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The Temptations

Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

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The Temptations' 'Cloud Nine' At 50 cloud-nine-50-otis-williams-reflects-temptations-experimental-era

'Cloud Nine' At 50: Otis Williams Reflects On The Temptations' "Experimental" Era

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The 77-year-old frontman and only original surviving member of the legendary Motown group recalls recording the band's ninth album and taking influence from funk kings Sly and the Family Stone
Tamara Palmer
GRAMMYs
Feb 15, 2019 - 11:13 am

"Time flies when you’re having fun!" says Otis Williams.

The frontman and only original surviving member of The Temptations is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the release of the legendary Motown group's ninth album, Cloud Nine, on Feb. 17. 

The album's title track earned the group — and Motown — their first GRAMMY Award, for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance by a Duo or Group, Vocal or Instrumental.

"It was a surprise,"" Williams recalls of the win. "Cloud Nine was a departure from the songs that we had been recording before, because the previous hit was 'Please Return Your Love to Me,' which is a beautiful ballad. So to come from ‘Please Return Your Love’ to psychedelic soul was a quantum leap."

Williams credits that "quantum leap" from balladry to psychedelic soul to being inspired in part by Sly and the Family Stone.

"The Temps were in New York City at the time,” he explains, "and Kenny Gamble of Gamble and Huff — he and I were good friends — we were talking one day in the hotel room and we heard Sly and the Family Stone with 'Dance to the Music.' And when they did that little breakdown and started doing that [hums breakdown], I said, ‘Wow, that’s pretty slick!'

"I went back to Detroit and I asked Norman Whitfield, who was our producer at the time, if he had heard Sly and the Family Stone and he said, ‘No, I haven’t heard.’ I said, ‘Well they have a sound I like, we should probably try that,’ because we were going from David Ruffin to Dennis Edwards. So we went out of town and came back to Detroit and Norman had recorded 'Cloud Nine,' and the rest is history."

With the lyrics, "Depressed and downhearted, I took to Cloud Nine/I'm doin' fine, up here on Cloud Nine," "Cloud Nine" the song has always invited comparisons to getting high, but Williams says it came from a sober place.

"It came about through Norman Whitfield and Barry Strong," he explains. "Cloud nine is a saying that’s been around for eons. Those guys, they didn't get high, they were just writing from what they felt and it turned out to be a great song. But cloud nine is something that’s been around a long time. And I guess that’s how it really came about, they just got together and decided to call the song ‘Cloud Nine’ and when they presented it to us we went into the studio and did the best we could do with it. But there’s no real origin other than the expression has been around a long time and they just turned it into a song of expression. You can think however you want to think about ‘Cloud Nine’ and getting high, but Norman Whitfield and Barry Strong didn’t do drugs.”

"Cloud Nine" grabbed the GRAMMY, but it was another song from the album that would truly impact the course of the group's career. While most of the 10 songs on Cloud Nine hover around the three-minute mark, "Runaway Child, Running Wild" came barreling out the gate at just over nine-and-a-half minutes.

"Back then, we and Norman were very experimental,” says Williams. "It wasn’t known for songs to be over three or four minutes to get any real air time, so there were times that Norman would have to shorten the songs so we could get some air time. But in the evening, when it was after six or seven, and disc jockeys had the freedom to play longer songs, thats’ what happened. But we were just very experimental and Norman got in the groove and he decided to ride the groove out with all those different inflections and the tracks that made the Cloud Nine album and the subsequent album very entertaining. Prior to Cloud Nine, our songs were to the point, three minutes, maybe three and a half minutes and that’s it. But in 1968 the format of radio started changing, they had ‘the Quiet Storm,’ where they could play beautiful music a lot longer, love songs a lot longer. It was a different change of airplay and the way radio was being received."

Half a century later, the group is as active as ever. Motown/UMe reissued Cloud Nine on color vinyl in October, and The Temptations are touring around the country for most of the year. Previews for the group’s musical, "Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations" begin February 28 on Broadway at the Imperial Theatre, and the show opens on March 21.

