Muammar Al Khadafi

I wasn't going to let today pass without a TransGriot birthday shoutout to my Houston homegirl Beyonce Giselle Knowles Carter, who was born on this day in H-town back in 1981.



Yep, Beyonce's hit the Big 3-0 birthday.



Form Destiny's Child to having a child next year, it's been fun to watch her rise from that cute kid on Star Search to international style icon and Granny Award winning solo artist and actress.



Happy birthday Beyonce, may you have many more .

Today would have been the 53rd birthday of the King of Pop, who was born in Gary, IN on this date in 1958



He's gone, and his fans still love and miss him.  One thing is certain is that there won't be another artist like him to grace our lifetimes and his music will live on forever.  



But forgive me if I wished we could have gotten to see if MJ could have pulled off the 'This Is It' tour and what it would have done to revive his then stalled career.



That's all speculation now.  



Oh well, time to pull out the CD's.   Rest in peace King of Pop.

Darn, another one of my fave artists is gone. 



Found out that Nickolas Ashford, half of the Ashford and Simpson songwriting and singing duo passed away in a New York hospital Monday at age 69 due to throat cancer.   



One of the other reasons I loved them so much besides being kick butt musicians was the fact that Nick and I share the same May 4 birthday.

Nick and Valerie had been married since 1974, and they were more famous for the songs they wrote for others that became hits than their own music.   The penned such hits as Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's Your Precious Love, You're All I Need To Get By, Ain't No Mountain High Enough and Ain't Nothing Like The Real Thing along with songs for other Motown artists.  



They wrote I'm Every Woman for Chaka Khan that Whitney Houston later remade and wrote and produced some of Diana Ross' biggest solo hits including Reach Out And Touch (Somebody's Hand).

They wrote and produced four gold albums of their own and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2002








Rest in peace Nick.  You and Valerie were the gold standard for R&B duet singers and you'll be missed.

Today would have been the 45th birthday of Grammy award winning R&B singer Gerald Edward Levert, who was born on this day in 1966 in Canton, Ohio and died November 10, 2006.

For you younglings who are saying "who's he?",  Gerald along with his late brother Sean and friend Marc Gordon founded the award winning R&B group LeVert in 1984.  Four of LeVert's seven albums, I Get Hot in 1985, Bloodline in 1986, The Big Throwdown in 1987, and Just Coolin in 1988 went platinum.

Translation, the group had it goin' on.

So did Gerald.  He went solo in 1991 with the Private Line album that hit Number 1 on the R&B chart and did some memorable duets with his father, O'Jays lead singer Eddie Levert.    Gerald was also part of the supergroup LSG formed by himself, Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill.   Their debut album Levert-Sweat-Gill sold two million copies when it was released in 1997.

Gerald wrote and produced songs for artists such as the O'Jays, Stephanie Mills, Barry White and James Ingram just to name a few and was part of the 1994 Black Men United collaboration of 40 African American male artists with the song You Will Know, that was featured in the movie Jason's Lyric and in the movie soundtrack. 



Gerald is still missed by his family and fans, and even more so by those of us who love real music.