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Nelson George | |
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 Nelson George in New York City 2023 | |
| Born | September 1, 1957 |
| Education | St. John's University |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1978–present |
| Spouse | Malika Weeden |
| Awards | Grammy Award, Album Liner Notes, James Brown Star Time Box Set, 1991 |
Nelson George (born September 1, 1957) is an American author, columnist, music and culture critic, journalist, and filmmaker. He has been nominated twice for the National Book Critics Circle Award. [1] [2] [3] [4]
George attended St. John's University. He was an intern at the New York Amsterdam News before being hired as black music editor for Record World . [5] He later served as a music editor for Billboard magazine from 1982 to 1989. While there, George published two books: Where Did Our Love Go: The Rise and Fall of the Motown Sound in 1986, and The Death of Rhythm & Blues in 1988. He also wrote a column, entitled "Native Son", for the Village Voice from 1988 to 1992. He first got involved in film when, in 1986, he helped to finance director Spike Lee's debut feature She's Gotta Have It . [6]
A lifelong resident of Brooklyn, New York, George still resides in the Fort Greene section of the borough. [7]
George has authored numerous non-fiction books, including the bestseller The Michael Jackson Story in 1984, Blackface: Reflections on African-Americans and the Movies in 1994, Elevating the Game: Black Men and basketball in 1992, and Hip Hop America in 1998. In 2005, he published Post-Soul Nation, which further developed his concept of "post-soul" black culture. With Alan Leeds, he co-authored The James Brown Reader, a collection of articles about the "Godfather of Soul," in 2008.
George's The Death of Rhythm and Blues chronicles and critiques the path that R&B has taken. He takes a close look at the genre's fall to the hands of the mainstream and even suggests that some popular artists "sold out". George further articulates in the book that many of the middle-class black Americans that listen to R&B began assimilating into white culture and losing their black roots.
George has written five detective novels featuring bodyguard-turned-private investigator D Hunter. All three novels—The Accidental Hunter, The Plot Against Hip-Hop: A Novel, and The Lost Treasures of R&B—have been optioned by rapper/actor Common. [8]
In 1991, George co-wrote the Halle Berry vehicle Strictly Business , and in 1993, he was co-creator of the movie CB4 starring comedian Chris Rock. [9]
In 2004, George made a short film called To Be a Black Man, starring Samuel L. Jackson, and a documentary called A Great Day in Hip-Hop. Both titles appeared in festivals in New York, London, and Amsterdam. He executive-produced the HBO film Everyday People which also debuted in 2004 at the Sundance Film Festival.
He served as co-executive producer of VH1's Hip Hop Honors television show and executive producer of Black Entertainment Television's American Gangster series, which was the highest rated series in the history of BET in 2006. His directorial debut, Life Support , starring Queen Latifah, aired on HBO on March 10, 2007. Latifah won several awards for her performance as Ana Wallace, including a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild award, and the NAACP Image Award. Life Support was also named best TV film of the year by the NAACP. He also hosted the VH-1 series Soul Cities, which examined the music and culture of six prominent cities in the U.S.
A resident of Fort Greene, Brooklyn, for more than 25 years, George wrote, narrated, and co-directed with Diane Paragas the 2012 feature documentary Brooklyn Boheme, portraying the uniquely vibrant and diverse African-American artistic community of Fort Greene and Clinton Hill during the 1980s and '90's that included Spike Lee, Chris Rock, Branford Marsalis, Rosie Perez, Saul Williams, Lorna Simpson, Toshi Reagon, writer Touré, writer Adario Strange, Guru of Gang Starr, Erykah Badu, and Talib Kweli, among many others. Unlike the legendary Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, which was largely a literary scene, the artists collected in these neighborhoods were as involved with newer means of expression (film, rock music, hip hop, avant garde theater, stand-up comedy, photography) as with traditional African-American artistic pursuits (poetry, jazz). The film premiered on Showtime Networks in February 2012 for Black History Month. Finding The Funk was released in March 2013; the film traced the history of funk music from the 1960s to the present day. This documentary included interviews with musicians such as D'Angelo, Sly Stone, Bootsy Collins, Mike D, Sheila E, and countless others. It was aired on VH1 on February 14, 2013. [10] In 2015, George released A Ballerina's Tale, a documentary on Misty Copeland, a principal ballet dancer for ABT (American Ballet Theatre). [11] [12]
In 2023 he was an executive producer of a new CBC docuseries Black Life: Untold Stories that examined the history, experiences and contributions of Black Canadians in broad area of the culture, including music, hip-hop, sports, to slavery and policing. [13]
A rap opera or hip hopera is a musical work in hip hop style with operatic form. The terms have been used to describe both dramatic works and concept albums, and hip hopera has also been used for works drawing more heavily on contemporary R&B than other hip hop such as rap.
Wild Style is a 1983 American hip hop film directed and produced by Charlie Ahearn. Regarded as the first hip hop motion picture, it includes appearances by seminal figures such as Fab Five Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, The Rock Steady Crew, The Cold Crush Brothers, Queen Lisa Lee of Zulu Nation, Grandmaster Flash and ZEPHYR.
CB4 is a 1993 American satirical mockumentary black comedy film directed by Tamra Davis and starring Chris Rock. The film follows a fictional rap group named "CB4", named after the prison block in which the group was allegedly formed. The movie primarily parodies gangsta rap and the rap group N.W.A, as well as taking inspiration from This Is Spinal Tap. It contains short segments featuring celebrities and musicians such as Halle Berry, Eazy-E, Butthole Surfers, Ice-T, Ice Cube, Flavor Flav, and Shaquille O'Neal.
