Alicia Keys, Grandmaster Flash and superstar producer/songwriters Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis are among the artists and executives slated to be honored at the inaugural ICE Medal of Honor celebration at Atlanta’s Morehouse College on Sunday, Oct. 15. The black-tie event, to be held in the college’s Ray Charles Performing Arts Center, is sponsored by The Black American Music Association.
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“We are thrilled to launch the ICE Medal of Honor and to recognize these outstanding individuals who have made an enduring mark on the world through their art and creativity,” Michael Mauldin, the event’s founder, said in a statement. “This celebration is a testament to the power of Black American music in shaping culture and inspiring generations.”
Here’s a list of the inaugural recipients of the ICE Medal of Honor:
- Alicia Keys – Ella Fitzgerald Gold Standard Award
- Grandmaster Flash – Transformative Award
- Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis – Creative Impact Award
- Robert F. Smith (philanthropist and founder of the technology software private equity firm Vista Equity Partners) – Ray Charles/Harry Belafonte Patron of Arts Award
- Suzanne de Passe (Motown Productions) – Suzanne de Passe Trailblazer Award
- Jeff Harleston (general counsel, EVP of Business & Legal Affairs of Universal Music Group) – Pace/Harrell Executive Leadership Award
In addition, there will be a salute to the late Michael Jackson with the presentation of the Michael Jackson ICON Award.
Keys has amassed 15 Grammy Awards, including best new artist and song of the year for “Fallin’,” both in 2002.
Jam and Lewis have received five Grammys, including producer of the year, non-classical, in 1987.
In 2007, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five became the first hip-hop group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2021, they received a lifetime achievement award from the Recording Academy.
de Passe, Motown Productions’ first Black female president, is credited with discovering The Jackson 5 and Commodores. de Passe has won two Primetime Emmy Awards – outstanding variety, music or comedy program for Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever (1983) and Motown Returns to the Apollo (1985). The Suzanne de Passe Trailblazer Award is named in her honor.
Harleston is also co-founder of the UMG Task Force for Meaningful Change, an organization formed within UMG in the summer of 2020 to identify, coordinate and implement social change initiatives directed at the Black and Latino communities.
BAM Association co-founders Michael Mauldin and Demmette Guidry are executive producers of the event, along with Derrick Williams of DNA Media Group and co-executive producer Jermaine Dupri (who was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2018, one year after Jam & Lewis). The program is being produced by Mauldin and Williams and directed by Kevin Swain.
Ray Chew will provide music direction. Wyclef Jean and gospel veteran Donald Lawrence will curate segments of the show.
Mauldin, formerly president of Columbia Records Black Music, is CEO of Mauldin Brand Inc., chairman of the Black American Music Association and co-founder of the Black American Music Foundation. He is also the co-founder of the Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame.
Special acknowledgement will be given to the Otis Redding Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the quality of life for the community through the education and the empowerment of its youth. Dr. Uzi Brown, who is retiring this year as chair of the Department of Music at Morehouse College, will also be honored. Brown is the past president of the National Association of Negro Musicians.
The Black American Music Association is a non-profit 501(c)(6) trade association founded in 2017 by Mauldin and Guidry to preserve, protect, and promote the legacy and future of authentic Black American music.
