The Soul of Rock 'N Roll: A History of African Americans in Rock Music

THE SOUL of ROCK 'N ROLL is a history of African Americans in Rock Music. And it examines and exemplifies the careers of over 50 top pioneering African American performers; and their impact on multicultural awareness, civil rights activism, social-economic improvement, social-academic achievement, and multicultural acceptance, while creating and inspiring the completely original American musical art form called Rock ‘N Roll!

THE SOUL of ROCK 'N ROLL is a history of African Americans in Rock Music. And it examines and exemplifies the careers of over 50 top pioneering African American performers such as... Chuck Berry Little Richard Big Mama Thornton Muddy Waters B.B. King Bo Diddley John Lee Hooker Ray Charles Ike & Tina Turner Aretha Franklin Smokey Robinson The Supremes The Temptations Otis Redding Jackie Wilson Sam Cooke James Brown Richie Havens Taj Mahal Jimi Hendrix Marvin Gaye Stevie Wonder Roberta Flack The Jackson 5 Earth Wind & Fire The Isley Brothers George Clinton Bootsy Collins The Commodores The Ohio Players Gil Scott-Heron Curtis Mayfield Isaac Hayes Al Green Barry White The Brothers Johnson Bill Withers Billy Preston Sly Stone Rick James Michael Jackson Prince Sheila E. Narada Michael Walden Whitney Houston RUN DMC Living Colour Fishbone 24-7 SPYZ Bad Brains Sound Barrier Janet Jackson Lenny Kravitz Tracy Chapman Ice-T Darius Rucker Lauryn Hill Michael Franti Me’Shell Ndege’Ocello Ben Harper Alana Davis .... And explores their impact on multicultural awareness, civil rights activism, social-economic improvement, social-academic achievement, and multicultural acceptance, while creating and inspiring the completely original American musical art form called Rock ‘N Roll!

Bay Area author & songwriter Jeffrey Othello was born in Oakland, California, in 1967. He is a scholar of Education, Theology, and Political Science; and as a young man, became well-known for performing and touring with his All-African American Heavy Metal bands Wanted and Othello’s Revenge in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1991, Jeffrey Othello performed on both the Lollapalooza and Gathering of the Tribes festival tours. And he was featured in an MTV 30-minute News Special entitled Racism: Points of View; which ran from 1991-1992. He continued performing nationally and internationally for the next ten years, and was nominated for a JPF Songwriter Award in 2002. And later that same year, he signed a licensing deal to provide music for MTV shows like THE REAL WORLD and ROAD RULES. In 2003, he was featured in an exhibit at the National Broadcast Museum; chronicling the MTV special and his views on racism in the music industry. And in 2004, he wrote and published the first version of his critically acclaimed book THE SOUL of ROCK 'N ROLL: A History of African Americans in Rock Music. In 2011, Jeffrey Othello and Othello’s Revenge were celebrated by the Chicago Sun Times as being the first band to Headline the Festival Stage (2nd Stage) on the first Lollapalooza Tour back in 1991. And today, Jeffrey Othello has over 75 Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, and Acoustic songs available for download on many national and international music download sites.