2025 has swung harder than a Mike Tyson uppercut. Every few weeks, you refreshed timelines asking, “Wait… what?” We lost Black celebrities and icons who shaped music, TV nights, Sunday mornings, and ballroom dance floors. They weren’t background noise. They were the moment. They were the movement. This list remembers them properly. With respect. Here’s to all the Black celebrities who died in 2025.
George Foreman
George Foreman wore many hats: two-time heavyweight champ, Olympic gold medalist, preacher, grill pitchman. He died in March at 76. You remember the power, sure. He wanted you to remember the 12 kids, the second act, and inspiring people far beyond the ring.
Sly Stone
Sly Stone rewired pop music before you knew the rules. With Sly and the Family Stone, he mashed funk, soul, and rock into songs you could steal for your own band. Born in 1943, he died on 9 June 2025 at 82.
Malcolm-Jamal Warner
Malcolm-Jamal Warner died at 54, and it still feels wrong. You grew up with him as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show. He was the king of teen sarcasm. In July, while vacationing in Costa Rica, he drowned. After he left The Cosby Show, Warner kept working. Acting. Directing. Music. Sitcom fame never boxed him in.
Sam Moore
Sam Moore came first. Before MTV. Before streaming. Before TikTok. “Soul Man” and “Hold On, I’m Comin’” shaped soul music while you were still learning its roots. He died after surgery complications at 89. Your playlists exist because Sam & Dave kicked the door open decades ago.
D’Wayne Wiggins
D’Wayne Wiggins, born February 14, 1961, leaned into the joke early. Love songs paid the bills. With Tony! Toni! Toné!, he helped soundtrack countless bedrooms with “Feels Good” and “Little Walter.”
Ananda Lewis
Music TV shifted when Ananda Lewis stepped back. On Teen Summit and TRL, she felt like that smart friend you trusted at 17. She kept showing up, listening, joking, connecting, even while fighting breast cancer off-camera.
Voletta Wallace
Voletta Wallace died on February 21 at age 72. You know her as Biggie’s mom, but that undersells it. She raised Christopher Wallace, then protected his legacy for decades. Hip-hop royalty didn’t just happen.
Irv Gotti
Hip-hop felt quieter when Irv Gotti died. The Murder Inc. Records co-founder built an early-2000s run with Ja Rule and Ashanti that owned radio. You couldn’t escape “Always On Time.” A stroke ended his story, yet every DJ with taste still spins his music.
D’Angelo
D’Angelo rewired neo-soul with Brown Sugar in 1995, doubled down on Voodoo in 2000, then swung hard with Black Messiah in 2014. You still feel it on late-night playlists. Pancreatic cancer took him at 49, yet R&B never shook that How Does It Feel? video.
Angie Stone
Angie Stone didn’t just sing soul, she lived it. You hear No More Rain and your chest tightens. At 63, she was still touring, still giving you everything. She died in a car crash after a Sprinter van hit an 18-wheeler, heading home from a gig.
Kimberly Hébert Gregory
You laughed through HBO’s Vice Principals, then caught yourself watching Kimberly Hébert Gregory steal scenes like rent was due. You knew her face. October 3, 2025 landed hard. She was 52. No cause yet.
T-Hood
Atlanta’s T-Hood was 26 and just getting started. One signature dreadlock. A voice stitched into the city’s pulse. What could he have built next? When the news hit, fans turned comment sections into candlelight vigils. You heard promise in that blur between hip-hop and R&B, still unfolding for the city.
Arthur Jones
Arthur Jones knew hustle. Drafted fifth-round in 2010 by the Baltimore Ravens, he crashed Super Bowl XLVII, sacked Colin Kaepernick, forced a fumble, and swung momentum. Two NFL seasons, 8.5 sacks. You blinked, he dominated, then disappeared. He died on 3 October 2025.
Lawrence Moten
Lawrence Moten, Washington D.C.’s smoothest bucket-getter, died at 53, his daughter Lawrencia confirmed. If you watched 1990s Syracuse Orange hoops, you know the calm, the jumper, the inevitability. He still tops the school scoring list. You don’t forget players like that.
