2025 is a 9 year, the number sacred to the Orisa Oya in the Ifa/Orisa tradition. She is the guardian of the cemetery gate, and the mother of the ancestors. It seems that in the year of Her reign of transformation, ancestors are being transcended in numbers more massive than before. Usually these things happen in threes. This time, it happened by nine in a matter or days. The music world today is reeling from the transitions of a handful of legends. This writing pays tribute and pours libation to our ascended music legends.
Jerry Butler 12.8.1939 - 2.20.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlZ_83_seJc
Gwen McCrae 12..21.1943 - 2.21.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQa9McH2LA0
Chris Jasper Isley 12.30.1951 2.24.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foFK6q7kF9Y
Roberta Flack 2.10. 1937 - 2.24.2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhM-Sk_R5W4
Angie Stone 12. 18. 1961 - 3.1 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Br7D212RURo
Harry Elston, Founding Member of the Friends of Distinction 11. 4. 1938 - 3.4. 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBkYN7wYQFk
Roy Ayers 9. 10. 1940 - 3. 4. 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ZLKfxqjVg
Randy Brown 1952 - March 5, 2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McVM-hsNmkw
D'Wayne Wiggins, Founding Member of Tony Toni Tone 2.14. 1961 - 3.7. 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOOHzCZ-Dbg
There is so much to say here, that I hardly know where to begin. Music is a very powerful spiritual medium, a timeless tool used to tune our emotions and frequencies. This is why we feel the loss of our favorite musicians as we would our family members. There was so much love put into the music of their time, a direct contrast to the caliber of mainstream music being put out today. In many ways, it is coming back around, but the aforementioned artists are, and will always be the blueprint. Their music sang of true love and human condition, full of soul, free of ego. They made music that feds our spirits. Most of all, they inspired us to follow our hearts, to make the most of our divine gifts, and immortalize ourselves in time, as becoming an ancestor is inevitable. These are the artists of our youthful time, for certain generations. They've left behind more than enough for us to pass on.
It is important for all of us to preserve these musical legacies, and to pass them on to our future generations. This is extremely important in these times, granted the low vibrational grade of music that is being mainstreamed to our children. We, as a people must maintain our respect for the families of our favorite artists, as they have sacrificed greatly to share their family members with the rest on the world. Let us keep them lifted up in prayer and positive thought. This is why radio stations like mine, 222.9 The Mothership, is dedicated to preserving the musical legacies of our ancestors and living legends. Through us, their records spin like the world...round and round forever. Libations. Beam Up!
Ase in Love,
iiiYansaje T. Muse
The Blaq Madonna of the Airwaves
