June 2008 is the 30th Black Music Month. In 1979, Philly soul maestro Kenny Gamble lobbied Jimmy Carter to designate June as Black Music Month. Each June since, the president in office has issued a proclamation marking the remembrance.

Black music in the United States dates back to slavery times, when field workers adapted African songs to Christianity and created "Negro spirituals," a genre popularized by Fisk University's Fisk Jubilee Singers in the 1880s. The turn of the century brought ragtime -- championed by the likes of Scott Joplin and Eubie Blake. That genre soon gave way to the big-band jazz of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway and countless other greats; be-bop and free jazz followed them.

At the same time, musicians in the Mississippi Delta, Texas and other parts of the South developed country blues, using guitar as their main instrument. The early legends included Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson; many of the music's pioneers gravitated to Memphis (B-B-King) and Chicago (Muddy Waters) and picked up electric guitars. Urban blues and big band adaptations laid the groundwork for R-and-B (rhythm and blues) in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Chuck Berry turned all that into the roots of rock and roll.

R-and-B itself grew to enormous popularity in the 1960s with the rise of Detroit's Motown Records, the home to such icons as The Supremes, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Jackson Five and Stevie Wonder. The genre remained popular through the '70s, but Motown gradually lost influence to disco and a generation of Philadelphia-based artists, including Kenny Gamble and his partner Leon Huff, who created hits for Thom Bell, Harold Melvin and The O'Jays, among others.

Around the time President Carter inaugurated Black Music Month, a new genre was brewing up in the parks and projects of New York City -- hip-hop. Rap was pioneered by D-J Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and The Sugar Hill Gang, who set the scene for old school stars like Run-D-M-C, Big Daddy Kane and Afrika Bambaataa. In their wake came such stars as Jay-Z, Sean "Diddy Combs," The Notorious B-I-G and Tupac Shakur, as well as contemporary stars including 50 Cent, The Game, Snoop Dogg and T-I. And R-and-B has stayed strong over the years, creating superstars of such songstresses as Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Beyonce Knowles and Alicia Keys.

As we begin the 30th Black Music Month, we encourage you to explore the history of African-American music and to recall the contributions of great black artists over the years.



Al. B Sure Celebrates 40th Birthday with his sons.
Al B. Sure!, born Albert Brown on June 4th, 1969 in Boston, became one of the most popular voices to emerge from New York during the "New Jack Swing" era of the late '80s and early '90s.

A star quarterback at Mount Vernon (New York) High School, Al turned down a football scholarship to the University of Iowa to attend the Center for the Media Arts in New York. After entering a songwriting contest in 1988, Al won on a deciding vote from Quincy Jones and signed with Warner Brothers Records. He released his debut, In Effect Mode, that year. It was a smash, spawning such hits as "Nite and Day" and "Off on Your Own." He also covered Roberta Flack's "Killing Me Softly." Al's looks gained him legions of female fans and pushed his career over the top.

His 1990 sophomore effort, Private Times and the Whole Nine, included the hit "Misunderstanding." He also appeared on "The Secret Garden," a hit ballad also featuring Barry White, James Ingram and El DeBarge.

Although he hasn't released a full album of new material since 1992's Sexy Versus, Al has found success producing for other artists. The Very Best of Al B. Sure! was released in 2003.

No ALTERATIONS
The R. Kelly child pornography trial heard testimony yesterday from a forensic expert who said that the images of the male and female in the sex tape at the center of the case weren't computer generated or altered. George Skaluba told jurors that the video appears to depict "real people in a real environment," adding that it would be costly and time consuming to create digital images. Kelly's lawyers have maintained he is not the man in the tape.


More On the R. Kelly Trial
While the young woman at the center of the R. Kelly child pornography case insists she's not the female depicted on the infamous tape, one of her friends begs to differ. Audrey Hampton, a Chicago-area college student, says she recognized both Kelly and the woman on the tape, and testified that the alleged victim was definitely under-age at the time. Hampton said she and her friend visited the R-and-B star at his recording studio "dozens of times" when they were in their early teens. Hampton's mother testified that she found a copy of the sex tape in her daughter's bedroom eight years ago, viewed parts of it and then tossed the tape into the trash. Also testifying yesterday was Stephanie "Sparkle" Edwards, a former backup singer for Kelly who introduced the singer to the young girl -- a relative. Edwards said that Kelly "liked her spirit." In identifying the girl on the tape, Edwards testified, "You know your blood...you just know your family."