History Music / MillieJackson

Despite what her last name might suggest, Millie is not related to [[Music/TheJacksonFive the]] [[Music/MichaelJackson Jackson]] [[Music/JanetJackson dynasty]] in any way.

Born Mildred Virginia Jackson in Thompson, GA, lived with her grandmother prior to moving to Newark, NJ, to live with her father in 1958. She grew up influenced by the music of artists such as Music/EttaJames, Music/IsaacHayes, and Music/GladysKnight. Her first single to chart was "A Child of God (It's Hard to Believe)", in 1971, which many thought was a gospel track due to its title. However, to its salacious lyrical content, the single was canceled, but still managed to chart on the R&B charts. It would also be the first signal of her proto-rap style which consisted of spoken (or "rapped") sections in her songs. In 1972, Jackson had achieved her first R&B Too Ten single with "Ask Me What You Want." She kept busy performing in nightclubs and gained a second Top Ten single with "My Man, A Sweet Man" in 1972. it peaked at number seven. A year later, Jackson, would have a third Top Ten single with the mid-tempo "Hurts So Good," which would be her highest at that time on the R&B charts as it peaked at number three and made a dent in pop's Top 40 listing.

In January of 1975, Jackson released the record that would introduce what would later codify trademark rap style of crude, vulgar language. The album was ''Music/CaughtUp'' and it featured singles such as "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right," for which she received two Grammy nominations and "The Rap", the song that would exemplify her crass spoken word style. Jackson has admitted that she was never taught to sing and never thought she could to begin with. Consequently, she began to talk (or what was commonly known at the time as rapping) on her songs in a brash, lucid manner to make up for her perceived shortcoming and had her fourth Top Ten single with a cover of Music/MerleHaggard's "If You're Not Back in Love by Monday", of which peaked a number five.

* UrExample: Not only broke ground as the first prototypical female rapper, but her raunchy rhymes were also a big influence on the DirtyRap subgenre, long before Music/TwoLiveCrew gained infamy for it.

Over the next decade, Millie would maintain her popularity with several Top 100 singles such as "Hot! Wild! Unrestricted! Crazy Love" and "Love Is a Dangerous Game" and in addition to her successful music career, wrote a touring play entitled ''Young Man, Older Woman'' which toured for four years. Nowadays though, she has turned her attention to the broadcast booth as a radio program host on the afternoon radio show in Dallas, TX.

Born Mildred Virginia Jackson in Thompson, GA, lived with her grandmother prior to moving to Newark, NJ, to live with her father in 1958. She grew up influenced by the music of artists such as Music/EttaJames, Music/IsaacHayes, and Gladys Knight. Her first single to chart was "A Child of God (It's Hard to Believe)", in 1971, which many thought was a gospel track due to its title. However, to its salacious lyrical content, the single was canceled, but still managed to chart on the R&B charts. It would also be the first signal of her proto-rap style which consisted of spoken (or "rapped") sections in her songs. In 1972, Jackson had achieved her first R&B Too Ten single with "Ask Me What You Want." She kept busy performing in nightclubs and gained a second Top Ten single with "My Man, A Sweet Man" in 1972. it peaked at number seven. A year later, Jackson, would have a third Top Ten single with the mid-tempo "Hurts So Good," which would be her highest at that time on the R&B charts as it peaked at number three and made a dent in pop's Top 40 listing.

* ''Not for Church Folk!'' (2001)