"I first saw it in the very embryonic stage when they were getting together in New York City and I just saw a small portion of it,” Williams says of the musical. "During the intermission, someone came up to me and said, ‘Mr. Williams, how do you feel looking at yourself up on that stage?’ I said, ‘I can’t even put it into words, it’s so interesting to see what we’ve gone through.’ She said, ‘I did not know that you all went through those kind of changes. I said, ‘Oh yes,’ and she said, ‘You have a hit on your hands. I’m going to tell you this, it’s going to be just as big as Hamilton, if not bigger.’ I said, ‘Well if we do anything close to what Hamilton did I will be happy as a cat covered up in caca,’ and she busted out laughing. So it looks like it’s going to go through the roof as far as being accepted and being appreciated because of the music.

“But, I must say, it is not only the music,” he continues. "Naturally, 'Can’t Get Next to You' and the 'Just My Imagination' and 'Ain't Too Proud to Beg' — yeah, the people want to hear those songs, but I find as I look at it and I look at it with objectivity, that the story is touching. Getting shot at on the bus down South, walking into a restaurant with a group of us and getting told, 'We don't serve n****** and we said, ‘Well we don’t eat them' and we had to turn around, walk out and find a place to eat. All that’s being portrayed in the play, so it’s the story as well as the music so it's the best of both worlds. Please check it out because it’s turning out to be something really special."

It's been 60 years since the birth of Motown and the lessons taught there have lasted artists a lifetime.

"Most of the Motown artists had to go to school to learn to be in show business,” he said. "Not for the hit record only, but being able to work and command big dollars whether we ever got another hit record or not. We tried to establish ourselves as performers to help the great music that we made. Like I always tell people, there will never ever, ever, ever — and I try not to use the word never because you never know in life — but i think I’m safe in using it. There will never ever, ever be another Motown Records, no company will ever be like Motown.

"I just love what we do,” he asserted. "Each year is a blessing to be able to be around 59 years later. You could have tipped me over with a feather before I would have believed that we would be around 59 years later."

GRAMMYs
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Watch Aretha Franklin Accept Best R&B Vocal Performance At The 14th GRAMMY Awards | GRAMMY Rewind

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Travel back in time to the 14th GRAMMY Awards in 1972 where The Temptations present Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin with the award for Best R&B Vocal Performance
Rachel Brodsky
GRAMMYs
Sep 13, 2019 - 9:57 am

Queen Of Soul Aretha Franklin has 44 GRAMMY nominations and 18 wins to her name, winning her very first in the '60s at the 10th GRAMMY Awards.

By 1972, she'd racked up a few more, but that didn't stop her from looking delighted as she took home the golden gramophone for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Female for her classic cover of "Bridge Over Troubled Water."

Aretha Franklin Wins At The 14th GRAMMY Awards

In our latest edition of GRAMMY Rewind, you can watch Aretha herself accept the award from fellow soul singers and GRAMMY winners The Temptations, who dance their way up to the podium to present the coveted award. Check it out above. 

Before she passed away last year, Aretha left a musical legacy like none other. She was the recipient of the GRAMMY Legend Award and the Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award, her philanthropy was recognized with the 2008 MusiCares Person Of The Year honor and many of her recordings have been inducted in the GRAMMY Hall Of Fame. 

Last year, at the 61st GRAMMY Awards, singers Andra Day, Fantasia and Yolanda Adams paid tribute to Aretha with a performance of "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." 

Aretha Franklin's GRAMMY Highlights

Aretha Franklin's GRAMMY History: Remembering The Queen Of Soul

Mary J. Blige

Mary J. Blige

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Mary J. Blige Wins Best R&B Album In 2007 grammy-rewind-watch-golden-mary-j-blige-win-best-rb-album-2007

GRAMMY Rewind: Watch A Golden Mary J. Blige Win Best R&B Album In 2007

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"It has not only shown that I'm an artist, a musician and a writer, but it's also shown that I'm growing into a better human being. Tonight, we celebrate the better human being," the R&B legend said
Ana Monroy Yglesias
GRAMMYs
Jan 15, 2021 - 12:49 pm

For the latest episode of GRAMMY Rewind (watch in full below), witness nine-time GRAMMY winner Mary J. Blige shine as she accepts her Best R&B Album win at the 49th GRAMMY Awards in 2007 for The Breakthrough. The award was presented by the Black Eyed Peas, including Fergie, who held Blige's clutch like any good girlfriend would.

Mary J. Blige Wins Best R&B Album In 2007

"I want to thank God for this album, and this award for this album," the "Family Affair" artist said while holding back tears. She looked glamorous in a golden rhinestone encrusted gown and cascading diamond earrings to match.

