Singers Betty Wright and Little Richard along with music executive Andre Harrell died this weekend. All had major impacts on R&B and the music industry as a whole. If one wasn't moving the genre forward, another was introducing the world to new acts.
Betty Wright influenced a generation of female artists
The soulful Betty Wright died from cancer Sunday at the age of 66 in her Miami home, according to Billboard. She had been diagnosed with endometrial cancer in the fall, Steve Greenberg, president of S-Curve Records who worked with Wright, told The New York Times.Wright's career started with her family's gospel group, according to Billboard, and she released her first album at the age of 14 in 1968.Many of her hits have been sampled by rappers and singers like Beyoncé, Color Me Bad and Chance the Rapper.
Little Richard was an early figure in rock
The screaming, preening, scene-stealing wild man of early rock 'n' roll first came on the scene in the 1950s with hits like "Tutti Frutti," "Long Tall Sally" and "Slippin' and Slidin'." The Macon, Georgia, native had a long career after that saw him becoming one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, getting a street named after him in his home town and receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 1993 Grammys. Aside from music, Little Richard's most noted ambivalence was in his attitude toward his sexuality. He told Charles White he was "omnisexual." A decade later, he told Penthouse magazine he always knew he was gay."I've been gay all my life and I know God is a God of love, not of hate," he told the magazine in 1995. "How can I (put) down the fisherman when I've been fishing all my life?"
Andre Harrell had an everlasting footprint in hRead More – Source [contf] [contfnew] 
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