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Beyonce, Saint Jhn, Wizkid & Blue Ivy: Brown Skin Girl

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Beyonce, Saint Jhn, Wizkid & Blue Ivy: Brown Skin Girl

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This song is beautiful and fits into my "pretty" music aesthetic. When Beyonce sings starting in the third verse, I got literal goosebumps. The sound has the African drum  'feel'-- one review I read called it "spare, syncopated African rhythms" Saint Jhn is Guyanese and Wizkid is Nigerian. This song celebrates cultural pride and female empowerment, while also dealing with the colorism that darker-skinned women face. Allusions include Naomi Campbell, Lupita Nyong'o, and Kelly Rowland. And the song ends with Blue Ivy's voice.  This song led to a Brown Skin Girl Challenge on Twitter, which is very cool. (https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop/9424440/scott-helman-papa). The new generation of black girls growing up with songs like this, poems like "Please Don't Touch My Hair," and books like "I am Enough" and 'Sulwe' are being given a gift that their mothers did not have. This song does not come without critique, however, as some women felt that they were being shut out for not being dark-skinned enough. The fact that Beyonce, a woman who has lighter skin, stays in the background and centers dark-skinned women is essential and needs to be seen as what it is--an ode to the darker-skinned women who are often dismissed or disrespected by society. I keep thinking of Zora Neale Hurston's Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/beyonc-s-brown-skin-girl-controversial-because-its-inclusionary-vision-ncna1034686

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In this op-ed, writer Imani Bashir argues that Beyoncé's "Brown Skin Girl" on The Lion King: The Gift is an intentional ode to dark-skin Black women and should not be co-opted by other, less marginalized, groups.
Upon the release of the new live-action version of Disney's The Lion King, Beyoncé blessed the world with an accompanying album. The Lion King: The Gift beautifully combines R&B, hip-hop, Afrobeats, features up-and-coming African artists, and a cameo from Blue Ivy Carter. The album also comes with the most regal visuals to celebrate beauty, culture, and of course, Black-girl magic.

One of the most popular songs on The Gift is titled "Brown Skin Girl," which opens with sweet-voiced Blue Ivy Carter singing the hook and is a celebration of dark-skinned women. The song sparked such a grand response for its empowering lyrics that it birthed its own hashtag #BrownSkinGirlChallenge. For many, the song was a no-brainer, direct message to a specific type of woman, with darker, deeper brown skin. For others, who joined the challenge by posting their photos, it seems they skipped over the specific cues in the lyrics and only listened to the hook to celebrate themselves.

As writer Clarkisha Kent states, "'Brown Skin Girl' is eliciting such a wild and visceral display of hubris and insecurity from light-skinned BW [black women] & NBWOC [non-black women of color] that you'd THINK that Beyoncé went out of her way to *insult* them in this song, when in actuality, all she did was uplift brown and dark-skinned BW."

While many brown-identifying women who are not ethnically "Black" argued that they too should be able to celebrate themselves with the song and the hashtag, the lyrics did the work they failed to.

Beyoncé is deliberate in her intention by mentioning beautiful brown beauties Lupita Nyong'o, Naomi Campbell, and Kelly Rowland in the lyrics of the song.

She added to her specific pigment description by saying "melanin too dark to throw her shade." For those of us with basic knowledge of the parts of speech, we know that the word "too" is an adverb that emphasizes the adjective "dark" to create a stronger sense of the darkness being referred to.

To break it down: Mathematically, that "too" would more than likely be represented as a power symbol on top of a number to show that the number is to be multiplied to equal something of greater value. Extra. More. Additional. This degree of melanin is specifically devoted to women who are often berated for their Blackness, women who represent African ancestry and heritage and are mocked for it.

This song is for those Black woman.

"I love everything about you/ from your nappy curls to every single curve/ your body natural./ Same skin that was broken be the same skin takin' over," Beyoncé sings.

Historically, Black women have continuously been ridiculed and objectified for the natural state of their bodies, from head to toe. Nappy was used as a derogatory word to describe the texture of Black hair that is naturally coarse, tightly coiled/curled, and considered unkempt; it was used to show inferiority and a symbol of ugliness.

Nowadays, Black people who choose to wear their hair naturally are often subject to being kicked out of school or fired from their place of employment. In April 2018, Black news anchor, Brittany Noble-Jones, was fired from her job as a Mississippi news anchor because she refused to straighten her hair after she was told that it was "unprofessional." This year, New York City and California passed laws against natural hair discrimination.