"It has not only shown that I'm an artist, a musician and a writer, but it's also shown that I'm growing into a better human being. Tonight, we celebrate the better human being."

That evening, the "Real Love" singer was nominated for eight GRAMMYs and won three, with her classic slow jam "Be Without You" earning Best R&B Song and Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.

The Breakthrough is her seventh studio album—and the first to win a GRAMMY—and was released in 2005. She won her very first GRAMMY with Method Man at the 38th GRAMMY Awards for their vibey 1995 collab, "I'll Be There For You / You're All I Need To Get By." She won her first solo GRAMMY for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance in 2003 for "He Think I Don't Know," from her GRAMMY-nominated fifth studio album, No More Drama.

GRAMMY Rewind: Watch Mariah Carey Shine As She Wins Best New Artist At The 1991 GRAMMYs

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Donny Hathaway

Donny Hathaway

Photo: Stephen Verona/Getty Images

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How Donny Hathaway's "This Christmas" Became An Eternal Holiday Classic

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Donnita Hathaway, the daughter of the R&B and soul legend, tells GRAMMY.com why the iconic holiday song, which celebrated its 50-year anniversary last month, remains one of the all-time classics in that winter wonderland genre
Lior Phillips
GRAMMYs
Jan 13, 2021 - 9:07 pm

Christmas has always been a time of hope and potential, of love and joy. A time when family comes together and everything else stops so the world can focus on what really matters. And more than any other holiday, a song can evoke that feeling in a single moment. 

Nobody knows that quite as well as Donnita Hathaway, whose father, R&B and soul legend Donny Hathaway, released one of the all-time classics in that winter wonderland genre: "This Christmas," which celebrated its 50-year anniversary last month. "It's absolutely amazing to have 'This Christmas' celebrated every holiday season for the last 50 years," she tells GRAMMY.com. "It's humbling that this original song performed by my father and written by my godmother has that impact every year. And this year, in the midst of a pandemic, it's so special to feel the love from people saying that they're cueing up the song as a way to celebrate."

Born in Chicago in 1945, Donny Hathaway was initiated into the world of music at an early age. Reared by his grandmother, a gospel singer, in St. Louis, Hathaway joined the church choir at the age of 3; he later went on to study piano, eventually earning a scholarship to study music at Howard University. But after working on projects with legends including Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield and The Staple Singers, Hathaway left school to carve out his own voice and pursue a career in the music industry.

Only five months after his widely adored debut album, Everything Is Everything, Hathaway released "This Christmas" as a single in December 1970. Though it has touched hearts all around the world, the track particularly feels like it taps into the core of the Midwestern Christmases of Hathaway's childhood: the warmth of gathering with loved ones around a chimney fire, the twinkle of a special someone's eye underneath the mistletoe, the streetlights reflecting off the mounds of snow out the window. "Fireside is blazing bright/We're caroling through the night/And this Christmas will be a very special Christmas for me," Hathaway smiles as the horn section roars to life.

"This Christmas" was especially important for the distinct leap forward the song took for Christmas music released by a Black artist. "Up until then African American music wasn't represented in Christmas," percussionist Ric Powell told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2009. "There was Nat King Cole and Charles Brown's 'I'll Be Home For Christmas.' During the mid-1960s, James Brown was also cutting holiday tracks like 'Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto,' but they were more in the self-contained funky spirit of the Godfather of Soul than Christmas."

But "This Christmas" could extend beyond any box due to its unabashed sincerity and heart. "Donny was very upbeat during the session. He knew what he wanted to do musically and the impact he wanted to make with this song," Powell continues.

The song didn't necessarily take the world by storm on its initial release, but its appearance on the 1991 Soul Christmas compilation gave "This Christmas" the wider following it deserved. And while Hathaway's version of the song earned its place in the heart of the holidays, "This Christmas" has spread limitless cheer through countless covers. Takes on the track have spread across the decades, with everyone from Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, The Four Tops and Stevie Wonder through to *NSYNC, Christina Aguilera, Usher and Mary J. Blige releasing their own versions. 

"The top artists from so many different genres have covered the song, and it's so gratifying to see his musical peers honor his work," Donnita Hathaway says of her father's iconic song. "But the magic of Donny Hathaway will always make his version essential. There's the technical ability, but then there's the soul of a person that just pierces through and makes you smile, makes you want to be with that loved one. Every time I hear the song, it's almost like I can see him and feel the joy and contentment that are the essence of the holidays."

