June is Black Music Month, Countdown of Shamontiel's Top 30 African-American Artists

June Black Music Month Artist Musiq Soulchild

Shamontiel, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jun 19, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

President George W. Bush had a lot of screw-ups during his eight-year term, but he did do a couple things right. One of them was proclaiming June as Black Music Month on May 31, 2002. June is here, and to celebrate Black Music Month, I'll be featuring one of my favorite artists each day, sharing my first or most personal memory of them, explain what their accomplishments are and why I felt they should make the Black Music Month Top 30 list. There will be some oldies, some newbies and some artists who are in between stages.

My June 20 selection is Musiq Soulchild.

Since June 20 is Father's Day, here's a little trivia about the artist. He was one of nine children and his musician father was the person who turned him on to so much '70s music, creating a hip-hop and soul singing son. According to AskMen.com, Musiq had this to say about his father, "My father is my best friend, just growing up with him inspired me to appreciate music that much more because he appreciates music."

Black Music Month Heat Factor "Why's this artist hot?": With Musiq Soulchild's first single "Just Friends (Sunny)," fans got something new in the neo-soul market. Musiq blended beat boxing, hip-hop beats, R&B themes and neo-soul grooves into one package and made it a hit. The Philly native was in his early 20s when he released his first album, and both R&B and hip-hop audiences could connect with him because he gave us a little of both. He was neither hip-hop flashy or old school soul in his dress attire, but from his build, neat hair (even when it was all over the place like on "Aijuswanaseing" cover) and the shades, he had swagger to him and a cool element to his music. He was different, relevant and his music is timeless, able to connect with both men and women for various reasons. Women love his honest, raw songs about love and men appreciate his honesty about how he's still trying to learn exactly how love works. Musiq also has some bed-rocking hits and a reputation for uniquely spelled albums like "Juslisen," "Soulstar," "Luvanmusiq" and "Onmyradio."

First Memory, Most Personal Memory of the Artist: You hear it all the time, but word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways to make a song or an artist popular. I'd heard Musiq's first single "Just Friends (Sunny)" several times on the radio and saw the video. However, when I went shopping with two of my godsisters, their mother and a friend, and my mother to an outlet mall, one of my godsisters started beatboxing to the opening beat of his single. The more she hummed the song while she shopped, the quicker it got stuck in my head. I got into it to the point that I went home and searched endlessly to find the song. In 2000 when the song came out, this was before YouTube and Project Playlist and all the rest of those music sites were popular so I had to sit in front of a television and listen to the radio waiting for the music video or song to come on again. I got so impatient that I just went ahead and bought the CD because I liked the song that much. Five CDs later and I'm still a fan.

Accomplishments from the Artist: Musiq Soulchild has had some bangers on the Billboard charts, including "Ifyouleave" and "Sobeautiful" (11 weeks), "Buddy" and "Whoknows" (13 weeks), "Girl Next Door" (16 weeks), "Forthenight" (17 weeks), "Just Friends (Sunny)" (19 weeks), "Teachme" (20 weeks), "Love" (22 weeks), "Luvanmusiq" (24 weeks), "Halfcrazy" (25 weeks), "Dontchange" (26 weeks) and "Juslisten" (35 weeks). (Note: Billboard.com's numbers for chart history do not match in both "Chart History" and "The Basics." "The Basics" category says "Teachme" was on the charts for 58 weeks instead of 20 weeks. Either way, it was a number of weeks that showed people in the R&B and Billboard Top 200 were paying attention.) 2002's "Juslisen" album stayed on the Billboard 200 Albums for 35 weeks and "Luvanmusiq" lasted on the same list for 24 weeks. He's also gotten numerous award nominations, including a 2004 Grammy nomination for "The Best Urban Alternative Performance" and has contributed music to Tyler Perry's movie soundtracks. The most recent was on 2008's "Meet the Browns" soundtrack. In 2007, he created the annual "GivemoreLove Day" in which he buys food, clothes and toiletries for Philadelphia and Atlanta women's shelters and children's hospitals. He holds free concerts for these groups on his birthday, too.

Other Black Music Month Selections:

June 1 Trey Songz

June 2 Marvin Gaye

June 3 Rakim Allah

June 4 Brandy Norwood

June 12 Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott

June 13 Ne-Yo

June 14 Michael Jackson

Published by Shamontiel

Shamontiel is the author of Round Trip and Change for a Twenty, and in mid-October became the Chicago Tribune s Digital News Editor. She works on National Travel, Health and occasionally Breaking News, and w... View profile