Frankie Beverly Reportedly Had 6-Figure Net Worth When He Died
Frankie Beverly was 77 when he died on Sept. 10.
There were varying reports into music legend Frankie Beverly’s net worth after he died, with some outlets listing his earnings at around $4 million. But as per Celebrity Net Worth’s most recent update into Beverly’s financial portfolio, the “Before I Let Go” singer had a net worth of around $500,000.
Beverly, 77, died Sept. 10 after a lengthy, successful music career. He was best known as the founder and lead vocalist of the soul and funk band Maze. His music is credited with leaving a lasting impact on R&B and soul music. He entered the music scene in the 1960s with his band The Butlers.
By the 1970s, Beverly moved from his hometown of Philadelphia to California where he renamed his band Raw Soul. The band caught the attention of Marvin Gaye’s sister-in-law and became his opening act. While on tour with Gaye, he gave the idea to change its name to Maze.
Gaye also organized a deal for Beverly and Maze at Capitol Records in 1977. Maze released its debut album one year later and eight more albums under the label including live recordings like Silky Soul in 1989 and Back to Basics in 1993.
Maze never achieved widespread mainstream success but did build a loyal fan base and continued touring and performing well into the 2000s. Some of its most popular songs include “Joy and Pain,” “Golden Time of Day,” “We Are One,” and “Before I Let Go.”
The group was most known for its energetic but intimate live performances. Beverly’s signature style of custom-designed all-white casual attire—slacks, a long-sleeved shirt, and a baseball cap—became iconic over the years. Fans embraced the tradition by wearing all-white to Maze concerts.
In 2019, Beyoncé covered Maze’s hit single “Before I Let Go,” as a bonus track on her fifth live album, Homecoming: The Live Album. Beverly deemed the cover as a “high point” in his life.
“It’s a blessing. It’s amazing how she works, she’s very smart,” he toldBillboard at the time of the song’s release. “I’m caught off guard, but in a beautiful way. She’s such a sweet person, too. She’s a very sweet, religious kind of person. Then the way she just released it, it’s off the chain. She’s done so much, this is one of the high points of my life.”
Black Women’s Health Imperative Releases 2024 Health Policy Voters Guide
These are the important and needed resources......
The Black Women’s Health Imperative (BWHI) released “Black Women Vote: 2024 Health Policy Voters Guide,” a resource to help Black women comprehend policies and issues that impede on their health, according to a press release.
As the nation’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to the well-being of Black women and girls, BWHI has addressed budding concerns with policy research, innovative programs, and advocacy that push for health and wellness. The 2024 Health Policy Voters Guide hosts “Five Pillars” to advance Black women’s health — access to quality and affordable healthcare, health of families and children first, equitable governance and relationships, employment, education justice and equity, and technology access and artificial intelligence.
The voters’ guide also gives users a robust overview of specific seats and roles up for election in the presidential, congressional, and governor races. The organization included a detailed checklist for users to evaluate candidates in their region to see where each ranks against each pillar and a list of ballot measures organized by state. Since the last presidential election in 2020, over 400 bills have been introduced in just about every state to restrict voting access and target communities of color.
As a result, the rights to protective healthcare, voting, and more are at risk, with limitations being placed on abortion access, in vitro fertilization (IVF) services, and maternal care. These limiting efforts have disproportionately harmed Black women and have increased the worsening of existing health disparities. “For many Black women, 2024 has been a year of profound challenges and impacts on our health and livelihoods. The challenges we face as a community—especially the recent attacks on reproductive freedoms—underscore the need for transformative leadership,” Linda Goler Blount, BWHI’s president, said.
“Let me be clear: Black women and the power of our vote have always been at the forefront of keeping the US democracy intact. This year, we must vote like our lives depend on it. Because they do.”
Established in 1983, the organization has been a vital leader in creating safe spaces to discuss topics concerning Black women of all generations. In July 2024, according to Black News, they worked with actress Sheryl Lee Ralph and author Tabitha Brown to produce a documentary called Me Period, highlighting the intergenerational conversations surrounding puberty, menstruation, and health discovery.