Lalah Hathaway On Father Donny Hathaway's Legacy

Within years of releasing "This Christmas," Hathaway's career grew to ever-increasing peaks. His 1972 duet album with Roberta Flack, Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway, reached No. 3 on the U.S. charts and featured "Where Is The Love," which would go on to earn a GRAMMY for Best Pop Vocal Performance By A Duo, Group Or Chorus at the 15th GRAMMY Awards in 1973. Hathaway's ability to swirl soul, R&B, jazz and more into an undeniable blend—all while standing strong with his trenchant social commentary—made his ascent rapid and powerful. 

That combination earned Hathaway a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019, 40 years after his passing. "When I learned that he was earning that honor, I just jumped for joy," Donnita Hathaway says. "You can't get any higher than a Lifetime Achievement recognition from the Recording Academy. And then [in 2020], Roberta Flack was acknowledged as well, and to have both of them back to back has really been amazing and beautiful."

But even as Hathaway's profile grew in the '70s, he suffered from flares of depression and was eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. After stretches of relative success and struggle with his mental health, Hathaway was found dead outside his New York hotel in 1979, from an apparent suicide having fallen from his balcony.

While "This Christmas" is a massive element within Hathaway's expansive career, so, too, is his family's advocacy for mental health in music and art. In 2015, Donnita launched the Donnie Hathaway Legacy Project, which is devoted to honoring her father's legacy and shining a light on the importance of mental health through art, nutrition, self-care and mindfulness. "I didn't want his life to be in vain," she explained. "If I can help someone, help the mental anguish that someone may go through, then I've done my job. I lost my dad at 2, and I lost my mom at 19. I realized what happens when your heart breaks and you don't heal it. I wanted this to be a worldwide initiative that focuses on holistic tools like music, because music is a healing tool."

As many struggle with mental health over the holidays every year, "This Christmas" can be even more comforting. Donnita Hathaway's plan is to spin off a mental health initiative called Friends Christmas, which urges people to look out for loved ones, friends and even strangers over the holidays to make sure everyone has a "very special Christmas." 

"So many people have lost loved ones, lost jobs, can't be with their family members," she explains. "We need to talk about how we can make Christmas special for everyone. It helps that we can always look at 'This Christmas' as an inspiration, even throughout the year, to make sure everyone is feeling special. And it always comes back to my dad's music, while also acknowledging his life and the things that troubled him as a way to prevent that from happening to our loved ones and friends."

Lalah Hathaway On Mental Health Awareness: "You Can Never Look At A Person And See What They're Going Through"

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Donnie Simpson

Donnie Simpson

Photo: Aaron Davidson/Getty Images

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Radio And TV Legend Donnie Simpson On The Key To His Decades-Long Career: "I Don't Have To Be Great––I Just Have To Be Me"

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In honor of his recent induction into the Radio Hall Of Fame, GRAMMY.com highlights the broadcasting icon's celebrated career, his impact on media and culture, and his ongoing advocacy for Black representation in radio and TV
Eliza Berkon
GRAMMYs
Jan 6, 2021 - 3:43 pm

About five years ago, Washington, D.C., DJ Donnie Simpson emerged from retirement after a little coaxing from his wife, Pam.

"She framed it really [nicely]. She said, 'Donnie, everywhere you go, all you hear is how much people love you and they wish you'd do something else. And God has given you a gift that you should be sharing with people,'" Simpson tells GRAMMY.com over a Zoom interview. "That's what she said, but what I heard was, 'Get out.'"

The affable radio and television icon ultimately returned to the airwaves in 2015. Five years later, he received one of the highest accolades in the radio industry: Last October, he was inducted into the Radio Hall Of Fame, an honor recognizing his contributions to the radio medium over the last half-century. 

The honor is the culmination of the legend's celebrated, decades-long career in radio, which launched in the '70s when a teenaged Simpson got his start on the Detroit airwaves. At the time, he looked to a handful of local DJs as mentors, including the high-spirited Ernie Durham. 

"I did not adopt his on-air style, but I try very much to adopt his off-air style. He always carried it with class," Simpson said of Durham. "And that was the example to me: to always be kind to people, to look people in the eye, no matter who they were."