Tamra Davis is an American film, television and music video director.
Bob Giraldi is an American film and television director, educator, and restaurateur. He is known for directing the film Dinner Rush (2000) and the music video for Michael Jackson's "Beat It" (1983). Giraldi has been inducted into the Art Director's Hall of Fame, one of the few film directors to be honored; and, in 2014, was the first director ever to be inducted to the Advertising Hall of Fame. His work has garnered several London International Awards, Cannes Advertising Awards, NY International Awards, Addy Awards, Chicago Film Festival Awards, and dozens of Clio Awards. He has been named one of the 101 Stars Behind 100 Years of Advertising.
Michael Thomas Holman is a New York-based artist, writer, filmmaker and musician. He is also an early 1980s downtown scene subculturalist and creator of the Hip Hop music program Graffiti Rock. Holman is a founding member, along with Jean-Michel Basquiat, of the experimental band Gray.
Glenn K. Bolton, widely known as Daddy-O, is an American rapper and record producer. He began his career by founding the hip-hop group Stetsasonic. He is known as an early advocate of sampling in music.
CB4 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is the official soundtrack to the 1993 comedy film of the same name. It was released on March 2, 1993, through MCA Records. The album has peaked at #41 on the Billboard 200 and #13 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The album is composed of twelve R&B and hip hop tracks from various artists and producers. It spawned a Blackstreet-performed single "Baby Be Mine", which peaked at #17 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. Three songs on the album were credited to the fictional CB4 group from the movie, the trio consisted of Chris Rock and rappers Daddy-O & Hi-C.
dream hampton is an American filmmaker, producer, and writer. Her work includes the 2019 Lifetime documentary series Surviving R. Kelly, which she executive produced, and the 2012 An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, on which she served as co-executive producer. She co-wrote Jay-Z's 2010 memoir Decoded.
Reginald Joseph Ossé, known professionally as Combat Jack, was a Haitian-American hip hop music attorney, executive, journalist, editor and podcaster. He was the former managing editor of The Source. He was the host of the podcast The Combat Jack Show and founding partner of the Loud Speakers Network. He was also the host of the Complex TV show version of The Combat Jack Show podcast.
Elliott Wilson is an American journalist, television producer, and magazine editor. He is the founder and CEO of Rap Radar. In the past, he has worked as editor-in-chief of XXL Magazine. While there, he became known for his editorials under the nickname "YN".
Serge Thony is an American singer and actor.
Hiplet is a newly recognized dance style that fuses ballet with hip hop. The term was first coined in 2009, but in May 2016, dancers from the Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center (CMDC) performing hiplet gained widespread popularity after a video of the dancers attained thousands of views on Instagram. ABC News subsequently invited the dancers to perform on a televised broadcast. The creation of this genre is attributed to Homer Hans Bryant of the CMDC. The CMDC is currently the only studio in the world that trains dancers in hiplet.
Selwyn Seyfu Hinds is an American screenwriter, comic book writer, film producer and former editor and journalist. He has been editor-in-chief of the hip-hop magazine The Source. He has written for The Twilight Zone 2019 TV series produced by Jordan Peele, and he has been selected to write and co-executive produce the TV series adaptation of Nnedi Okorafor's award-winning novel Who Fears Death?, with George R. R. Martin as executive producer. He is currently serving as creator, showrunner, and executive producer on the Hulu limited series Washington Black, based on the 2018 novel by Esi Edugyan.
Kamilah Forbes is an American curator, producer, and director. She created and directed the Hip Hop Theater Festival from 2000 to 2016. She has held directing roles for television and theater productions such as Holler if Ya Hear Me, The Wiz Live!, and the 2014 revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. Forbes was named executive producer of the Apollo Theater in 2016.
Brooklyn drill is a regional subgenre of drill music, which is a subgenre of rap music. It centered in Brooklyn, New York, that began as derivative of the drill music scene in Chicago and later became derivative of UK drill with its 808 percussion and sliding notes by producers from the UK drill scene. Brooklyn drill emerged around 2014 with the single "Hot Nigga" from the rapper Bobby Shmurda. Other early contributors were Rowdy Rebel, Bam Bino, Money Millz, Dah Dah and Curly Savv.
Clover Hope is a Guyanese-American music journalist. She was previously an editor at Billboard, XXL, and Jezebel. She is a contributing editor for Pitchfork as of 2020. Hope's debut book The Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop was released in 2021.
Jeff Sonhouse is an American painter, known for his mixed media portraiture dealing with Black identity. He is African American.
Bryonn Bain is a poet, actor, prison activist, scholar, author, hip hop artist and professor of African American Studies and World Arts & Cultures in the School of the Arts and the School of Law at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Byron Eugene Lewis Sr. is a retired advertising executive and business owner. Referred to in The New York Times as "the original Black media king," Lewis was instrumental in opening the eyes of major brands like Avon and Mars Candy, as well as the entertainment industry, to the buying power of African American consumers. Widely regarded as a pioneering ad man, Lewis came up with “The Diapers” ad for Lincoln Navigator, a national automotive account aimed for the first time at the urban Black middle class. He has been inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame and has received awards from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and Communications Excellence to Black Audiences (CEBA). The Smithsonian National Museum of American History is collecting Lewis's work.
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