Blount described the film as seeing her dedication to health equity advocacy come to life, and as the executive producer, she is excited to promote the importance of understanding the different and unique health experiences of Black women.
North Carolina Man’s Medical Debt Illustrates A National Crisis For Black People
According to Dr. Rishi Manchanda, a former board member of the nonprofit organization RIP Medical Debt, 'Debt is no longer just a bug in our system. It is one of the main products.'
Terry Belk, a Black former car salesman who lives in Charlotte, North Carolina, says that his medical debts are like an albatross around his neck, a sentiment many people in America would likely agree with. After his wife died of breast cancer in 2012, Belk was left with a mountain of medical bills, which were further compounded by his prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.
According to NBC News, Atrium Health, a nonprofit hospital that treated Sandra, Belk’s late wife, aggressively pursued the debts owed by the pair. This resulted in Terry signing a deed of trust, which entitled the hospital to $23,000 when he sold his home, which would settle his debts with the hospital.
However, the hospital did not stop trying to collect money from Belk. In 2022, the hospital sued him for $6,000, which he owed for his prostate cancer treatments. Belk told the outlet that he knew he couldn’t win in a court battle, so he agreed to pay off the debt, which ballooned to $8,000 after interest was accounted for.
Belk told NBC News that he felt trapped. “We weren’t trying to abscond from the bills,” he said. “I wanted to pay, but I couldn’t. I’ve been battling this for over 20 years,” the 68-year-old Belk said. “This has been like an albatross around my neck, like an anvil I’m dragging around every day.”
Belk continued, driving home the point that medical debt is a national crisis. “This is a national problem; people are getting millions and millions of these bills. They are making peoples’ lives hell. I’ll probably be paying this into the afterlife.”
According to Berneta Hayes, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, Medical debt is a “problem that is uniquely American. Even if you have insurance, if you have chronic health conditions that require you to interface more often with the healthcare system, you are putting yourself at greater risk for medical debt every single time you make” appointments.
It is such a uniquely American problem that it has received major attention this election cycle and in other political news.
On the campaign trail, Vice President Kamala Harris has proposed the forgiveness of $220 billion in medical debt held by approximately 15 million Americans. According to CNBC, in her economic plan, released by her campaign in August, the vice president wants to do more than relieve Americans of their debt. The campaign wants “to help them avoid accumulating such debt in the future because no one should go bankrupt just because they had the misfortune of becoming sick or hurt,” according to their platform.
According to Dr. Rishi Manchanda, a former board member of the nonprofit organization RIP Medical Debt, “Debt is no longer just a bug in our system. It is one of the main products,” Dr. Manchanda told NPR. “We have a healthcare system almost perfectly designed to create debt.”
Alan Cohen, a co-founder of insurer Centivo and a health benefits worker for more than 30 years, agrees with Dr. Manchanda, saying that there is only one reason people end up in medical debt. The costs of healthcare in America are simply more than they can afford. As NPR reported, the problem of medical debt is also more pronounced among Black and other people of color and in the South, where state governments have failed to expand Medicare and Medicaid.
“The No. 1 reason, and the No. 2, 3, and 4 reasons, that people go into medical debt is they don’t have the money. It’s not complicated,” Cohen said.
The focus of the Harris campaign is also in line with voters’ views, according to a May poll jointly conducted by the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, which surveyed 1,309 adults.
According to the poll’s results, 51% of adults indicated that it was very important to them that the federal government forgive medical debt, while 39% felt the same about student loan forgiveness.
According to Ciara Zachary, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Public Health, the program has the potential to become a national initiative.
“It could be like an expansion, where states can adopt it, or there could be some kind of big, sweeping legislation,” Zachary said. “I think maybe a Harris administration could also just continue to incentivize and promote these efforts.”
Zachary continued, comparing potential pushback of the North Carolina plan to the criticism Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act received. “There are going to be states that are going be like, ‘This is great, we want to be progressive. And then there might be a couple more traditionally or historically red states that might not be early adopters but recognize that they have hospitals at risk of closing.”