It wasn't until Simpson left Detroit, in 1977, and logged his first few years at WKYS 93.9 in D.C.––a station he would reformat and lead to No. 1 as program director––that he found his stride on air, he says. 

"It's something I always say, and it's so true: I don't have to be great––I just have to be me," Simpson says. "Being you always works because that's the spirit that connects us. That's the thing that makes you real to people; they feel you when you are you. When you're trying to be something else, they know that, too."

Simpson says he's long avoided listening to recordings of himself for fear that the inevitable analysis would disrupt the "magic" of what he'd helped create. That approach also extended to his TV career, which started—not counting a role he now laughs about on a short-lived dance show in Detroit—when he served as backup sports anchor for WRC-TV in the early '80s. Not long after, he began hosting a relatively new show on the then-burgeoning BET network. Simpson had concerns about whether the show was the right fit for him.

"BET, in its infancy, wasn't a very pretty baby. The quality wasn't there. I've always been protective of image, because that's all I have," Simpson says. "But after thinking about it for two days, I decided this: This is our first Black television network. If you have something to offer it, you have to do it."

The two-hour show, "Video Soul," which spotlighted Black artists at a time when MTV was almost exclusively focused on white musicians, became BET's highest-rated program at one point.

Jeriel Johnson, executive director of the Recording Academy's Washington, D.C., chapter, remembers watching "Video Soul" as a teen in his Cincinnati home. Simpson, he says, was a "steady presence of Black excellence."

"He was the face of BET," Johnson says. "He was just a staple, and he had such a calming voice and he was super smooth. I just looked up to him as a young, Black kid who loved music ... And I remember seeing him and being like, 'Wow, I could be on TV, too. If he can, I can.'"

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On the program, Simpson interviewed artists who were already riding the waves of success or were well on their way: Jodeci, SWV, New Edition, En Vogue, Mariah Carey, Take 6, Whitney Houston. Regardless of the star who graced the couch each night, Simpson took the same approach.

"For every guest I ever had on 'Video Soul,' they would bring me a bio with all this information on the artist … I wouldn't even read it," Simpson remembers. "That's the point of the interview, for me to get to know you."

Elise Perry, a producer and the president of the Recording Academy's Washington, D.C., chapter, worked behind the scenes on "Video Soul" in the '90s, a pivotal decade for both R&B and hip-hop, she notes.

"All of these different subgenres of R&B really started to have an uptick in the '90s, and the fact that BET was present visually at that time, representing Black music in that way—it was a very special time," Perry says. "There were a lot of Black folk there, and it was just like a party. It was where I got my 'master's degree,' I call it. Everybody was family … It was just like a mecca."

Read: Meet The Recording Academy D.C. Chapter's First Black Female President, Elise Perry

Simpson treated the crew like family and has continued to provide unparalleled support for the D.C. community over the years, Perry, a D.C. native, says.

"He's our family. He's our brother. He's our uncle. He's that dude next door. He's our neighbor. He's our friend," she says.

"Family" is also how GRAMMY-nominated producer Chucky Thompson describes Simpson, who had a big impact on him when he was growing up in D.C.

"I've learned so much about people from him, just the way that he's been excited about their careers," he says of Simpson. "It transcends to you. It's like, 'Wait a minute, Donnie's excited? Now I'm excited.'"

For Thompson, who helped craft hits for Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige in the '90s, "Video Soul" was formative.

"It was almost like another version of what 'Soul Train' meant," Thompson says. "But [Simpson] got even more personal with you because he was able to talk to the artists and give you a little bit of insight on what their journeys were … He gave me a lot of information on how to make it in this business."

"Donnie Simpson is the standard," Joe Clair, comedian, radio personality, on-air veteran and host of "The Joe Clair Morning Show" on WPGC 95.5 FM in Washington, D.C., adds. "My mom and dad loved him, my siblings love him and people from a generation after me love him. That is a testament to who he is as a broadcaster and what he means to us as a voice for our community. I've worked with him throughout  the years, and he's given me valuable advice both for career moves and for negotiating my worth. He is a shining example for a life in radio and television on your own terms."

Yet becoming successful in the business, including achieving financial success, wasn't an easy journey for Simpson. The DJ has been vocal about the need for equitable pay for Black DJs. In recalling his own path to multimillion-dollar contracts, Simpson turns to a lyric from Elton John's "I've Seen That Movie Too": "It's a habit I have / I don't get pushed around."

