Who would’ve known? June is OUR month! Yes, I said our; mine. The Black hands typing this post is brimming with excitement! Not only has Juneteenth been finally made a federal holiday, but come to find out, June is a celebration of African American music! Since June 1979, our country has celebrated the contributions of African American singers, song writers, composers and musicians. June is African American Music Appreciation month!

I feel honored. June is my birthday month. How beautiful to celebrate something so very special to me; black music, while I celebrate another year of life God grants me.

History of Bean’s Black Music Love Timeline

It started with my dad. My father was the entry point for my intense passion and love of Black music.

I can see him now. East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY. We’re living off of Church Avenue. It’s one of those steamy summer days and my father saunters through the neighborhood with a bright red fedora, white feather tucked firmly into the rim. My father makes his way up the block with a huge stereo cocked on his shoulder.

Looking back at it, my father embodied the emergence of rap music in the 80’s. He was the very personification of the rap / hip hop music take over. A genre on the come up, my dad walked with the very energy that RUN DMC gave: us Black folk? We’re coming and we’re taking over this music shit. My father’s long, confident stride length defined the voracity and the grip that Black music would eventually have on America.

African American Music Timeline

There are so many significant timelines in Black music, but here’s a timeline I put together.

Black Music Month Playlist

Going back to my past, the very stereo that rested on my father’s shoulder was the sole entertainment sound system for our tiny one bedroom apartment on 42nd Street. It also became the basis for my own initial Black music playlist. His love of Anita Baker became mine and when the world brought us Toni Braxton years later, I swore that Toni was the reincarnation of the sultry voice Anita Baker gifted us with in the 80’s.

Now, close to thirty years later, my love affair with black music has never waned. In fact, the younger generation of R&B reminds me that everything African American music encapsulates, the love, struggle, complexity, strength and very soul of the back experience, is reincarnated through a younger talent. From generation to generation, black music lives on, always will.

My Black music month playlist is full of my favorites. Here are the artists that are on repeat as I celebrate and appreciate African American Music month.

• Jazmine Sullivan
• H.E.R
• Khalid
• Asiahn
• Syd
• Summer Walker
• Teyana Taylor
• Eric Roberson
• Bruno Mars
• Jhene Aiko
• Snoh Alegra
• Mary J. Blige
• Maxwell
• Jay Z
• Tribe Called Quest

African American Music Appreciation Month is a celebration of the most beautiful parts of who we are as a people. Black music lives on. Always will.

Blissfully Single and Yours