Danielle Spencer
Danielle Spencer made What’s Happening!! better as Dee Thomas, the little sister with a PhD in snitching who always got the last laugh. She died in August from stomach cancer at 60.
Lynn Hamilton
Lynn Hamilton gave Sanford and Son its heart as Donna Harris, grounding the jokes with grace. She died of natural causes in June, aged 94.
Khadiyah “KD” Lewis
Khadiyah “KD” Lewis, 44, from Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta, never coasted. She ran three companies while stealing scenes on TV. Her brother confirmed her death on May 30, 2025.
Karen Silva
Karen Silva was 17 and already stealing scenes on The Voice Kids Brazil. In 2025, a hemorrhagic stroke ended her life. Her team said, “Karen was a symbol of empowerment.”
Kirk Medas
Kirk Medas from Floribama Shore kept rooms laughing, even when silence felt easier. On May 2, he died at 33 after two weeks in a Miami ICU with necrotising pancreatitis.
Kenneth Washington
Kenneth Washington always carried himself like the calm adult on set. You saw it on Hogan’s Heroes, Star Trek, and Westworld, and you felt it off camera while he taught film representation for decades. He died July 18, 2023, from cardiopulmonary arrest and prostate cancer. He was 88.
Henry Fambrough
The Spinners still own wedding playlists. Henry Fambrough, the last founding member and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, died peacefully at 85. He joined in 1954, stayed until 2023, and carried the group for nearly seven decades.
Joshua Allen
Joshua Allen taught you rhythm before TikTok did. He won So You Think You Can Dance season 4 at 18, then slid into Step Up 3D and Footloose. He died at 36. The floors remember him.
Brenton Wood
Born Alfred Jesse Smith in 1941, Brenton Wood shaped West Coast R&B in the mid-60s. You’ve heard “The Oogum Boogum Song” and “Gimme Little Sign”. He made sadness fun, radio-ready, and weirdly timeless.
Gwen McCrae
Gwen McCrae dropped Rockin’ Chair in 1975 and you still feel it in your knees when the beat kicks. She died at 81, yet the groove keeps clocking in. If you’ve ever hit the floor to it, you know.
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack was playing piano at nine, outworking most adults. By 15, she studied at Howard University. Years later, Clint Eastwood slipped her song into Play Misty for Me, and you heard it differently. Roberta Flack died on 24 February 2025.
Vanessa Brown Knowles
Vanessa Brown Knowles, co-founder of The Brown Singers, filled churches with gospel joy for decades. She died at 63 on March 10, 2025. Her daughter, Lisa Knowles Smith, said goodbye with love and pride.
Robbie Pardlo
Robbie Pardlo from City High sang like rent was due. “What Would You Do?” worked because it asked you hard questions about love, money, and pride. Pardlo died at 46 on 17 July 2025.
Carl Carlton
Grammy-nominated R&B and funk singer Carl Carlton died at 73. The Detroit native powered 1981’s “She’s a Bad Mama Jama (She’s Built, She’s Stacked),” a hot girl anthem. His son confirmed his death on Dec. 14 on Facebook, writing “RIP Dad.”
Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff, the voice behind “I Can See Clearly Now,” died Monday, Nov. 24. He was 81. Pneumonia complications and a seizure ended his run. His wife, Latifa Chambers, confirmed it on Instagram. “He really appreciated each and every fan for their love,” she wrote.
Jellybean Johnson
Jellybean Johnson died on Nov. 21, two days after turning 69. Garry George Johnson, Prince handpicked him to drum for The Time, locking Morris Day’s groove. He shaped hits for Alexander O’Neal, New Edition, Janet Jackson. Sheila E. wrote he was “a kind human being” and “extremely talented and funny.”
Barry Michael Cooper
Barry Michael Cooper, who died January 22 at 66, shaped culture before Hollywood caught up. He wrote New Jack City, Sugar Hill, and Above the Rim, then helped bring She’s Gotta Have It to TV. Before scripts, he reported on the 1980s crack-cocaine crisis, per IMDb. You’ve seen his impact.
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