We have been wondering when Jack’s family would step in to address this situation. We have received numerous complaints about The New Jack the Rapper conference using Jack’s name. The attorney’s statement is provided below.
Recently, BMF organized a very accurate and impressive tribute to one of the greatest music industry conferences of all time, Jack the Rapper. “JACK THE RAPPER” is an iconic name, coined, developed, and made famous by the legendary radio and media pioneer Jack “The Rapper” Gibson. Jack commenced his radio career in the late 1940s at Atlanta’s WERD, the first Black-owned and operated radio station in America.
Additionally, Jack served as the inaugural National Director of Promotions and Public Relations for Motown Records. Jack The Rapper is considered to be the father of Black Radio and pioneered the style of hip on-air announcing that many hosts like Daddy O, Radio DJo Henderson, and Frankie Crocker helped to popularize.
In 1977, Jack launched the first Jack The Rapper Family Affair convention for the radio and music industries. Contrary to later beliefs, Jack the Rapper was not solely a Hip-Hop convention.
Over the subsequent years, the convention was held in Atlanta and Florida. The convention garnered widespread support from the Black music industry and the Black radio community, becoming one of the key annual gathering spots for networking, new artist showcases, informative seminars, and good old-fashioned partying. It was an industry event like no other.
Every floor was a party when it was held at the Atlanta airport, with each floor being run by various labels that blasted their music and hosted their major artists as they threw parties across the entire floor.
Unfortunately, Jack the Rapper, the most incredible industry conference, began to fade in the early to mid-90s when the format was changed, and the conference was relocated from the airport to downtown Atlanta. Additionally, when a popular DJ on a major station in Atlanta announced the exclusive industry conference was in town, fights broke out as individuals not involved in the industry sought to catch a glimpse of celebrities. Without question, everything that occurred in the last couple of years in Atlanta would have made the conference uninsurable.
Jack later moved to Vegas in his later years, and the final conference was a mere shadow of its former self. Support from the labels had dissipated after the last few conferences where everything had changed. After the conference folded, Jack passed away in January 2000 after battling cancer. The Black industry has yet to see anything close to the original Jack the Rapper since the conference ended. Jack’s era preceded widespread video recording, and in those days, video recorders were huge, so few people had access to them. We invite industry professionals to see if they can identify the individuals in the pictures in the comments.
In early December, several Atlanta-based music industry entrepreneurs decided to organize a new music industry conference and chose to adopt the name The New Jack The Rapper Convention, contrived by Steve “Face” Riley and Billy D. Foster without the permission of Jack’s heirs and without any consideration or deference to the legacy that Jack The Rapper and his family built.
Instead, they have chosen to pirate Jack’s iconic moniker and promote their event as an incarnation of the infamous Jack The Rapper Family Affair. It’s a sad statement of complete disrespect and indifference to the rights and decades of work by Jack and his family. There are now more The New Jack The Rapper conferences scheduled for Houston and New York City, all without the consent or support of Jack’s family.
Jack and his beloved late wife, Sadye, are survived by his daughter Jill, son, Jackie, wife, Elsie, and grandchildren, Louis and Laryn. They have hired Atlanta-based renowned entertainment attorney, Kendall A. Minter, Esq., to protect their legal rights and preserve the integrity of the legacy built by Jack. The family has been developing their plans to hold a Tribute to Jack The Rapper Conference later this year in Atlanta. Stay tuned for the original. We invite industry professionals to see if they can name the individuals in the pictures in the comments.
