\u201cYoung, Gifted and Black\u201d. Its hard to make a title any more explicit and hard to find a more suitable artist to sing it than Aretha Franklin, who embodied all the qualities of the song composed by Nina Simone. She even named an album after the song, released in 1972 \u2013 quite a year for this pastor\u2019s daughter born thirty years earlier into the deep South of Memphis, Tennessee, and who would go on to become the high priestess of empowered soul. Surrounded by a team tailored to her every need (Donny Hathaway even features as a keyboardist on this session), she converted this hymn of black pride into a gospel piece full of woe yet at the same time brimming with hope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201c\u00a0In the whole world you know
There’s a million boys and girls
Who are young, gifted and black
And that’s a fact
You are young gifted and black
We must begin to tell our young
There’s a world waiting for you<\/em> \u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nNina Simone<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n