Book That Trip! New Study Reveals Travel Is Healthy, Slows Aging Process
Researchers use the entropy theory to find that leisure travel and recreation may potentially slow down aging and enhance health.
A new study has revealed travel’s physical and mental health benefits, and a delay in the aging process is one.
By applying entropy theory to tourism, researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Australia found that travel activities such as exercising and relaxing help the body slow down aging. According to a press release by ECU, entropy is “the general trend of the universe towards death and disorder.”
“[Aging], as a process, is irreversible. While it can’t be stopped, it can be slowed down,” said ECU Ph.D. candidate Fangli Hu. The entropy perspective views positive tourism experiences as a potential way to mitigate entropy increase and boost health. “Tourism isn’t just about leisure and recreation. It could also contribute to people’s physical and mental health,” Hu added. Wellness, health, and yoga tourism have posed potential health benefits like a boost in metabolism, energy, and immune function due to exposure to new surroundings, positive social interactions, relaxation, and physical activities such as hiking, climbing, walking, and cycling.
Tourism introduces the opportunity for travelers to engage in physical activity, which ECU researchers found improves blood circulation, expedites nutrient transport, and aids waste elimination. Positive travel experiences may help the body sustain a low-entropy state, influence its self-organizing capabilities, and improve its ability to defend itself against external threats. “Put simply, the self-defense system becomes more resilient,” Hu said. “Hormones conducive to tissue repair and regeneration may be released and promote the self-healing system’s functioning.”
Leisure travel activities were found to potentially “help alleviate chronic stress,” a feeling researchers in 2021 said contributed to the rapid weathering of the body for Black people due to factors like social adversity and racial discrimination. The research, published in the National Library of Medicine, also linked depression to the rate of biological aging in Black people.
Hu acknowledged recreation as a method to benefit the bones, release tension and fatigue in the muscles and joints, and support the body’s anti–wear-and-tear system. These factors help the organs and tissues remain in a low-entropy state.
The Notorious B.I.G. x Timberland Collection To Be Released Late September
Timberland is releasing a collaborative effort with the estate of Christopher Wallace.
Timberland, the unofficial hip-hop footwear of the 1990s, is releasing a collaborative effort with the estate of Christopher Wallace to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Notorious B.I.G.’s debut album, Ready to Die.
According to Footwear News, Timberland plans to release two colorways, wheat and black, to celebrate the late rapper’s first album, released on Bad Boy Records in 1994. Word of the announcement comes about 30 years after the album’s release, which was on Sept. 13, 1994.
Aptly titled, The Notorious B.I.G. x Timberland 6-Inch Premium Waterproof Boots collection is a replica of the “Timbs” many hip-hop fans wore over the years when the boot was extremely popular among people who listened to and absorbed hip-hop. Fans of the company and the Brooklyn rapper will appreciate the “The Notorious B.I.G.” insignia embedded on the leather heel collar that uses the same typeface seen on the classic album, two hangtags, one in black and gold with a king’s crown emblem and another showing the Ready to Die album cover in leather. There is even a stamping of the baby who appeared on the album cover.
For hip-hop fans, or more specifically, Biggie fans who would like to purchase the boots, they will be available on Sept. 27. They will retail for $210, and the wheat color ones will be offered in grade school sizing for $120.
This year is also the 30th anniversary of Biggie’s first release, “Juicy,” off the Ready to Die album. The lyrical genius was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. Earlier this year, the Library of Congress inducted Ready To Die into the National Recording Registry.
Wendy Williams Lawsuit Wants All Profits From Lifetime Documentary To Fund Medical Care
Wendy Williams' legal team wants all proceeds from the Lifetime documentary to cover her medical care.
Wendy Williams’ legal team is after Lifetime for the revealing documentary into her health and finances and believes she is owed compensation.
A legal complaint against Lifetime’s parent company, A+E Networks, was revised on Monday to request all profits from the project be directed toward Williams’s medical care. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit accuses the network of taking advantage of Williams’ declining mental and physical health and paying her a mere $82,000 while others “likely earned millions.”
