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On May 1, it was revealed that Dallas Penn, a dot connector, fashion architect, sneaker savant, pioneering podcaster and much, much more—had passed away. He was 53.
“Dallas has ascended to the music that was waiting for him,” posted his wife on Penn’s Facebook page. “From September 1970 to April 2024, he always said it don’t stop, it won’t stop, and he’s waiting for us all at the Funkadelic Stevie Wonder Sean Price party in the sky. Rest my love and see you in our other lifetimes. Love you always, for all time.”
Instantaneously, the tributes began pouring in, a testament to the indelible impact Penn managed to leave on culture. In the early 2000’s Dallas Penn paved ground as a vlogger and podcaster, harnessing the then still relatively untapped power of interconnect networks of “The Internets.”
Penn was critical in the creation of The Combat Jack Show with Reggie “Combat Jack” Show, which is often credited with popularizing the podcast format, particularly in Hip-Hip circles. You can just ask DJ Ben Hameen, he was there.
But it’s DJ Premier who may have said it best about the Queens native with the all-city rep. “To know Dallas Penn is to love Dallas Penn.Funny, Super Hip Hop, Lo Gear Head, will look at you like he doesn’t believe you,” he wrote in an Instagram tribute.
Penn’s sharp wit, passionate insight and enthusiasm for life itself made him a friend to many in this industry—including the writer of this story. Hip-Hop Wired was fortunate enough to include Dallas Penn and the late Combat Jack as contributors.
Hip-Hop Wired’s condolences go out to the family and friends of the inimatable Dallas Penn. Rest in power dear friend—it never stops. See more tributes to Dallas Penn in the gallery.
Sandra Crouch, the late Andraé Crouch’s twin sister who co-wrote “Jesus Is the Answer,” has died. She was 81.
Sandra Crouch passed away on Sunday, March 17 at Northridge Hospital in Northridge, California, following complications from radiation for a non-cancerous brain lesion, Billboard has learned.
Sandra and Andraé were born on July 1, 1942, in Los Angeles to parents who went into ministry and founded Christ Memorial Church C.O.G.I.C. in 1951. The siblings began performing music together around 1960 as The COGICS, alongside friends who were active at church.
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Andraé went on to form the group Andraé Crouch & The Disciples, and Sandra worked as a percussionist in Hollywood. As a percussionist, Sandra’s credits included playing on notable projects like The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back,” Neil Diamond’s Tap Root Manuscript and Janis Joplin’s Pearl album.
In the 1970s, Crouch joined her brother with The Disciples, singing, playing and co-writing songs including “Jesus Is the Answer,” which became a mainstay on gospel radio.
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Among the twins’ musical accomplishments together was backing Michael Jackson on several songs on History – Past, Present and Future Book 1, and on “Man in the Mirror” when Jackson performed it live at the Grammys in 1988. Both Andraé and Sandra also worked on film soundtracks for 1985’s The Color Purple, 1993’s Free Willy and 1994’s The Lion King.
Sandra released three of her own albums in the 1980s, all of which resulted in Grammy nominations — and collected a Grammy for one of them.
Her first solo album, We Sing Praises — featuring singles “He’s Worthy,” “There’s Power in the Blood” and “We Need to Hear From You” — was released in 1983. The set earned Crouch three nominations and won the award for best soul gospel performance, female at the 26th annual Grammy Awards.
We’re Waiting, Crouch’s sophomore solo album, arrived in 1985 with the song “Completely Yes.” The album and track were nominated for best soul gospel performance by a duo, group, choir or chorus at the 28th annual Grammy Awards, though Crouch did not take home an award this time around.
Crouch’s third and final solo album, With All of My Heart, was released in 1992. It received a nomination, but did not win, for best gospel album by a choir or chorus at the 35th annual Grammy Awards. She went on the road in support of the album with Daryl Coley and the Richard Smallwood Singers on the Gospel: Good for the Soul Tour.
Sandra won two GMA Dove Awards for traditional gospel album, first for We Sing Praises in 1984, and then for With All of My Heart in 1993.
Andraé Crouch had taken over their parents’ church, Christ Memorial COGIC in San Fernando, California, in 1998 and ordained Sandra as a co-pastor, which defied the COGIC denomination’s policy against female preachers. They gave the church a new name: New Chris Memorial Church.
Sandra assumed the role of senior pastor beginning in 2015, when her brother passed.
