A celebration of Black music in America

Say It Loud is a six-CD testament to the vibrant, fascinating history of black music in America. The box set features music featured in the five-part Say It Loud miniseries on VH1 divided into songs of politics, protest, and spreading the message, progress in the music business, gospel and blues, black sexuality in music, and the reflection (and creation) of popular culture in (and through) black music.

This is the definitive box set of black music and culture. It features 128 tracks chronicling ragtime (Scott Joplin), jazz (Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billy Holiday, Lena Horne), blues (Bessie Smith, Son House, Leadbelly, T-Bone Walker, Howlin' Wolf, Bobby Bland, B.B. King), spirituals, gospel, R&B, rock 'n' roll (Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, The Platters, Little Richard, Chuck Berry) pop, soul (Otis Redding, Etta James, Wilson Pickett, Marvin Gaye, Staple Singers) jump blues, Motown (Aretha, Four Tops, The Supremes, Jackson 5), funk (Jimi Hendrix, Rick James, James Brown, Isaac Hayes), rap and hip-hop, as well as sound bytes from influential moments (Jesse Owens on the 1936 Olympics, Civil Rights legislation, prejudice, Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Mountain Top" speech and the report on his assassination, Blaxploitation films, the Rodney King verdict and more). The 100-page book features a foreword by Quincy Jones and extensive essays by David Ritz, Earnest Hardy, Ingrid Monson, and Grammy®-nominated journalist Gerald Early.

Say It Loud is a cultural legacy as well as an excellently packaged box set. For maximum effect watch the "Say It Loud" miniseries as well...there are numerous interviews with many of the recording artists and producers and the stories behind the music and the times as well as rare early (black-and-white) TV footage of concerts by Motown artists. Much of today's popular music owes a large debt to black music and to black artists that paved the way for later generations.

In the words of legendary producer Quincy Jones, "The history of black music in America is the history of America itself." So buy Say It Loud as a sonic history lesson, whether to brush up on your knowledge of black music or to learn from the beginning. This is one of the best box sets I've seen on the market, period. Made with love, with track after track of great cuts and informative liner notes.