Tha Bluprint

Mahalia Jackson was a gospel singer, possessing a powerful contralto voice, she was referred to as "The Queen of Gospel". Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and was heralded internationally as a singer and civil rights activist. She was described by entertainer Harry Belafonte as "The single most powerful Black woman in the United States".

She recorded about 30 albums (mostly for Columbia Records) during her career, and her 45 rpm records included a dozen golds—million-sellers.

"I sing God's music because it makes me feel free," Jackson once said about her choice of gospel, adding, "It gives me hope. With the blues, when you finish, you still have the blues."

LEGACY: 🎤Mahalia Jackson's music was played widely on gospel and Christian radio stations, such as Family Radio. Her good friend Martin Luther King Jr said, "A voice like this one comes not once in a century, but once in a millennium."

🎤She was a close friend of Doris Akers, one of the most prolific gospel composers of the 20th century. In 1958, they co-wrote the hit, "Lord, Don't Move the Mountain". Mahalia also sang many of Akers' own compositions such as "God Is So Good to Me", "God Spoke to Me One Day", "Trouble", "Lead On, Lord Jesus", and "He's a Light Unto My Pathway", helping Akers to secure her position as the leading female Gospel composer of that time.

🎤In addition to sharing her singing talent with the world, she mentored the extraordinarily gifted Aretha Franklin.

🎤Mahalia was also good friends with Dorothy Norwood and fellow Chicago-based gospel singer Albertina Walker.

🎤She also discovered a young Della Reese.

🎤On the 20th anniversary of her death, Smithsonian Folkways Recording commemorated Jackson with the album I Sing Because I'm Happy, which includes interviews about her childhood conducted by Jules Scherwin.

🎤The National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences created the Gospel Music or Other Religious Recording category for Jackson making her the 1st Gospel Music Artist to win the prestigious Grammy Award.

Devil's Pie

Fuck the slice we want the pie

Why ask why till we fry

Watch us all stand in line

For a slice of the devil's pie

Drugs and thugs women wine

Three or four at a time

Watch them all stand in line

For a slice of the devil's pie

Who am I to justify

All the evil in our eye

When I myself feel the high

From all that I despise

Behind the jail or in the grave

I have to lay in this bed I made

If I die before I wake

I hope the lord dont' hesitate

To get to heaven done been through hell

Tell my peeps all is well

All them fools whose soul's 4 sale

Sitting next to the Jezebel

Demons screaming in my ear

All my anger all my fear

If I holler let them hear

In this spinning sphere

Fuck the slice we want the pie

Why ask why till we fry

Watch us all stand in line

For a slice of the devil's pie

Drugs and thugs women wine

Three or four at a time

Watch them all stand in line

For a slice of the devil's pie

Main ingredients to this dish

Goes like this

Here's the list

Materialistic, greed and lust, jealousy, envious

Bread and dough, cheddar cheese, flash and stash, cash and cream

Temperatures at a high degree

Where niggas come to feast

Hell's this all about

Apocalypse ain't no doubt

Everbody's ho'ing out all the loot all the clout

Right or wrong

Do or die

Only the vengeance will pacify

Watch your back

And so will I

In these days and time

Fuck the slice we want the pie

Why ask why till we fry

Watch us all stand in line

For a slice of the devil's pie

Drugs and thugs women wine

Three or four at a time

Watch them all stand in line

For a slice of the devil's pie

Aint no justice

It's just us

Ashes to ashes

Dust to dust

Time has come for most of us

To choose in which God we trust

I know I was born to die

Searched to find

Piece of mind

With eighty five dumb and blind

There can be no compromise

Fuck the slice we want the pie

Why ask why till we fry

Watch us all stand in line

For a slice of the devil's pie

Drugs and thugs women wine

Three or four at a time

Wait a minute, ah let me tell you 'bout

The slice of the devil's pie

Ah-ah-ah I said everybody out there gettin' down

With a slice of the devil's pie

Ah-ah-ah standing in line

For a slice of the devil's pie

Said the woman in the street

Sellin' her fuckin' body

For a slice of the devil's pie

Ah-ha nigga's killin' each other in the streets

For a slice of the devil's pie

All in line, all in line

For a slice of the devil's pie

Yeah, all in line, all in line

For a slice of the devil's pie (Hear me though)

All in line, all in line

For a slice of the devil's pie (Yeah)

All in line, all in line (I don't give a fuck)

SMH......They teach them disrespect VERY early in America.