The church’s assistant pastor, Kenneth J. Cook, released a statement about Sandra’s death last week via social media, writing, “It’s with a heavy heart that I announce that at 12pm today, March 17, 2024, our beloved Senior Pastor Sandra Elaine Crouch transitioned into the arms of the Lord. We as believers know that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. We will forever cherish the memories and teachings we received from her.”
Crouch’s life will be celebrated with an April 16 viewing and musical tribute at New Christ Memorial Church, followed by a homegoing service on April 17.
J.M. “Jimmy” Van Eaton, a pioneering rock ‘n’ roll drummer who played behind the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis and Billy Lee Riley at Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee, died Friday (Feb. 9) at age 86, a family member said.
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Van Eaton, a Memphis native who came to the famous record label as a teenager, died at his home in Alabama after dealing with health issues over the last year, The Commercial Appeal of Memphis reported, with his wife, Deborah, confirming his death.
Van Eaton was known for his bluesy playing style that the newspaper said powered classic early-rock hits at Sun like “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” by Lewis and “Red Hot” by Riley. He also played with Bill Justis and Charlie Rich.
James Mack Van Eaton initially began playing trumpet in a school band, but he soon moved to drums, saying in a 2015 interview that “it was an instrument that intrigued me.”
Van Eaton had his own rock ‘n’ roll band called The Echoes that would record a demo at the recording studio operated by Sam Phillips. His work there led him to connect with Riley and later Lewis.
“The hardest man to play with in the world was Jerry Lee. I told every musician to stay out of this man’s way,” Phillips told The Commercial Appeal in 2000. “The one exception was JM Van Eaton.”
Van Eaton became part of a core of musicians that performed at Sun through the 1950s, the newspaper reported.
Van Eaton drifted away from the music business in the 1960s, but he resumed performing by the 1970s, particularly as interest in rockabilly grew following the death of Elvis Presley.
By the early 1980s, Van Eaton began four decades of working in the municipal bond business. But he also was part of the team that played the music for the film Great Balls of Fire, about Lewis, and he put out a solo album in the late 1990s. He was a member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and Memphis Music Hall of Fame. He moved from Tennessee to Alabama a few years ago.
In addition to his wife, Van Eaton is survived by a son and daughter.
Marlena Shaw, the jazz and soul singer best known for her 1969 recording of “California Soul,” has died. She was 81.
Shaw’s daughter, Marla Bradshaw, confirmed her death in a video posted on Facebook on Friday (Jan. 19).
“It’s with a very heavy heart that for myself and our family, I announce that our beloved mother, your beloved icon and artist, Marlena Shaw, has passed away today at 12:03,” she said.
“She was peaceful,” she continued. “We were at peace. I know that you just saw posts of [a] birthday celebration just as soon as yesterday, and my twin sister and I were very grateful — and our family — that she was here in celebration for that.”
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No cause of death was given at the time of publication.
“Right now, she’s at peace. She’s in Heaven. I do know that,” Shaw’s daughter added. She shared that “she went listening to some of her favorite songs.”
Born on Sept. 22, 1939, as Marlina Burgess in New Rochelle, New York, the singer has said her uncle Jimmy Burgess got her into music. Burgess was a jazz trumpet player.
Shaw (which became her stage name) is known for her release of “California Soul,” which was written by Ashford & Simpson and made available in 1969 under Cadet Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records. There, she released the albums Out of Different Bags (1967) and The Spice of Life (1969), the latter of which featured the oft-sampled songs “California Soul” and “Woman of the Ghetto.”
“California Soul” has been sampled by a number of artists, including Gang Starr and Stereo MC, and Diplo released a remix of the song in 2008. The track has also been licensed for use in several commercials, including ads for Dodge, KFC and Dockers.
“I think it’s great,” she said in a 2009 interview of hearing her music sampled. “I really do. Number one, I love the surprise of it and like to hear what somebody else’s idea is.”
“But this kinda makes me feel like I’m the sun, you know, and I shine on all kinds of things,” she added with a laugh.
Shaw also released several recordings under Blue Note Records, and music on labels including Columbia and Verve. Verve shared in a statement, “We are saddened by the passing of Marlena Shaw, a wonderful singer whose ‘California Soul’ is as popular today as it ever was and whose album It Is Love: Recorded Live at Vine St. helped relaunch the Verve label in 1987.”
Shaw has said that performing live “has been my saving grace.” She explained, “I really consistently worked live. All kinds of venues, the big bands, the small bands — because I love it.”
