By Stacy M. Brown
Originally appeared in NNPA
Fans continue to devour the sonic treats she gives, especially when performing classics like “I Never Knew Love Like This Before,” “You’re Puttin’ A Rush on Me,” and “Home,” which, according to the majority of Black Twitter, no one besides Mills should sing.
After gaining global acclaim for playing Dorothy in The Wiz, which set the Broadway stage on fire, and producing some of the most memorable tunes in music, Stephanie Mills inexplicably remains under the radar, especially for someone with one of the best voices in history.
One may argue that she is the most undervalued and overlooked performer ever.
But Mills, 65, doesn’t care that the music industry still hasn’t given her those much-deserved flowers.
During a spirited one-on-one interview with the National Newspaper Publishers Association’s live morning show, Let It Be Known, she said, “If they don’t give me my flowers, I’m good with that.”
“Every time I walk up onto that stage, someone gives me flowers. Mills observed, “People come out, and they adore my show.”
In 2022, Mills performed in front of sold-out crowds across the United States as generations of fans have continued to devour the sonic treats she gives, especially when performing classics like “I Never Knew Love Like This Before,” “You’re Puttin’ A Rush on Me,” and “Home,” which, according to the majority of Black Twitter, no one besides Mills should sing.
Even when discussing such topics as Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and the inane Rolling Stone Magazine’s ranking of the “Greatest 200 Singers of All Time,” her genuineness shone through in every part of the chat.
When asked about the magazine’s most egregious oversight, Mills said, “Leaving Celine Dion and me off the list, and putting Michael Jackson at No. 86.”
According to Mills, “Why should we care at all?”
“Rolling Stone is meaningless,” she chides.
“With Michael Jackson (No. 86) so far down on the list, and neither Celine Dion nor myself on it, it’s meaningless,” Mills stated. “Willie Nelson is not a singer [yet he made Rolling Stone’s list at No. 54.”
She scoffed at the selection of Adele at No. 22.
“Adele has never finished a performance,” Mills decried.
“No way do I believe anything on the list. This is just a PR effort to get people talking. In my opinion, Rolling Stone is meaningless.”
Mills, who earned a Black Press of America Lifetime Legacy Award in 2022, said the music industry has continued to whitewash R&B.
“We can’t make it in the industry, because it doesn’t want us to,” she declared.
“They’re looking for Adele, Justin Bieber, Justin Timberlake, and Billie Eilish. I can sing the same song as Adele, and it still won’t get played. The music business is still very divided between what we call pop radio and R&B radio.”
She argued that it should come as no surprise that whitewashing persists.
Mills said, “I had a tremendous hit with ‘Never Knew Love Like This’ and they don’t play it. They always want us to grovel and plead for a place in their world, but we already have our own. Why the need to squabble over Rolling Stone? Obviously, the author of this piece is not musically literate and has no ability to sing.”