Superbowl, despite his specific request to NEVER let them make a hologram out of his image. His family and Sheila E were able to successfully block it.... for now.
Some of you are sayimg that its the artists' fault for squandering their money. Well to this I say, Sam Cook didn't. Jackie Wilsom didn't. Michael Jackson didnt. And Prince did all an artist can humanly do to control his product, his image, and ownership of his art.
But they all met the same fate.
Destroyed slowly if you do.... Destroyed abruptly if you don't.
The bottom line is that the ivory tower "owners" stay anonymously secure, moving the artists like pieces on the contract checkerboard until they've cornered them and checkmated them. Then they loot the archives.
Now that the Black pioneers are dying, the corporations own all their music, and white performers comprise 90+% of the Billboard charts, DO know that they will be rifling through those catalogs to take the sounds...the genre our artists invented, and reintroduce it as their own. These new generations will never know because they weren't around to hear the originators!
Look at Bruno Mars and Cardi B's new song, for example! This new generation wasnt around to hear the emergence of Teddy Riley and New Jack Swing or watch In Living Color from which the video was COMPLETELY swiped! To them it looks "fresh"! Oh its gonna get much worse folks.
Tragic. Tragic. Tragic! Like I said, as the "Creators" die, the least the pimps can do is throw them a few crumbs to help them die comfortably. This isn't happening.
But this is the thing. Music is woven into the Black DNA. It's ethereal, celestial and is as much a part of us as our breath. No matter what gets co-opted... our culture, languages, health, wealth, or liberty, as long as we are breathing, we will always create. "Our breath stirs the winds that raise the tides. Our song wakes creation at dawn. WE are history's heartbeat." ** and we will ALWAYS be legacy builders, no matter what they steal.
There's a reason it's called, "Soul" music.
God Bless you, and thank you, Dennis Edwards. I can only hope you felt the love we had for you while you were on this side. I pray you are now soaring high on "Cloud 9".
**Lyrics from my song, "Reminder", on my CD, "Evolution Of A Woman". Www.Reverbnation.com/Rayelity
Copyright Lisa Rayel Jeffrey
All Rights Reserved.
#MakeUseOfTheSacrifices