The singer’s family has shared an address for those who wish to send condolences:
Ms. Marlena Shaw & FamilyP.O. Box 335774N. Las Vegas, NV 89033
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Mary Weiss, the lead vocalist of The Shangri-Las — the 1960s pop girl group behind the No. 1 hit “Leader of the Pack” — has died. She was 75.
A representative for Weiss’ record label, Norton Records, confirmed the news of her death to The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday (Jan. 20). Norton released Weiss’ only solo album, Dangerous Game, in 2007.
No cause of death has been reported.
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“I think you’re born with music in you,” Weiss said at a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum event in 2007. “I sang from the time I could speak. I was always into music, always. My brother was a lot older than me and had an extensive record collection, and I listened to everything.”
In sixth grade, Weiss saw The Everly Brothers perform at a theme park and was inspired by their harmonies. “I always thought they were so underrated as far as what they provided for music and harmony,” she said.
With her older sister Elizabeth “Betty” Weiss, and friends Marguerite “Marge” and Mary Ann Ganser, twins whom the Weiss sisters met in grammar school, the group got together in the Cambria Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York. “We used to sing harmony on the street corner, in bathrooms, in tunnels — Central Park has some great tunnels if you want to sing harmony — and that’s pretty much how we started,” Weiss said during her interview with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. Together they performed at local talent shows and school events, being too young to appear in clubs.
In 1964, when Weiss was just 14, the group met producer and songwriter George “Shadow” Morton. Working with him, they broke through with their recording of “Remember (Walking in the Sand),” released in 1964 via Red Bird Records, followed by singles like the chart-topping “Leader of the Pack” and “Give Him a Great Big Kiss” the same year, and “I Can Never Go Home Anymore” in 1965.
As Weiss was a minor, her mother signed her contracts. The group released only two studio albums before shifting to Mercury Records and disbanding in 1968 amid litigation.
In 2007, Weiss recalled of the group’s busy years in the mid-’60s, “My entire life was a whirlwind … For four or five years, I would go to sleep and not remember what state I was in when I woke up because I would do a TV show in the morning and a radio thing in the afternoon, and be on a plane and be some place else. That was my life.”
“Initially, I loved the music. I didn’t like a lot of the things that came with it. I think it was very, very hard in 1964 to be a woman in the music business,” she said.
Weiss admitted that her “tough image kept a lot of people away, which was really important for survival.”
“It was very difficult back then because I truly believe that a lot of men were considered ‘artists’ whether or not other people wrote for them. Women were considered products,” Weiss explained. “I always found that difficult to accept.”
The Shangri-Las shared concert bills with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, James Brown and more famed acts. Weiss recalled the time Brown booked the group for a show in Texas in a 2007 interview with Rolling Stone, saying, “When I walked out onstage, I thought he was going to have a coronary. He didn’t realize I was white.”
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame honored “Leader of the Pack” in its singles category in 2019.
After her time performing with The Shangri-Las, Weiss went on to pursue a career as a commercial interior designer and consultant in New York City.
Weiss is survived by her husband, Ed, and sister, Liz, who is the last living member of The Shangri-Las.
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Jo-El Sonnier, the Grammy-winning artist from Louisiana who performed Cajun and country music, has died at age 77.
Sonnier passed away while on tour, Texas country music promoter Tracy Pitcox stated in a post on his Facebook account Sunday (Jan. 14).
He died after suffering cardiac arrest following a show at the Llano Country Opry in Llano, Texas, where he had played for over an hour and received a standing ovation as he ended his performance with his signature “Tear Stained Letter” and an encore of “Jambalaya.” Pitcox says the singer-songwriter “was air flighted to Austin where he was pronounced deceased.”
“It is never easy to lose a legend,” Pitcox said, “but he truly spent his final day doing what he loved — entertaining his fans with his loving wife, Bobbye, by his side.”
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Sonnier was born in 1946 to a French-speaking family in Rayne, Louisiana, where he showed an interest in music early on. At the age of three he began to play the accordion, and by age 11 was making his first music recordings. He recorded several singles and albums independently as a teen.
In the 1970s, he signed as a country artist with Mercury Nashville, but made the shift to independent label Rounder Records when he began recording Cajun music.
Sonnier returned to country in the 1980s, signing with RCA. He charted with singles including 1988’s “No More One More Time” and “Tear Stained Letter,” a track originally recorded by Richard Thompson. Actor Judge Reinhold (Beverly Hills Cop, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The Santa Clause films) starred in the music video for “Tear Stained Letter.”
