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 explicit. She recorded songs in an R&B, disco, or dance-music style and occasionally in a country style. 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.
Jackson's recording career reportedly began on a dare to enter a 1964 talent contest at Harlem nightclub Smalls Paradise, which she won. Although she first recorded for MGM Records in 1970, she soon left and began a long association with New York-based Spring Records. Working with the label's in-house producer, Raeford Gerald, her first single to chart was 1971's deceptively titled "A Child of God (It's Hard to Believe)," which reached number 22 on the R&B chart. In 1972, Jackson had her first R&B Top Ten single with the follow-up, "Ask Me What You Want", which also reached the pop Top 30, then "My Man, A Sweet Man" reached No. 7 R&B[10] and No. 50 on the UK Singles Chart; all three songs were co-written by Jackson. "My Man, A Sweet Man" consists of northern soul as is her 1976 recording "A House for Sale". The following year brought her third US R&B top ten hit, "It Hurts So Good," which made No. 3 on the R&B chart and No. 24 on the US Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. The single was featured on the album of the same name and in the blaxploitation film Cleopatra Jones.
In 1974, she released the album Caught Up, which introduced her innovative style of raunchy spoken words. The featured release was her version of Luther Ingram's million-seller, "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right", for which she received two Grammy nominations. By now, she had switched producers to work only with Brad Shapiro, who had been involved with "It Hurts So Good" and "Love Doctor". Working at Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama with the renowned Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, she continued to record most of her material for Spring there, including the follow-up album, Still Caught Up. Over the next ten years, Jackson had a string of successful albums and numerous R&B chart entries, the biggest being her 1977 version of Merle Haggard's country hit "If You're Not Back in Love By Monday". That single was followed by many more, including her version of the Boney M. song, the disco single, "Never Change Lovers in the Middle of The Night." This single peaked at No. 33 on the Black Singles chart in 1979.
Jackson now runs her own record label, Weird Wreckuds. After a lengthy hiatus from recording, she released her 2001 album, Not For Church Folk, which marked a return to her style with an Urban contemporary sound. The album features the singles "Butt-A-Cize" and "Leave Me Alone". The album also features a collaboration with rapper Da Brat on the song "In My Life." Jackson had her own radio show in Dallas, Texas for 13 years. Broadcasting via remote from her home in Atlanta, Georgia, Jackson worked in afternoon drive-time from 3–6 pm on KKDA 730 AM, until January 6, 2012. In 2006, five of Jackson's best-selling albums – Millie Jackson (1972), It Hurts So Good (1973), Caught Up (1974), Still Caught Up (1975), and Feelin' Bitchy (1977) – were digitally remastered and released on CD with bonus tracks. All of Jackson's Spring Records-era albums are available from Ace Records in the UK. An Imitation of Love was re-issued on CD in 2013 by the Funkytowngrooves label in a remastered, expanded edition. Other albums released on the Jive and Ichiban labels remain out of print, though some of those songs appear on compilation CDs. On February 6, 2012, the documentary, Unsung – The Story of Mildred 'Millie' Jackson aired on the TV One network. Jackson performed at Washington, D.C.'s historic Howard Theatre on August 3, 2012, and at B.B. King's Blues Club in New York on August 4, 2012. On June 6, 2015 Jackson was inducted into the Official Rhythm & Blues Music Hall of Fame in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
