For Black History Month, Billboard is celebrating by highlighting some of the greatest Black executives in music, and today we're celebrating, Quincy Jones.
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00:00 - I got to work with almost every major influence
00:05 in America, you know, from Louis Armstrong
00:07 to Billie Eilish, Ella, Sarah, Ray Charles, Rita,
00:11 Paul Simon, Tony Bennett, T-Nacho, everybody.
00:18 - For Black History Month, Billboard is celebrating
00:20 by highlighting some of the greatest black executives
00:22 in music, and today we're celebrating Quincy Jones.
00:26 (upbeat music)
00:30 ♪ I'm gonna rock with you all night ♪
00:34 - The incomparable Quincy Jones is a staple
00:37 in the music industry, with 25 songs
00:39 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart,
00:42 four of which reach number one.
00:44 He's won an Emmy, a Tony, a Humanitarian Oscar,
00:47 and an insane 28 Grammys, making him one
00:50 of only 25 people to achieve EGOT status.
00:54 He has an incredible resume, and over 70 years
00:57 of musical memories to be proud of.
00:59 - Meeting Ray Charles, number one,
01:01 playing with Billie Holiday at 14 years old
01:03 at the Eagle Auditorium, or the way
01:06 Billy Eckstine played with Cab Calloway.
01:08 - But it's not just his own successes on his CV.
01:11 Some of the biggest legends in music have Quincy Jones
01:14 to thank for their achievements.
01:16 In 1961, Quincy became the director
01:18 of A&R for Mercury Records.
01:20 Three years later, he would become the vice president,
01:23 becoming the first African American
01:25 to hold a top executive position
01:27 at an American major record label.
01:29 Quincy has worked with some of music's greatest,
01:32 and is to thank for creating the Michael Jackson
01:34 we know to this day.
01:36 - Oh, Michael, that was an accident.
01:38 We did The Wiz, and he said,
01:41 "Could you help me find a producer?"
01:43 I said, "Michael, look, you don't even have a song
01:45 "in the picture yet, I don't wanna think about that.
01:47 "Let's get you a song."
01:48 When he asked me about the producer,
01:51 to see what he could do that hadn't been done before.
01:54 I was thinking about the range of his voice,
01:56 and just, that's the stuff that you do,
01:58 like the architecture of a production, you know?
02:01 - There's no denying Quincy Jones
02:02 has changed the entertainment game.
02:05 - I've been so blessed to have been able to contribute
02:08 to how that changes,
02:09 is how we're represented and perceived.
02:11 We've come a long way from the time
02:16 when you didn't even see faces of color on TV.
02:19 - Today, we honor the music titan, Quincy Jones.
02:23 (whooshing)
02:25 (whooshing)