Sonnier moved to Capitol Records in the 1990s before making the return to Cajun music at Rounder Records.
Sonnier won a Grammy Award for best regional roots album, for The Legacy, in 2015. It was his first Grammy win, but fifth time being nominated.
In 2017, Sonnier and his sister-in-law Shirley Strange-Allen released a children’s book titled The Little Boy Under the Wagon, based the struggles Sonnier faced growing up autistic in the 1950s in South Louisiana. According to an interview with The Associated Press, he hoped that sharing his story would communicate an important message: “They need to know it’s OK to be different.”
“Once he figured it out and had a diagnosis, he saw ‘This is why the way I thought the way I did. This is why I didn’t fit in. This is why I focused on music 100 percent. This is why I don’t like crowds outside of music,’” said Sonnier’s wife, Bobbye.
“You want to leave something good behind and let somebody embrace that,” Sonnier said to the publication. “When you’re gone, that’s it. One day, we won’t be here. While we are here, let’s try to do the good.”
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Veteran entertainment attorney Kendall A. Minter, whose diverse range of past and present clients included songwriter-producers Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox and D’Mile, MC Lyte, Kirk Franklin, Lena Horne and the Backstreet Boys, has died. He passed away suddenly from medical complications on Dec. 6 in Atlanta. He was 71.
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Minter, a longtime social advocate who also represented politicians, religious leaders, churches, authors and sports figures, was also the general counsel and an officer of the Living Legends Foundation. In 2015 Minter was presented with the 32-year-old organization’s Chairman’s Award.
“Kendall and I have been friends and colleagues for more than 30 years,” said Living Legends chairman David C. Linton in a statement released by the organization. “Kendall is one of the reasons why the Living Legends Foundation has maintained and survived as one of the leading and one of the few Black music organizations. We’re still standing because of his guidance. He helped us sustain the organization through some turbulent times, especially during the transition from the old model of the recording industry to today’s model, providing us with steady and sound legal counsel. We’re forever grateful for his service and leadership, not only to the Living Legends Foundation, but to the other Black organizations that he helped build during the past 40 years as well as his commitment to a long list of Black music and entertainment executives that he mentored and counseled.”
Before his death, Minter was Of Counsel with the entertainment & sports practice group at Greenspoon Marder LLP in Stone Mountain, Georgia. At Greenspoon Marder, he represented clientele in the areas of entertainment, corporate, intellectual property, sports and new media matters.
He also led and maintained his 43-year law practice, now known as Minter & Associates, based in Atlanta. Over the course of that period, his varied clientele past and present also included Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Miriam Makeba, Peter Tosh, Musiq Soulchild, Goodie Mob, Montell Jordan, Ashanti, Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Teddy Riley, Heavy D & The Boyz, radio pioneer Frankie Crocker, boxer Evander Holyfield, the Government of Jamaica and The Central Park Five, now known as The Exonerated Five, among others.
Minter also co-founded and served as the first executive director of the Black Entertainment and Sports Lawyers Association (BESLA) and was the former chairman of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. He served as a board member as well for Sound Exchange, Georgia Music Partners and the DeKalb Entertainment Commission.
Born May 24, 1952 and raised in the Flushing section of Queens, NY, Minter earned his B.A. in political science from Cornell University in 1974 and his law degree from Cornell Law School in 1976. His first job out of law school was as association general counsel and corporate representative for broadcasting at Fairchild Industries. Over the course of his law career, Minter practiced with firms in Georgia, New York and the District of Columbia. He launched his first solo practice, the Law Firm of Kendall A. Minter, in 1980 and later opened affiliated offices in Los Angeles and London.
Minter’s other accomplishments include writing the book Understanding and Negotiating 3600 Ancillary Rights Deals: An Artist’s Guide to Negotiating 3600 Record Deals. He served as well as an adjunct professor at Georgia State University in the School of Music and the College of Law, where he taught copyright and music publishing.
Details about funeral services for Minter will be announced shortly.
Phil Quartararo, the former EMI, Virgin and Warner Bros. record mogul who helped break Paula Abdul, the Spice Girls, Linkin Park and numerous other pop megastars, died Wednesday morning in Los Angeles of cancer. He was 67.
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“I loved helping an artist’s dream come true,” Quartararo told an interviewer in 2021. “I cannot press upon you the satisfaction of doing that.”
