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Black America Web
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Black America Web
Pam Grier's Iconic Roles That Changed Hollywood Forever
Source: LMPC / Getty Pam Grier, known as the undisputed queen of 1970s Blaxploitation films, paved the way for Black women in Hollywood by embodying strength, style, and resilience on-screen. Her groundbreaking career spans over five decades, delivering unforgettable performances that have earned her a devoted global fan base. RELATED: Someone Had The Audacity To Say Pam Grier Isn't Black Beauty Personified RELATED: Pam Grier Taps Into Her Inner Gangsta In Tubi's 'Cinnamon' Grier burst into stardom during the 1970s with films that gave audiences fiercely independent heroines rarely seen at the time. She became the face of a genre, bringing charisma and power to every role. Grier's performances didn't just entertain; they broke barriers, showcasing women not as damsels in distress but as characters who could command their own stories. The 1973 classic Coffy is perhaps her most iconic role, where she played a nurse turned vigilante taking down drug pushers. Her unapologetic portrayal of Coffy transformed her into a feminist icon of the era. Soon after, she solidified her status with Foxy Brown, where she became a force of justice once again. These roles made her a symbol of empowerment, especially for underrepresented audiences. Years later, Grier captivated audiences in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, proving her immense range as an actress. Playing the titular role, a smart and resourceful flight attendant tangled up in a money-laundering scheme, Grier earned critical acclaim, including a Golden Globe nomination. It was a triumphant return to mainstream cinema, showing her remarkable staying power. Pam Grier's legacy isn't just about the characters she played. It's also about the doors she opened for women of color in Hollywood. Her fearless performances continue to inspire, and her influence is felt across the industry. Grier shines as Coffy, a nurse who turns vigilante to take down drug dealers and crime bosses responsible for destroying her community. Her fierceness and unapologetic determination made Coffy a groundbreaking character and solidified Grier as the first Black female action star. Playing Foxy Brown, a courageous woman on a mission to dismantle a drug syndicate, Grier brings unmatched charisma and strength to the role. This film remains a cultural touchstone for its bold, unapologetic portrayal of empowerment and justice. Grier stars as Jackie Brown, a flight attendant caught smuggling money, in Quentin Tarantino's homage to 1970s Blaxploitation. Her layered, nuanced performance in this crime drama earned her critical acclaim and showcased her ability to master more subdued, complex roles. Grier plays Sheba Shayne, a no-nonsense private investigator who returns to her hometown to fight off corrupt businessmen threatening her father's business. Her intelligence and poise in this role highlighted her versatility as an actress. Grier takes on the horror genre in this sequel to 'Blacula.' Playing Lisa, a voodoo priestess, she radiates strength and courage while facing supernatural forces. Her commanding presence elevated this cult classic beyond a standard horror film. Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
The Guardian
30-01-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Soul, sermonising and wrestling Satan: James Brown's 20 best albums – ranked!
If you want a roll call of James Brown's formative influences, just check the covers on this album: Hank Ballard, Roy 'Good Rockin' Tonight' Brown, dirty blues supremo Bull Moose Jackson and Billy Ward's impressively morbid The Bells, which – never knowingly understated – Brown used to perform on stage with a doll representing his lover's corpse. A classic 60s JB album, in that it carelessly throws together singles, tracks from random sessions and live tracks (the version of Tell Me That You Love Me is ludicrously intense). The difference here is the quality of the ragbag material: Bring It Up, Money Won't Change You, Let Yourself Go, the effervescent sermonising of Don't Be a Dropout. Brown's second Blaxploitation soundtrack isn't a match for Black Caesar (below), often relying on transplanted or rewritten old material. You can see why the film's producers were annoyed, but if you ignore its origins and simply take it as 40 minutes of music, it works just fine – and the opener, Slaughter Theme, is superb. Brown's disco years have been much maligned, not least by Brown himself. The standard line is that he ended up sounding like everyone else, which just isn't true: the rhythms might have changed, but there's a sweat-soaked rawness to Mutha's Nature that resembles nothing else disco produced. They say that if you're going to buy a Brown album, you're best served by a compilation, and that is particularly true of his early years. But not entirely. Aside from the hits, Think! has a lot to commend it, not least I Wonder When You're Coming Home and You've Got the Power, both haunted by the ghost of doo-wop. An album that lies somewhere between funk and