“This is a paltry sum for the use of highly invasive, humiliating footage that portrayed her in the confusing throes of dementia, while Defendants, who have profited on the streaming of the program, have likely already earned millions,” the complaint filed on Sept. 16 in New York County Supreme Court states.
The project chronicled her life over the course of a year, capturing her decline as she grappled with family issues, fame, and unrestrained alcohol consumption. Many revelations were made by Williams, who admitted her financial struggles onscreen.
“I have no money, and I’m going to tell you something,” Williams said. “… If it happens to me, it could happen to you.”
The documentary cites Williams, her son, Kevin Hunter Jr., and her jeweler-turned-former manager, Will Selby, as executive producers.
The lawsuit was first filed by Williams’ temporary guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, in March, arguing that the contract the company arranged to film the documentary was allegedly invalid since Williams lacked the legal and mental capacity to consent to her participation at the time. Producers had promised the documentary would be “positive and beneficial” to her image, but instead, it offered the public an unfiltered look into her health, leading to the official announcement of Williams’ diagnoses of frontotemporal dementia and aphasia.
The complaint criticizes the filmmakers for depicting Williams as a “laughingstock and drunkard, implicitly blaming her for her own suffering” by including unflattering footage, such as images of her nearly bald and without her wig.
Morrissey “was stunned and appalled by this, as [Williams] insists on wearing her wig for all meetings, and she would never, ever have consented and allowed herself to be filmed for the public without her wig for public consumption,” the complaint states.
Robert Kaplan has joined Williams’ legal team alongside Ellen Holloman. Together, they revised the filing that calls out Williams’ former manager, Will Selby, for facilitating the ex-talk show host’s involvement in the documentary on claims that he would have creative control.
The revised complaint calls out the defendants for how they allegedly “viciously and shamelessly exploited Wendy Williams for their own profit while she was obviously incapacitated and suffering from dementia,” Kaplan said in a statement.
In addition to A+E Networks, the lawsuit names Lifetime Entertainment Services, Creature Films, and producer Mark Ford as defendants in the case, alongside A&E and EOne Productions. Morrissey accuses EOne of drafting a one-sided on-camera talent agreement after having already filmed a “disheveled” Williams.
“This agreement was submitted after W.W.H. had already been filmed by Defendants while she was clearly disheveled, not mentally present, and confused,” the filing states. “No person who witnessed W.W.H. in these circumstances could possibly have believed that she was capable of consenting to an agreement to film or to the filming itself.”
The controversial documentary premiered in February to blockbuster ratings for Lifetime. The network cites it as its biggest nonfiction debut in two years. The documentary featured footage from seven months of Williams’ decline in recent years up until her admission to a health facility for cognitive issues last year.
Target, Big-Box Stores Hire Holiday Workers, But Small Businesses Still Feel Pinched
However, in contrast to Big Box stores like Target and Walmart, who have increased hiring for the holidays, small businesses feel as though they are being pinched.
According to Reuters, the majority of hires are expected to staff its stores. The company is also hiring workers at distribution centers and other supply chain support locations. In addition to Target, other chains looking to hire for the holiday season, like Bath & Body Works, kept their numbers essentially unchanged from their 2023 seasonal hiring patterns.
Target, however, is not the only large retail company looking to accentuate its value to consumers as it begins hiring and marketing campaigns with an eye toward the holiday season.
Walmart, which hired 40,000 holiday workers in 2023, told Reuters its plans to stick to the same hiring numbers the chain used last year for the 2024 holiday season. It will start offering holiday deals, as will the home electronics-focused big box store Best Buy, which has exclusive deals for their members set for Sept. 27-29.
The holiday season is important for retailers, and according to Experian Marketing, overall consumer trends from 2023 bode well for companies in 2024. According to its analysis, Cyber Week, the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday and the week before Christmas, supplied the highest weekly sales between 2021 and 2023.
Customers have also started returning to stores instead of spending most of their time shopping online. According to Experian Marketing’s analysis, 84% of holiday shopping was done in-store at discount stores, 78% was done in-store at department stores, and 64% was done online for office, electronic, and games stores.