Known as “Phil Q,” the gregarious, Brooklyn, N.Y.-born Quartararo was a ubiquitous figure in the record industry, helping to break U2 on pop radio in the mid-’80s as senior vp of promotion at Island Records, engineering the Spice Girls’ marketing plan in the ’90s as CEO/president of Virgin Records America, and working over the years with Madonna, Coldplay, The Smashing Pumpkins, Faith Hill and Green Day. “Phil believed in me like no other,” Paula Abdul said in a statement. “His ceaseless support for me during my time at Virgin was unparalleled. I will miss him.”
In the early 2000s, when Napster, MP3s and digital piracy threatened to destroy the business, Quartararo was one of the executives in Steve Jobs’ office when the late Apple CEO promised to shift the business from $10 CDs to 99-cent downloads. “At the end of the day, 99 cents for a track is better than nothing for a track,” Quartararo would say.
Virgin Records’ founder, Richard Branson, recruited Quartararo to help launch his American label in 1986, and over the years Quartararo rose to president and CEO. In 1997, according to The New York Times, Quartararo helped “turn Virgin into EMI’s crown jewel,” generating most of the parent label’s $5.9 billion in yearly sales.
Quartararo left Virgin that year to become president of Warner Bros. Records, where he worked with Madonna, Linkin Park, Josh Groban, Cher and Wilco, among others. In 2005, he made his way back to EMI, Virgin’s owner, as an executive, helping to shift the label’s focus from physical sales and distribution to marketing and launching Coldplay, Norah Jones, Keith Urban and others.
After leaving EMI in 2005, Quartararo became an entrepreneur and consultant, working with music-distribution startups, streaming services and talent managers and managed acts such as Japanese composer Yoshiki and metal band X Japan. He also ran Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation Records from 2016-2019. “Phil approached everything with a kind heart and a light spirit and sense of humor,” says Taylor Jones, a co-owner of music-focused multimedia company The Hello Group, where Quartararo was president and chairman. “He was incredibly stress-resistant. His values have been instilled in the very core and ethos of our company.”
Adds Evan Lamberg, president of Universal Music Publishing North America: “Phil Q was arguably the ‘’Mayor of Goodwill’ in our industry for decades. There is no one that he touched that was not better for having known him.”
In 2013, Quartararo told Billboard he didn’t miss major labels, but “I miss dealing with the artists. I miss sharing with young people, teaching them the music business. That’s the part I loved the most. I don’t miss the big company, per se. Because the big company is cumbersome and unfortunately can’t move as quickly as the consumer or artists need to move. It’s not as nimble as it used to be.”
Faye Fantarrow, a U.K. singer-songwriter whose debut came out earlier this year, has died at age 21, her publicist confirmed. The rising neo-soul talent died on Aug. 26, and her death was first announced on social media on Aug. 31 by her mother, Pam.
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Fantarrow previously beat leukemia twice since being first diagnosed at eight years old. Nearly a year ago, doctors discovered a rare Glioma tumor in her brain. The release date of her debut EP, AWOL, was moved up to an earlier date (Feb. 10) to accommodate the grim prognosis; around the time of its release, Billboard hailed her distinctive vocal phrasing and the pulsing rhythm of the EP’s title track. AWOL came out on Dave Stewart’s Bay Street Records; following her passing, the Eurythmics member shared how “devastated” Fantarrow’s death left him in a statement.
“I can’t put into words how devastated I was when, just after spending an amazing creative time with Faye last summer making her debut album, Faye found out she had this very aggressive brain tumor,” Stewart said. “Faye was a joy to be around, full of fun, laughter and sharp as a razor — a true artist in every sense. Being with her and watching her at work is a diamond stuck in my head, moments I will never forget. I’m lucky to have met Faye and her Mum Pam, two humans together battling against all odds for Faye’s survival. It has been both traumatic and beautiful to witness their strength and dignity and I am so sorry the world only got to witness Faye’s genius for such a short time. She is one of the true greats, a northern girl on fire with her lyrics and melodies. I loved her deeply.”
“There is a gaping void in our lives that can never be filled, our beautiful, compassionate, intelligent and immensely talented girl has gone,” her mother Pam wrote in a social media post. “Faye fought with a strength and bravery that kept her with those she so desperately loved and who loved her beyond compare.”
Prior to her death, Fantarrow raised £235,000 (close to $300,000 USD) on Justgiving for an experimental treatment in California. She visited the U.S. for the first treatment but proved too sick for follow-ups. The extra money from the Justgiving campaign was “donated to a charity to fund further life-saving research in Faye’s memory,” per reps.
You can listen to her debut EP below.
