Killer Mike to receive new award
Grammy-winning rapper and social political activist Killer Mike will receive the first Billboard Change Maker Award at the 2020 Billboard Music Awards.
NBC and dick clark productions announced the new award and recipient Monday, two days ahead of the show, which will air live Wednesday on NBC.
Atlanta-born Killer Mike first made waves in music with his appearance on Outkast’s 2000 album, “Stankonia.” He later won a Grammy with the duo for the Top 20 pop hit “The Whole World.” He’s also a member of the hip-hop duo Run the Jewels.
But Killer Mike has made noise outside of music, too. He’s spoken out against police brutality, inequality in Black communities and race relations. Last year, he hosted Netflix’s “Trigger Warning with Killer Mike,” a 2019 documentary series about issues affecting the Black community.
The Billboard Change Maker Award will be presented by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms at the African American Panoramic Experience Museum in Atlanta.
Jam salutes music legends:
Producer, songwriter and performer Jimmy Jam will host “Great Performances: Grammy Salute to Music Legends” on Friday.
The fifth annual PBS celebration will include performances by Brandi Carlile, Chris Isaak, Cyndi Lauper, Sam Moore and Philip Bailey. The Lifetime Achievement honors will crown the likes of Chicago, Roberta Flack, Sister Rosetta Sharpe and John Prine, who died in April of COVID-19.
Jam, with his partner, Terry Lewis, heads his own successful record company. The R&B and pop songwriting duo has
written 31 Top 10 numbers in the U.K. and 41 in the United States.
Jam says that he has been influenced by all the musical geniuses that have come before him.
“For me, it is all the artists I have some connection to, because that’s the great thing about what music does. I have to say Chicago was my favorite group growing up,” he says.
Actor Nolan of ‘Goldfinger’ fame dies: Longtime actor Margaret Nolan ,76, who had a memorable role in the 1964 James Bond movie “Goldfinger,” has died.
Her death was announced Sunday by director Edgar Wright, who recently worked with Nolan on the film “Last Night In Soho.”
The title sequence of “Goldfinger,” aswell as marketing for the movie, famously saw Nolan covered with gold paint as she wore a bikini. She also appeared in the iconic Beatles film “A Hard Day’s Night,” which came out in 1964 aswell.
“Shewas the middle of Venn diagram of everything cool in the ’60s,” Wright wrote in a Twitter tribute.
Nolan, whowas born in England, got her start as a model. As an actor, she appeared in dozens of film and TV projects during a career that spanned six decades.
A cause of death has not been revealed.
Oct. 13 birthdays: Singer Shirley Caesar is 82. Singer Paul Simon is 79. Actor Demond Wilson is 74. Singer Sammy Hagar is 73. Model Beverly Johnson is 68. Singer Marie Osmond is 61. TV host Billy Bush is 49. Actor Sacha Baron Cohen is 49. Singers Brandon and Brian Casey are 45. Singer Ashanti is 40. Actor Caleb McLaughlin is19.