disco, with a title track that temporarily reversed Brown's commercial decline in the US. Quite rightly so: it's fantastic, particularly in the full-length version here. Moreover, This Feeling, I Refuse to Lose and, especially, the frantic Can't Take It With You run it close. The world could probably have lived without It's a New Day's thoughts on feminism – 'a man can't do nothin' no more!' – although its groove is magnificently hypnotic. Elsewhere, there's the peerless Give It Up or Turnit a Loose, a great remake of It's a Man's Man's Man's World and the fabulous, mid-tempo World. Usually a pioneer, Brown was a latecomer to Blaxploitation soundtracks, but had clearly noted the success of Isaac Hayes' Shaft and Curtis Mayfield's Super Fly. As with those albums, the music on Black Caesar outstripped the film it accompanied: check out Down and Out in New York City and Make It Good to Yourself. One thing the album format allowed Brown and his musicians to do was stretch out, something they were capable of without a hint of self-indulgence. Hot Pants offers just four tracks: the curiously titled Blues & Pants is a serious deep cut; while Escape-ism's squealing horns later turned up on Public Enemy's Don't Believe the Hype. Brown's 60s studio albums were so wilfully patchy, it's no wonder the occasional gem gets ignored, but I Can't Stand It When You Touch Me is a relentless delight. The lesser-known tracks (the instrumental The Soul of JB, the bizarrely produced stomper Time After Time) are as delightful as the big-hitting title track. Live at the Apollo's sequel captures Brown in a period of transition – what would come to be called funk is starting to stir. His band, the Famous Flames, sound as punchy as ever, but there is more space in the songs. Get the unedited deluxe edition, on which It's A Man's Man's Man's World lasts nearly 20 minutes. Proof that the Godfather's albums were more than just addendums to his hits. Soul on Top is, if not a concept album, then certainly a conceptual one: an unexpected set of jazzy R&B recorded with Louie Bellson's big band. Amazingly, it works – even the swing take on For Once in My Life, also recorded by Stevie Wonder a few years prior. When Brown began slowing down the rate at which he released albums, it led to an increase in their quality – here, even the evidently improvised slow-motion closer Never Can Say Goodbye is compellingly haunting. Point docked for including two spoken-word warnings about drugs – the sombre King Heroin and Public Enemy Number One, the two parts of which go on for what feels like months. The tracklist suggests a hurried dance-craze cash-in; five songs have 'popcorn' in the title. It might well have been recorded in a rush, but that works in It's a Mother's favour. A couple of ballads aside, the album feels like one ferocious extended jam, improvised on the spot, Brown barking orders to the musicians as much as singing. Tom Waits described seeing Brown live as 'like putting your finger in a light socket', which fits the music here: the handbrake turns of the 'fast medley' (three songs in 80 seconds!); the ferocious succession of tracks on side 4. And hats off for his rant against dieting: 'The more you got, the more I want.' As the 60s ended, Brown seemed to finally grasp that an album was more than a random collection of tracks. The title number is the draw here, but there's a real flow to the rest. The ballads and instrumentals are too good to count as padding, and the slinky groove of Licking Stick – Licking Stick is obviously irresistible. At this point, Brown had started billing himself as the Minister of Super New New Heavy Funk. The Hell album's My Thang reveals he wasn't exaggerating. An abysmal, inexplicable cover of When the Saints Go Marching In aside, it's all fantastic – plus the cartoon sleeve features Brown wrestling Satan and winning. Sex Machine saw Brown's band, the JBs, at the height of their powers, supposedly captured live. Over half of the album patently isn't live, but given how awesome the extended takes of the title track and Mother Popcorn are – not to mention the thrillingly improbable transition from a version of If I Ruled the World into a warp-speed There Was a Time – is anyone really bothered? Brown's label was dismissive of his idea for a live album, so the singer had to fund its recording himself. The result was an atmospheric, electrifying document of classic Chitlin' Circuit soul, both raw and incredibly tight: a relentless, no-pauses barrage of songs, strafed with the audience's screams and cries. Brown's career was about to take a commercial dive, but you'd never guess from The Payback; nor would you guess that it was a rejected film soundtrack repurposed as a standalone double album that's completely cohesive and immensely powerful. At least part of that power and cohesion comes from a shift in tone. In the midst of Watergate and a deepening recession, Brown's messages of empowerment now seem underpinned by a noticeable impatience and anger. The softer songs have a bleak, despairing tone, suggesting that, whatever Forever Suffering and Doing the Best I Can present themselves as, they're not necessarily just about affairs of the heart.