“With the inflationary issues companies are dealing with through the year, it puts on more pressure—businesses are in catch-up mode. Part of the challenge is that a lot of the data put out at the macro level blends companies of all sizes,” Sarah Jordan, chief marketing officer at Constant Contact, told Fast Company. “When you zero in on how that impacts small businesses, despite what you might be seeing in the macro economy, small companies are still feeling the pinch.”
Reports from Affirm and Constant Contact also showed that Americans feel at least as confident in their ability to manage expenses in 2024 as they did in 2023 and that 78% of consumers planned to shop at a new small business in the 2024 holiday season.
“Despite the tones of apprehension and fear, the trends are positive. The fact that they plan to focus on spending at small businesses is really positive,” Jordan said. “That’s a real focus [for consumers], especially after COVID.”
Alicia Keys, Swizz Beats Host Opening Night Gala In ATL For ‘Giants’ Art Collection
Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats bring The Dean Collection to Atlanta.
Alicia Keys and Swizz Beats were in Atlanta on Sept. 13 to host a “fly” opening night gala of their traveling art collection.
The famous multifaceted couple hosted an upscale soiree for the debut of “Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alica Keys” at Atlanta’s High Museum of Art. It was a “Come as you are, but be fly” type of event, Variety reports, where guests wore everything from suits and gowns to sleeveless suit jackets, hoodies, Timbs, and even a cape for one attendee.
The event celebrated the launch of Keys and Swizz’s five-month residency in Atlanta following The Dean Collection’s debut at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City earlier this year. Attendees included some of Atlanta’s finest, like Lil Baby and Killer Mike, mega-producer Jermaine Dupri, The-Dream, Sean Garrett, Mike Will Made It, DJ/former MTV VJ Ed Lover, and Roc Nation executive Lenny Santiago.
The exhibit features over 100 pieces that showcase the celebrity couple’s wide-ranging passions, from their early acquisitions of albums, musical equipment, and BMX bikes. The collection represents their philosophy: “By the artist, for the artist, with the people.”
“This is a representation of breaking out of all boxes — busting through all ceilings,” Keys told the audience. “Knowing we are completely unlimited, free to fly.”
“Thank you to our ancestors for bringing us here today. We’re standing on their shoulders. Without them, we couldn’t even be standing here,” she added.
The exhibition also highlights the influence and legacy of legendary artists while expanding the traditional industry norms. The collection’s artists or “giants” include Barkley L. Hendricks, Esther Mahlangu, Gordon Parks, Hank Willis Thomas, Qualeasha Wood, Deana Lawson, Mickalene Thomas, Amy Sherald, and Titus Kaphar.
Together, these works explore various interpretations of the term “giants” and embody the spirit of the Deans, whose creative energy permeates the exhibition. The collection will be on display at the High Museum until Jan. 19, 2025, before it continues its tour to various cities around the world through 2030.
Retired Senior Gets Part-Time Job To Cover Bills As Black Retirees Face Poverty
Janette Campbell thought she'd be traveling the world, but, like other retired Americans, she's working part-time to cover living expenses.
Retired teacher Janette Campbell, 74, is working a part-time job to pay her bills after she realized her fixed retirement income wasn’t enough to make ends meet.
The senior retired from her position at 62 years old with expectations of taking care of her grandchildren and traveling the world. However, Campbell is currently employed at United HomeCare, where she handles emails, calls, and promotional material for the home health and community care nonprofit. “I couldn’t afford to pay my mortgage,” she told CBS Chicago. “…I didn’t want to be left out in the street homeless.”
Campbell’s situation is an example of what over half of Americans ages 50 and older worry about as they approach retirement stage — having enough money to cover living expenses, according to a study by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). “Among adults yet to retire, one in five have absolutely no retirement savings,” said AARP Senior VP of Research Indira Venkat. The organization revealed that one in four adults 50 and older expect never to retire, something Venkat said is a result of inflation, the price of housing, and a rise in debt levels.
