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All Genres Allowed - Adina Howard's 'Unsung' on TV One

The Rediscovery of Larry Jon Wilson and Discovery of Uzi Sewzii

By Winners OnlyPublished 5 years ago 4 min read
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Adina Howard's Episode of Unsung Aired March 12, on TV One 

Most of you know Adina Howard for her provocative 1990s hits "Freak Like Me" and "T-Shirt & Panties." I, however, have gotten the rare opportunity to work with Adina as a filmmaker over the past five years.

This month TV One aired an episode of Unsung, featuring the trendsetting artist and I was amazed to see how her romantic encounters with Boyz II Men's Wanya Morris were featured. The show gave spectators a peak into a possible beef with the talented Grammy winning recording artist and actress Brandy, who was said to be seeing Morris at the time.

There was also a lighthearted look into her marriage, where her ex-husband, Sherman Jordan, showed a lot of class and wasn't afraid to laugh at himself.

There is still one question many people have asked me that remains unanswered. In my 2015 documentary entitled Adina Howard 20: A Story of Sexual Liberation, she mentioned how her platinum selling career stopped as quick as it started because she said something about the powerful record exec Sylvia Rhone, who in return allegedly used her stroke to halt anything that was invested into Adina Howard's second album.

In this month's episode of Unsung, the topic came up once more and one could interpret that the relationship with Wanya, beef with Brandy, and Adina's will to do what she chose to do despite Rhone's advice against the relationship contributed to the sudden halt of her rise to the top of the music business.

However, that's mere assumption and you know what the first three letters of assumption spell. Bottom line is that Adina hasn't repeated those words publicly. I've had various screenings of my film around the country and people swear that I know, but I 100 percent do not.

Who knows if she'll ever tell us and in reality, if she ever did, what good would it do? As a fan, colleague and friend of Adina, I'm just happy to see that she has survived that moment and is around to appreciate the fact that people are still interested and enjoy her music nearly 25 years later.

This film was nominated for Outstanding Independent Documentary at the 2016 Black Reel Awards.

Larry Jon Wilson, a True Buried Treasure in Music History

Larry Jon Wilson's album New Beginnings was released in 1975.

I told you all in the first edition of All Genres Allowed that I was a music junky. I hear music in my mind just about all day and it leads me to finding under appreciated artists that have been forgotten about or have gone unknown to most fans.

Last summer my craving for funk went into overdrive and somehow I ended up on a site that listed the best country funk songs. Country funk? Yes country funk. To me, country funk was The Gap Band and the Commodores but no, it goes way deeper.

I checked out the name Larry Jon Wilson who's "Ohoopee River Bottomland" serves as a nice funky snack. This guy has a voice that rivals Barry White, when you think of the sugary deep resonance that made White an all-time legend in music. I checked out a couple of his albums and was dumbfounded upon how he wasn't one of the biggest stars in country, better yet in all of music.

Wilson's music may be categorized as country but his voice and his songs have a feel that crosses boundaries. If you like old school soul you've got to listen to "Things Ain't What They Used to Be," "The Truth Ain't In You," "Melt Not My Igloo" all from Wilson's 1975 debut album, "New Beginnings."

Just after I fell in love with this artist, I was a little heartbroken to find out that he passed away in 2010. Just two years earlier, he released his first album since 1979. Overall, Wilson dropped five albums. His highest chart success came in 1976 when "Think I Feel A Hitchhike Coming On" reached 47 in the Adult Contemporary category.

Uzi Sewzii bangs on us all.

Uzi Sewzii looks to follow up a sound 2018 with more explosive music.

At the start of 2018, I teamed up with DJ Coco Z to make a documentary about current and former hip-hop artists who discussed the highs and lows of their quests for fame.

One of those artists was the highly energetic Uzi Sewzii. An artist with charisma and a rawness perfect for her indie status, Uzi Sewzii's performance stole the show in the movie Coco Z's BaBs the Movie, which was released in 2018 on Amazon Prime.

Though the film is currently unavailable on Prime, you can still check out this upstart artist on YouTube. Below is her latest video "Mirror, Mirror."

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