When a killa talks, ya betta listen.
It wasn’t unheard of for Nina Simone to stop her band mid-concert to let them know they were playing too fast and it wasn’t unheard of for Simone to curse her audiences, demanding they let their emotions show. It was her passion and her intolerance for all things subpar that gave Simone the mouth and conviction of a woman as formidable as the Rocky Mountains; it was her bewitching musical talents that made her an undying powerhouse.
Nina Simone, born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, grew up in a world with more bigotry and outright racism than our own, but it only helped to broaden her cultural influences. Simone, known as The High Priestess of Soul, was well recognized for being a singer, songwriter, pianist and composer; her musical breadth ranged from classical music to pop, from jazz to gospel, and from R&B to folk. She is also known for being a civil rights activist; in one notorious interview, she insists that had it not been for the pleas of her husband, she would have resorted to violence in her quest for racial equality – “If I had my way, I’d’ve been a killa!”
The sincerity of her work has had lasting impressions – her songs have been the soundtracks to some of the worlds most successful campaigns (from Audi cars to Dior perfume) and her music is still sampled and remade by artists like Talib Kweli, Michael Bublé, and Mos Def. With a Billboard-topping career that spanned from the 1950s until her death in 2003, Nina Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums. Iconic Nina Simone songs include: “Sinnerman”, “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”, “Feeling Good”, and more tenderly – “I Loves You Porgy”.
