His parents were immigrants from Ghana, and his mother was a seamstress, who taught him how to sew. His rise to fame and road to becoming one of the most popular designers in the modern age was kickstarted since his early days in his hometown of Rockford, Illinois. Abloh left behind his wife, Shannon Abloh and two children Grey and Lowe Abloh. He was also the chief executive officer of the Milan-based label Off-White, a fashion house he founded in 2013. Fashion designer and entrepreneur, Virgil Abloh died at 41 years old from cancer, which he battled in privacy for two years.Ībloh was the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection from 2018 until his death. The fashion industry lost another iconic talent yesterday (Nov. remains a model R&B diva who paved the way for myriad successors, including Beyoncé and Ariana Grande.Aside From Being A Fashion Pioneer, Virgil Abloh Helped Conceptualize These Legendary Album Covers Even as she’s gone Hollywood (earning an Academy Award nomination for 2017’s Mudbound), Mary J. Mary (1999) saw her move toward a more classic sound, though 2001’s smash “Family Affair” swung back toward hip-hop that fertile tension has remained in her music since.
Blige’s life was never separate from her art, and fans have followed her through addiction, marriage, divorce and therapy, connecting with songs like “Not Gon’ Cry” and “No More Drama” out of deep identification: here was an artist who sang women’s realities as they were almost never presented in popular music-and who always came out stronger. She and Sean Combs crafted her 1992 debut, What’s the 411?, which spawned the ubiquitous and beloved jam “Real Love” and helped set the template for R&B’s marriage to hip-hop. Her voice is elastic, scrappy and versatile, with more than a hint of world-weary grit, and when a chance recording of Anita Baker’s “Caught Up in the Rapture” came before Uptown Records execs in 1988, the label immediately snapped her up as its youngest (and first female) signee. Born Mary Jane Blige in the Bronx in 1971, Blige was raised mainly in Yonkers, New York, where she grew up listening to the greats: Aretha, Chaka and Gladys Knight. Dubbed the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul in the ’90s, Blige came off as tough and streetwise (unlike many of her contemporaries), and she could go toe to toe with rappers, including JAY Z, Method Man and more recently Kendrick Lamar. Blige is that rare singer who can channel your pain-and then drag you onto the dance floor to sweat it away.