Cincinnati Black Musicians Have Made a Mark in American Music.
Take a listen to Cincinnati Black musicians and some of Ohio’s finest talent in the music industry on YouTube. Many great musicians and performers started careers in Cincinnati. With national and international fame, these artists credit Cincinnati as the place of production. This playlist of the finest singing, songwriting, and performing artists will become a new musical obsession.
Cincinnati now has a Black Music Walk of Fame. Admission is free, and the attraction is located at 190 W Mehring Way, Cincinnati, OH 45202 (The Banks). It features artists such as Bootsy Collins and Midnight Star. Huge congrats to Hamilton County Commissioner Alicia Reece for making it happen!
Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio Black Musicians
Bootsy Collins
William Earl “Bootsy” Collins is an American musician, singer, and songwriter from Cincinnati. He rose to prominence with James Brown in the early 1970s and later with Parliament-Funkadelic. Collins’s driving basslines and humorous vocals established him as one of the leading names in funk. He is a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member, inducted in 1997 with 15 other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.
Collins appeared with Toots & the Maytals on the album True Love, which won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 2005. In October 2010, Bass Player Magazine awarded him a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Key Club in Los Angeles.
Dottie Peoples
Dorothy “Dottie” Peoples is an American gospel singer from Dayton, Ohio. After graduating from high school, she toured with gospel pioneer Dorothy Norwood, a member of the Caravans. After a stint in jazz, she relocated to Atlanta in 1979 and returned to her gospel roots. She has been dubbed “Songbird of the South.”
Hi-Tek
Tony Cottrell, known as Hi-Tek, is an American rapper and record producer from Cincinnati, Ohio. He is best known for his work with Talib Kweli. His father is singer Willie Cottrell of the Willie Cottrell Band, whom Hi-Tek featured on his second album, Hi-Teknology.
John Legend
John Legend is a soulful singer, songwriter, and pianist from Springfield, Ohio, with millions of listeners worldwide. Overall, Legend has won 33 awards from 88 nominations:
- In 2005, Legend received fifteen nominations and won two, including Best New Artist at the BET Awards and Best R&B Act at the MOBO Awards.
- In 2017, Legend received Smithsonian Magazine’s American Ingenuity Award for Performing Arts.
- In 2018, Legend became the first Black male to officially achieve an EGOT with his Emmy win for “Jesus Christ Superstar.”
Mel Carter
Mel Carter is an American singer born in Cincinnati, Ohio, from the Motown era, best known for his ballads. The Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” reached Number 8 in 1965 and was Carter’s most significant success. Carter’s single sold over one million copies and received a gold disc award.
Midnight Star
Midnight Star was formed as a self-contained group at Kentucky State University in Frankfort in the 1970s by Reggie Calloway, Belinda Lipscomb, Melvin Gentry, Kenneth Gant, Bill Simmons, Bo Watson, and Jeff Cooper.
In 1983, the funky band released their fourth album, No Parking on the Dance Floor, which proved their breakout. Featuring a mix of R&B, disco, and funk with vocoder vocals, the album hit No. 2 on the Billboard magazine Top Black Albums chart and No. 27 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart, and it went double platinum in the US Its first single, “Freak-A-Zoid,” went to No. 2 on the U.S. Black Singles chart.
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Nancy Wilson
Nancy Sue Wilson was an American singer from Chillicothe, Ohio whose career spanned over five decades, from the mid-1950s until her retirement in the early 2010s. She was especially notable for her single “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am” and her version of the standard “Guess Who I Saw Today”. Wilson recorded over 70 albums and won three Grammy Awards for her work. During her performing career, Wilson was labeled a singer of blues, jazz, R&B, pop, and soul; a “consummate actress”; and “the complete entertainer”.
Pure Essence
Pure Essence was an American R&B band from Cincinnati, Ohio. It originally consisted of Steve “Tuck” Walters, Jerome “Mouse” Richmond, Toby Rivers, Tony Coats, Dwight Trible, Larry Middleton, Antonio “LA” Reid, and Kevin “Kayo” Roberson.
The band released only one record in 1976 and achieved limited regional fame during their tenure. But they received wider attention and acclaim three decades later after one of their songs, “Third Rock,” was sampled by producer/musician RJD2 on the track “Clean Living” (2004).
Shalamar – Gerald Brown
Shalamar is a Grammy-award-winning American R&B and soul music vocal group that has been active since the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Gerald Brown joined Shalamar from The Soul Train Gang singing group 1978 to formalize the group.
