7. Brown Sugar, “Black Pride”
Caron Wheeler, who would come to world renown more than a decade later as the voice of Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life” and “Keep on Moving,” got her start singing with the lovers rock trio Brown Sugar, in the late ’70s. The group pioneered what was sometimes called “conscious lovers,” bringing social messages to the fore of a genre that had previously offered apolitical escapism for their turbulent times. Another prime example of the group’s style was 1977’s “In Love With a Dreadlocks,” which Brown Sugar vocalist Kofi later re-recorded in 1989 with deejay Macka B.