Black History Month Spotlight: Smokey Robinson’s Legendary Career | Billboard News

Smokey Robinson is one of the most prolific artists of all time, and has helped countless musicians reach success while serving as the vice president of Motown Records.

Smokey Robinson:

Sample all of mine! Put every song I’ve ever wrote on a sample — all of them, please. Out of the billions of songs that are on Earth? Hey, man. Yeah, I can’t beat that as a songwriter.

Tetris Kelly:

For Black History Month, Billboard is celebrating by highlighting some of the greatest Black executives in music, and today, we’re celebrating Smokey Robinson.

With four top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, two No. 1 Hot R&B hip-hop songs and one Grammy, Smokey Robinson is one of the most prolific artists of all time. Smokey contributed to the success of many artists as the vice president of Motown Records. Over the course of his almost seven-decades-spanning career, he’s received the Grammy Legend Award in 1990, was inducted into the Kennedy Center Honors in 2006 and was last year’s MusiCares Person of the Year.

Smokey Robinson:

It’s confirmation that people enjoy what you do.

Tetris Kelly:

Also, last year Smokey released his 24th album, Gasms, his first album with all new material since 2009. At the age of 83, he continues to tour the country and even made time to stop by NPR’s Tiny Desk.