RL Gant

12/23/2024

09/30/2024

June 19-21, 2025.

01/27/2024

We’re seeing a lot of ads animated, in print and on TV with obvious female with dark skin and male with white skin as featured participants. And not the other way around. I am disturbed as a man of color to see that their must be a conscious effort to exclude men of color in these ads, or is it that many white males still think that they are entitled to anything that they want, as has always been the case and that women of color will accept these images of exclusion as OK.

01/02/2024

He released more than 50 albums but had his greatest commercial success with “Compared to What,” a recording that came together at the last minute in 1969.

04/07/2023

Should we do business in a State where two African American men were disgracefully expelled from the Congress of Tennessee yesterday? A State where their white colleague also facing expulsion she said that she was saved by 1 vote, because of the color of her white skin?

03/03/2023

I am absolutely stunned and extremely sad to hear of the passing of Maestro Wayne Shorter. I will go about this day thinking about all of the joy this great saxophonist, composer, wise sage and great human being shared with me and all of us. I will listen to Armageddon, The Last Silk Hat, Children of the Night, Midnight in Carlottas Hair, Miracle of the Fishes, From the Lonely Afternoons, Elegant People, Lusitanos and I’ll ride with him, On the Milky Way Express. :(((

02/25/2023

September 1-3 Memphis TN. Join the experience!

01/30/2023

R.I.P Barrett Strong. You live on through your prolific career as a great songwriter. “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” is one of the greatest songs ever written. And you didn’t even stop there.

It is with great sadness that we share the passing of legendary Classic Motown singer and songwriter Barrett Strong.

The voice behind Motown's first hit, the iconic “Money (That’s What I Want),” was born in West Point, Mississippi on February 5, 1941 and was raised in Detroit.

After touring throughout the city with his siblings, Strong’s ethereal vocal style caught the attention of Jackie Wilson who introduced him to Berry Gordy. In April of 1959, Barrett was signed to Gordy’s Tamla Records and, later that month, released his first-ever single, “Let’s Rock.”

In July of that same year—after overhearing an in-studio conversation between Mr. Gordy and Motown songwriter Janie Bradford—Strong started playing the piano and, within moments, “Money (That’s What I Want)” was created. The song eventually reached #2 on the U.S. R&B charts, #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 and ultimately #288 on Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

Mr. Strong later paired with Motown producer Norman Whitfield to create some of the label’s most successful and critically acclaimed songs including “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” made famous by both Marvin Gaye and Gladys Knight & the Pips, Edwin Starr’s “Where I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home), and the Temptations' 1973’s Recording Academy / GRAMMYs Award-winning “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone,” and 1971’s Billboard Charts #1 hit “Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me).”

Barrett’s prolific career and contributions as one of Motown’s top lyricists earned him induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and Motown family and fans around the world.

10/26/2022

Hear, hear! Are you listening marketers?

"We need to break the [general market] media reach habit," he said during his opening ANA keynote.