Millie Jackson Posters & Photographs for Sale

Mildred Virginia Jackson (born July 15, 1944) is an American R&B and soul recording artist. Beginning her career in the early 1960s, three of Jackson's albums have been certified gold by the RIAA for over 500,000 copies sold. Jackson's songs often include long spoken sections, sometimes humorous, sometimes sexually explicit. She recorded songs in an R&B, disco, or dance-music style and occasionally in a country style.Occasionally, Jackson has been called the "mother of hip-hop," or of rapping itself. This has more to do with the long spoken sections in many of her songs as opposed to actual rapping. According to the cataloguing site WhoSampled.com, her songs have appeared in 189 samples, 51 covers, and six remixes.

Born in Thomson, Georgia, Jackson is the daughter of a sharecropper. Her mother died when she was a child and subsequently, she and her father moved to the New York City area and settled in Newark, New Jersey. By the time Jackson was in her mid-teens, she had moved into New York City to live with an aunt who resided in Brooklyn. She found an occasional modeling gig for magazines like JIVE and Sepia.

In 1964, Jackson performed at a club in New York City. She subsequently appeared in a "string of one nighters" after this. Her performance was mostly talk and spoken words, but her onstage banter would become a focal point in her stage act. This banter stemmed from her being unsure of what to do in front of the crowd.