Paying Homage
A verified registry of the people building, making, and shaping what shows up on black.wiki. Over time, verified entries will receive plaques, certificates, and contributor cards — a durable record of who put in the work.
Kiese Laymon — Heavy
2018 Laymon memoir on his Mississippi childhood, body, food, and writing.
Killer Mike — Michael
Killer Mike's 2023 solo album exploring fatherhood, faith, and the Black Southern interior.
King of New York
Abel Ferrara's 1990 crime drama featuring Laurence Fishburne as Jimmy Jump — a performance that announced a generational talent.
Lauryn Hill — The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
1998 album — first hip-hop album to win the Grammy for Album of the Year.
Mahershala Ali — Moonlight
Mahershala Ali's Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Moonlight (2017).
Mariah Carey — Daydream
Mariah Carey's 1995 fifth album — her commercial and creative peak.
Marvin Gaye — Let's Get It On
1973 album that redefined R&B sensuality and Black male vulnerability.
Marvin Gaye — What's Going On
1971 concept album about a Vietnam veteran returning to a country tearing itself apart.
Mary J. Blige — My Life
Mary J. Blige's 1994 sophomore album — the album that made her the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul.
Maxine Waters — DNC Speech 2020
Maxine Waters's prime-time DNC speech in 2020.
Maya Angelou — I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
1969 autobiography centered on Angelou's childhood in Stamps, Arkansas.
Maya Angelou — On the Pulse of Morning
Maya Angelou's 1993 Clinton inaugural poem.
Megan Thee Stallion — Traumazine
2022 Houston rapper's third studio album following her testimony in the Tory Lanez trial.
Nas — Illmatic
Nas's 1994 debut album recorded at age 19.
Notorious B.I.G. — Ready to Die
The Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 debut album.
NWA — Straight Outta Compton
NWA's 1988 debut album that established gangsta rap as a major American genre.
Octavia Butler — Kindred
1979 time-travel novel that drops a modern Black woman into a Maryland plantation in 1815.
OutKast — Aquemini
1998 album from the Atlanta duo that proved Southern hip-hop could be experimental, lyrical, and chart-topping at the same time.
Outkast — ATLiens
1996 OutKast sophomore album that pushed Southern hip-hop into Afrofuturist territory.
Outkast — Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
2003 double album — first hip-hop release to win Album of the Year at the Grammys.
OutKast — Stankonia
2000 OutKast album that broke Southern hip-hop into national pop consciousness.
Patrice O'Neal — Mr P
2011 album from Black comedian Patrice O'Neal recorded shortly before his death.
Patricia Hill Collins — Black Feminist Thought
1990 sociological foundation text of Black feminist epistemology.
Patti LaBelle — Burning Hot
Pittsburgh-born R&B icon Patti LaBelle's 1979 solo establishment after LaBelle disbanded.