Snap! – Penny Ford
Snap! was formed in 1989 as a German Eurodance group and has undergone several line-up changes over the years. Its members include American singers, songwriters, and rappers Thea Austin, Turbo B, and Penny Ford. Their best-known ballad, “Rhythm Is a Dancer,” took the No. 1 spot in multiple countries.
Penny Ford is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer, and a Walnut Hills High School graduate. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, she rose to fame in the 1980s after signing a recording contract with Total Experience Records and releasing her debut solo album, Pennye.
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The Crusaders – Randy Crawford
The Crusaders were a successful American jazz group from the 1960s to the 1990s. The Crusaders were comfortable playing various genres, from straight-ahead jazz to urban R&B, R&B-based jazz, and even blues. Randy Crawford of the Crusaders was born in Georgia but played her first shows in Cincinnati.
Street Life is a studio album by the American jazz band The Crusaders. It was a top 20 album on three Billboard charts and represents the band’s commercial popularity peak. The title track, featuring singer Randy Crawford, was a Top 40 pop single and became the group’s most successful entry.
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers are an American musical group originally from Cincinnati, Ohio. In the 1950s, they started as a vocal trio consisting of brothers O’Kelly Isley Jr., Rudolph Isley, and Ronald Isley. With a career spanning over seven decades, the group has enjoyed one of the “longest, most influential, and most diverse careers in the pantheon of popular music.”
The Isley Brothers have won two Grammys, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Two of their songs have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The Deele
The Deele is an American band from Cincinnati, Ohio. They succeeded in the 1980s with hit singles such as “Body Talk” and “Two Occasions.” When the group began recording in the early 1980s, the lineup consisted of Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds, Antonio “LA” Reid, Carlos “Satin” Greene, Darnell “Dee” Bristol, Stanley “Stick” Burke, and Kevin “Kayo” Roberson.
A single from their third album, “Body Talk,” became The Deele’s first hit, reaching #3 on the R&B chart and #77 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.
The Ohio Players
The Ohio Players are an American funk band from Dayton, Ohio, that became popular in the 1970s. They are best known for their songs “Fire” and “Love Rollercoaster” and for their erotic album covers featuring nude or nearly nude women. The singles “Funky Worm,” “Skin Tight,” “Fire,” and “Love Rollercoaster,” and their albums “Skin Tight, Fire, and Honey” were awarded Gold certification.
Zapp & Roger
Zapp & Roger is an American funk band that emerged from Dayton, Ohio, United States, in 1977. Particularly influential in the electro subgenre of funk, Zapp was known for their trademark use of the talk-box effect. The original line-up consisted of four Troutman brothers and 6 non-Troutman family members.
Wilbert Longmire
Wilbert Longmire was a versatile guitarist who dabbled in gospel, jazz, blues, and rock. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cincinnati Area Pop Music Awards. During his long career, Longmire had the privilege of performing with Nancy Wilson and recording with Herbie Hancock. His music has recently resurged overseas, and this Cincinnati native has taken over the charts.
Otis Williams and the Charms
Alumni of Withrow University High School in Cincinnati, Otis Williams and the Charms, were discovered by Syd Nathan of King Records at a talent show. Known for their doo-wop style of singing, the Charms topped the R&B charts with hits such as Hearts of Stone and Ling, Ting, Tong. Otis Williams separated from the charms in 1956 and recorded his own hits, such as Ivory Tower. Later, Williams would return to group singing with a new Charms group in the 1990s and performing with the Coda band in Cincinnati in 2007.
Philippé Wynne with the Spinners
Raised in the New Orphanage Asylum for Colored Children in Cincinnati, Wynne joined his brother in Detroit to begin his career as a gospel singer. He then switched to R&B and joined the Spinners as one of the lead singers. Wynne recorded hits such as One of a Kind (Love Affair) and Sadie.
He eventually left the Spinners and recorded three solo albums in addition to performing with George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic. Wynne continued his career and appeared on songs such as (Not Just) Knee Deep and Whip It. In 2023, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Spinners.
Related Article: Enjoy the nightlife in Cincinnati with these Black-owned nightclubs.
Get your groove on with these beats! If there are more Cincinnati Black Musicians that we have missed, let us know at The Voice of Black Cincinnati. We can add to this playlist as much as you like. You never know what Cincinnati artist we will put up next!
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Cincinnati Black Musicians information sourced from Wikipedia and the Cincinnati Black Music Hall of Fame
Cincinnati Black Musicians Photo created by The Voice of Black Cincinnati
