The Chicago-based television production company Central City Productions will present the 2020 Black Music Honors on November 21-December 13. Television and radio personality Rickey Smiley will return as host of the two-hour special, honor artists and musicians who has been significant influencers and made substantial contributions to American music. The honorees for this year’s Black Music Honors include Grammy Award-nominated R&B legends En Vogue who is recognized as one of the top five highest-selling American female music groups in history. They will receive the Urban Music Icon Award for their three decades in the industry. Also, Grammy Award-winner, actress, and Broadway star Deborah Cox will receive the Entertainer Icon Award. Multiple Stellar Awards and Grammy Award-winner and producer Fred Hammond will receive the Gospel Music Icon Award. The National Museum of African American Music will be honored with the Legacy Award. Founder and Executive producer of this legacy, Don Jackson, states,
“I am extremely excited about the 5th Annual 2020 Black Music Honors television special and our legendary awardees. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to stay committed to producing the Black Music Honors as a means of celebrating music icons who are often overlooked in receiving their much-deserved recognition.â€
Performers of this event include Musiq Soulchild, Raheem DeVaughn, Tweet, Major, June’s Diary, Brian Courtney Wilson, D Smoke, Evvie McKinney, Marvin Sapp, RL, and Shelea. The show will be airing on November 21st at noon EST on Bounce TV. Sponsors of the show include State Farm, AT&T, Walmart, Johnson &Johnson, and Bounty. Media personality Pat Prescott coordinated the whole panel event with Marvin Sapp, Brian Courtney Wilson, Major, and Don Jackson with an engaging conversation about The Black Music Honors.
Q: How does it feel to be apart of the Black Music Honors?
Major: It’s an honor to rise in the seat to bring more spotlight and highlight to a culture that has been the leading contributor to what we know as American History and to World History. We have come to a tense journey where we have overcome. We have also created music from that place. We have to work often, twice or three times hard to deliver what other people have delivered and to be accepted as the same.
Brian: I forgot who states this quote “Honor up, Honor down, Honor all-around” So I think about Black Music Honors and this opportunity given to honor each other. I think it makes the whole world great. We have this opportunity to strive for value and worth to one another unapologetically after contending forward and finding the resources to do it.
Marvin: It’s always to be a privilege to have the opportunity to share to the masses what we have perfected, what we have done. We don’t get the respect that we deserve. I’m glad we are in a season where we can honor ourselves, and that’s why this is so important to me. So many times, we look for validation and honor outside of ourselves. This is my first time, and I am ecstatically excited because I get to be a part of an event, and I can honor those who work alongside me who have done great things in this industry.
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Q: The job you have, Don, is significant, and because of the pandemic this year, this will be the first time doing it virtually. Tell us more about the History of the production company with Central City Productions.
Don: Well, you know this isn’t my first rodeo to Black Music Honors (chuckles). Many people don’t know that I did a show about forty years ago called Celebrate the Soul American Music. We honored people like Donna Hathaway, Etta James, Lionel Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, The Dells, etc. We did it out in LA for three years, and that’s what we called it. That’s when we were working with the Tribune Publishing Company. I cut my teeth on learning the production aspects of how to get it on, how to sell it and left the Tribune. Don Cornelius and I started Soul Train under Tribune Central City Productions, and that’s where I learned all the production aspects of it. We have so many great things that we haven’t done yet. God gives us those ideas, and we have to step out on it on Faith and believe that He will bring you the things to make it happen. I committed to bringing the show Celebrate the Soul American Music back when we get our network together. Right now, we are still doing our shows. I’m still a young senior (chuckles), and I have a lot more to do.
Q: How important is it to expand your brand besides your music?
Marvin: I’m a firm believer in having multiple streams of income, especially in the clothing season, because I know many artists who are struggling, and the reason why they are struggling because they are only focused on one aspect of work as a gift and using their talent to expand their brand. For me, I do books; I do masterclasses, I pastor a church, I’m a song-writer. Now I have done many things by using that one moment of the songs that took off, and I wanted to make sure that I maintained my livelihood and the type of life I enjoy living even if I don’t sing another song again. I started doing that when I got in commission and saw so many different artists. I remember sending my check to when Danny Bell Hall passed away to help bury her. I looked at my late wife Melinda and said that would never happen to us. So yeah, I might buy some red bottoms, a custom-made suit, or a specific type of car, but I’m going to make sure I’m going to have somewhere to pull it up to. I want to challenge all artists to make sure you are doing the things necessary to invest in your life to have the type of life you want to live. Don’t’ limit yourself; stretch, and if you can do it, I feel that the rest of your days will be better.
Q: You are known as the “hope dealer†With everything that is going on right now, how are you keeping hope?
Major: Yes, they do call me the hope dealer. Shout out to Billy Johnson of Yahoo Music. I have committed to this commission that hopes it is a conversation that I need to have with the people to understand better what it is. Through the song, I have “Doves Cry,” hope is not the denial of reality, but the hope is greater on the other side. It is not the denial of your struggles, hardship, confusion, or lack of clarity, but it is the commitment of believing that greater is on the other side. We all have testimonies of what we have been through, and we got through it; it didn’t stop us. We have to take these moments as lessons so the next time we deal with this, we can have the hope conversation and know that this is only temporary. God has it all under control.
Q: Brian, your new album “Still†came at a perfect time due to all what is going on today. Why do you feel that gospel and inspirational music is so important?
Brian: One of the songs we did on the album called “Inner City Blues” was written close to fifty years ago by Marvin Gaye, and we didn’t have to change a lyric. Every lyric is still relevant today. But the gospel in this message determines that we don’t have to settle for the blues, and there is good news behind what we are going through. When the story ends, there is victory, and that there is hope for all of us.
Q: Are there any performers you are looking forward to seeing perform?
Marvin: I can answer that. I am looking forward to all of them because I have the opportunity to be behind the scenes, and it is going to be a fantastic collection of moments.
Brian: I agree! I am looking forward to everything, especially (singing) “How did you get here.”
Q: Because this is the Black Music Honors, what song do you consider to be the theme song of your life?
Don: I love “Never Would Have Made it” This speaks for me for what I’ve done through high school, to college, and the stigmata racism. You have to think about what brought you through, and that song speaks to me every time.
Marvin: I have to think about that because there is so much music. I think for me because we go through so many things in life, and there is a song for each moment. When my heart was broken, “Used to be my Girl” by the O’Jays was my song.
Brian: I will give you three:
“A Song for You†by Donny Hathaway
“As†by Stevie Wonder
“A Great Work†Brian Courtney Wilson
Be sure to watch The Black Music Honors that will air on November 21, 2020 at 12 noon on Bounce TV.
Connect with The Black Honors:
Instagram: @blackmusichonors
Website: www.blackmusichonors.com
Patrice Rivers is a media mogul creating her own lane in the world of journalism and media with a total of nine books published. She is the owner of That Riverz Gurl Brand which she specializes in writing magazine articles, serving as a certified journalist and creating. Patrice also created “Let’s Talk Cell Talk” that promotes the awareness of Sickle Cell Disease. Visit her website at www.thatriverzgurlbrandllc.com to learn more.Â