"I've walked out [on deals], because you're not going to get me for half [the] price because I'm Black; those days are over," Simpson says, adding that in Detroit, he made one-fifth of what white DJs were making. "That was a very significant part of my career, to be able to be a part of changing that narrative, to letting them know you have to pay Black talent."

Simpson has also advocated for stations to put more of the DJ back into DJing. In the past few decades, he notes, many DJs have watched their curated playlists and airtime drift away due to technological advances and the consolidation of station ownership.

"So much of its personality has been stripped from it," Simpson says of the art of DJing. "I play whatever I want to play every day, but that's the magic of it to me … I don't want a computer programming music for me, because every day feels different. And I like to be tapped into that feeling."

In 1974, Simpson played Elton John's "Bennie And The Jets" on his show in Detroit, a decision he says he fretted about because "Black folks didn't know Elton John." He played the song twice that evening and got an overwhelming response from callers. John himself was soon on the phone with Simpson to discuss the record's success in Detroit; he handed Simpson a gold record for the single six months later.

"It's music that you wouldn't traditionally associate with Black radio; it's Elton. But that was a lesson to me," Simpson says. "It's all music to me; I don't care who made it. I just care what it sounds like [and] if it fits what I'm doing."

The fact that most DJs no longer have the latitude to craft their own playlists is a big loss for radio, Simpson says.

"You have young people out here with great ears that will never get the chance to express themselves musically because it's all programmed for them," he says. "I used to love it when wheels would touch down in Atlanta or New Orleans [or] L.A.—wherever it was. I couldn't wait to pull out my little transistor radio and hear what they were doing in that city, because it was always different."

After Simpson learned he'd be inducted into the Radio Hall Of Fame this year, he took a look at its roster of honorees over the past three decades. When he didn't see New York DJ and “Chief Rocker" Frankie Crocker and other Black radio icons on the list, the announcement gave him pause.

"These are voices that you should know about, some great talents through the years ... legends that have gone largely ignored," he says. "But I also, in my acceptance speech, acknowledged that the [Radio Hall Of Fame] is trying to correct that. You look at the list of inductees this year, with Angie Martinez, The Breakfast Club, Sway Calloway and me––man, it's like #OscarsTooBlack. It's a lot of people of color that went in this year. So they have recognized that, and I applaud them for that."

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At a time when systemic racism and police brutality against Black people have come to the forefront of the national dialogue, Simpson says he feels compelled to speak out.

"If I were not on the radio, if I didn't have a microphone, I think I would still feel that responsibility to whatever people I encounter that I could talk to, to tell them how important this moment in history is for us," Simpson says. "I am so honored that I have had a platform for, now, 51 years to allow these voices to come on the radio or on TV and talk about these matters that make a difference to our community."

In 2010, Simpson retired from WPGC, where he'd hosted a morning show for nearly two decades, after contending with a "toxic" environment. But five years later, he was back at the other end of the dial on D.C.'s WMMJ Majic 102.3. Now, another retirement seems like the furthest thing from his mind.

"What's there not to love about it? I sit there kicking it with people I love. We have all the fun we can stand," Simpson says.

As praise continues to roll in from industry A-listers for his Radio Hall Of Fame induction, Simpson has advice for the many artists and listeners who now look to him for guidance as he once looked to his own mentors: "Be kind."

Each morning, Simpson takes a walk or run beside the Potomac River. While he says there's a health benefit to the ritual, he's got an additional reason to step out of his door.

"What I'm really doing is collecting smiles," Simpson says. "That's kind of my purpose: to bring warmth and joy."

Tune in for a special Up Close & Personal conversation discussing Donnie Simpson's career and life in broadcasting. Moderated by Jimmy Jam, the event premieres Tuesday, Feb. 9, at 4:30 p.m. PST/7:30 p.m. EST via the Recording Academy's official Facebook page.

Beyond The Beltway: A Closer Look At Washington D.C.'s Vibrant Music Community

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Some of the content on this site expresses viewpoints and opinions that are not those of the Recording Academy. Responsibility for the accuracy of information provided in stories not written by or specifically prepared for the Academy lies with the story's original source or writer. Content on this site does not reflect an endorsement or recommendation of any artist or music by the Recording Academy.