For Black retirees, Social Security is relied on heavily for retirement income compared to their white counterparts, and Blacks are more than twice as likely to face poverty. AARP reported this is due to Black workers being paid less, which results in less savings, experiencing higher rates of unemployment, receiving less workplace retirement benefits, the gap in homeownership rates for Black families, and more.
In May, Indeed Influxreleased new data from a survey of 1,000 US seniors between 62 and 85, revealing the senior population resulting in “un-retirement.” The online marketplace found that one-third of retirees take one or more temporary job shifts every week, while 42% of non-retired seniors consider “layering on temporary work.”
Moneywise suggests retired seniors consider part-time work as an option for financial stability. Retirees should update their job skills and seek employment that isn’t taxing on the body. Tax incentives are like the Retirement Savings Contributions Credit (Saver’s Credit), catch-up contributions for individuals ages 50 and older, and more are available. If none of the options are a fit, seniors may consider investing in real estate or reducing living expenses, like downsizing on housing and transportation. As previously covered by BLACK ENTERPRISE, experts revealed that, on average, an American in their 50s headed toward retirement should have over $200,000 in their 401(K) accounts.
Vice President Kamala Harris Tells NABJ That She Is Working Hard To ‘Earn’ The Black Vote In November
Polls show 26% of Black men 50 and under said they will be supporting Trump in November.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to reporters with the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) and said she is committed to “earning” the support of Black voters, Fox News reports.
During the panel discussion on Sept. 17, also known as National Voter Registration Day, in Philadelphia, one reporter pointed out that a number of young Black men support Donald Trump due to his economic plan. The reporter then asked Harris how she felt about the Black male voter’s viewpoint and how her economic policy may assist in changing it.
She started her response by expressing concern over the narrative of Black men “being in anyone’s pocket.” “Black men are like any other voting group. You’ve gotta earn their vote. So, I’m working to earn the vote, not assuming I’m going to have it because I am Black,” Harris said.
“But because of the policies and perspective that I have understands what we must do to recognize the needs of all communities. And I intend to be the president for all people.”
"Black men are like any other voting group. You've gotta earn their vote. So, I'm working to earn the vote, not assuming I'm going to have it because I am Black."
— Kamala Harris at the NABJ on economic policies aimed at supporting Black men pic.twitter.com/nhY4lo1f9C
A poll from Reuters found that Black men under 50 strongly support Trump. While 49% of those voters said they supported Harris, 26% of Black men 50 and under said Trump has their vote. However, Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit NAACP branch, thinks the support is somewhat exaggerated. “Black men are not going to vote for Trump in numbers. They just ain’t going to do that. And I’ve heard it,” Anthony said.
“l’ve heard him talking about we got a great increase, the Black men are going to vote for (Trump). That’s why he’s using the gold gym shoes. And I think, and see that’s insulting that you think you can get me by sending me some gold gym shoes, red bottom and a T- shirt with your picture on it behind prison walls.”
Harris’s thoughts on the Black vote are slightly different than when President Joe Biden made seemingly indifferent comments on The Breakfast Club during the 2020 election cycle. “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t Black,” Biden once said.
Economic development and the Black vote were not the only topics discussed during the panel. Harris spoke about abortion, support for Israel, gun control, and Trump’s continuous rhetoric. The Vice President slammed the remarks from Trump and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance, who fomented racially charged rhetoric toward the Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio, accusing them of eating neighborhood pets. “It’s harmful, and it’s hateful and grounded in some age-old stuff that we should not have the tolerance for,” Harris said.
“We’ve got to say that you cannot be entrusted with standing behind the seal of the president of the United States of America, engaging in that hateful rhetoric that, as usual, is designed to divide us as a country.”
After Trump allegedly faced a second assassination attempt, according to the Associated Press, the former President placed the blame on Harris, Biden, and Democratic allies. Harris admitted that she briefly spoke with her political opponent to express gratitude about his safety but said he needs to be very careful with his words and wants voters to know that the four-time indicted businessman “can’t have that microphone again.” “When you have that kind of microphone in front of you, you really ought to understand at a deep level that your words have meaning,” Harris said, without a mention of Trump’s name.
“Let’s turn the page and chart a new way forward and say you can’t have that microphone again.”
