Rhythm Revue Spotlight: Singer Millie Jackson

Although rap officially began in 1979 with the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rappers Delight,” rap was nothing new in R&B. Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Poets, Isaac Hayes, Betty Wright, and Marvin Gaye incorporated rap into their music.

One of the first singers to make speaking an important part of her performance was Millie Jackson.

Millie was born on July 15, 1944, in Georgia. As a child, she lost her mother and moved to New York, where she was raised by her father. She spent much of her childhood in Newark. As a teenager, she moved to Brooklyn with her aunt.

Wright was 20 when she began singing professionally in New York and recorded her first record for MGM in 1969.

In 1971, Millie Jackson moved to Spring Records, where she had her first big hits. The first top ten hit for Millie was “Ask Me What You Want”.

In 1974, Millie Jackson began incorporating the long, obscene passages into her music that made her famous.

Her album “Caught Up” featured her version of the Luther Ingram hit “If Loving You Is Wrong, I Don’t Want To Be Right”.

Millie Jackson was inducted into the Mississippi Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015. Happy birthday, Millie Jackson.