Bessie Smith is often hailed as the Empress as the Blues. Paired against her mentor Ma Rainey, however, Smith’s title becomes very debatable. Georgia Born Gertrude Pridgett (1886-1939) is known as the Mother of Blues, having influenced many singers and partaking a key roll in the emerging blues genre. She started singing the Blues when she was 14 (before they were even called blues) as part of a vaudeville troupe. Her low voice, alongside the accompaniment of a backing band, she became a rising star. She would sign with the legendary Paramount records and recorded over 100 songs with them. But alas, the “Songbird of the South” was soon cast aside for up and coming blues artists, and she would retire back to Georgia. She died of a heart attack just before Christmas of 1939. She was only 53.

Ma Rainey’s legacy impacted many African American Musicians. To name just a few: Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Tampa Red, and Memphis Minnie. In 1982, famed playwright August Wilson wrote the musical hit “Black Bottom” about Ma Rainey’s life. And in 1990, she was admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.