One of the final reminders of who this song pays homage is the lyric, "Your skin is not only dark, it shines, and it tells a story." The evidence is clear that this song is representative of the systemic existence of color privilege. This topic, that has been thoughtfully tackled by Black-millennial roundtable show The Grapevine TV, is an ongoing conversation that requires fewer people inserting themselves and more people willing to listen and understand the impact of color privilege's brutality.

Beyoncé, a fair-skinned Black woman, made a song that puts her in the background and centers dark-skinned women in the foreground. It is a celebratory ode to the kind of Blackness that is often dismissed, disrespected, and ridiculed. It is not specific to every hue, but for the Black women whose skin is full of melinated magic and hasn't been given the floor or stage of acceptance. Maybe we should all accept the song as it is and who it was made for.

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Beyoncé's "Brown Skin Girl" Is Not for Every Brown-Skinned Girl

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In this op-ed, writer Imani Bashir argues that Beyoncé's "Brown Skin Girl" on The Lion King: The Gift is an intentional ode to dark-skin Black women and should not be co-opted by other, less marginalized, groups. Upon the release of the new live-action version of Disney's The Lion King, Beyoncé blessed the world with an accompanying album.

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Bad Brains: Banned in DC made me feel like I was a kid in 1980s suburbia listening through the wall as my brother alternatively blasted jazz and then punk and then metal...This album was recorded over a 10 year  span of 1979-1989 but was released in 2003. Vocals, bass, drum, and guitar-- it is so very '80s. According to 'Blackthen.com', Bad Brains 'is a pioneer of the sonic, aggressive hardcore punk style with influences from reggae, punk, hard rock, and metal. It definitely goes against stereotype and I am so glad I chose this song to hear black artists creating something not only unexpected but also to call to attention my own bias. They incorporated "PMA" in all that they did--a positive mental attitude, which kinda seems to contradict punk as a genre.Fun fact: they inspired the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Who knew?! Another good link: https://www.rollingstone.com/t/bad-brains/ 

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Bad Brains: Banned in DC made me feel like I was a kid in 1980s suburbia listening through the wall as my brother alternatively blasted jazz and then punk and then metal...This album was recorded over a 10 year  span of 1979-1989 but was released in 2003. Vocals, bass, drum, and guitar-- it is so very '80s. According to 'Blackthen.com', Bad Brains 'is a pioneer of the sonic, aggressive hardcore punk style with influences from reggae, punk, hard rock, and metal. It definitely goes against stereotype and I am so glad I chose this song to hear black artists creating something not only unexpected but also to call to attention my own bias. They incorporated "PMA" in all that they did--a positive mental attitude, which kinda seems to contradict punk as a genre.Fun fact: they inspired the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Who knew?! Another good link: https://www.rollingstone.com/t/bad-brains/ 

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"Understand me when I say: There's no hope for the USA," screams Bad Brains frontman H.R. on the band's anthem "Big Takeover." "This world is doomed with its own segregation, just another Nazi test."

When Bad Brains exploded onto Washington, D.C.'s nascent punk scene in late 1979, they were truly breaking ground. The mere fact that the members of the band were all black was a radical departure - punk was still just starting to find itself, but it was already dominated by a particular, snotty strain of white male anger and discontent. Bad Brains, who got their start as a jazz outfit called Mind Power in 1976, were different because they weren't white, but also because they pioneered an entirely new energy. They weren't pissed, Sex Pistols style, or affecting a nihilist vapidity like the Ramones . They were brash, loud, and unapologetic, and their musicianship was phenomenal. The band's formula was anti-genre, and they seamlessly merged funk and punk, metal, hardcore, and reggae, a feat no other band had ever attempted. Able to play at lightning speed, the group was also awe-inspiring live. As Lucian Perkins, a former Washington Post photographer who shot the band in the late 1970s, said of frontman H.R., "It was like watching James Brown doing punk-style acrobatics."

Playing venues like D.C.'s Hard Art Gallery, Bad Brains was part of a growing wave of bands that differentiated themselves from the dominant strain of punk by emphasizing their message and musicianship over snarling, stylized negativity. They drew on the sound of early punk bands like the Dickies and the Dead Boys, as well as a range of jazz and funk ensembles. They also inspired and were inspired by contemporaries like D.C.-based Minor Threat and the Clash. They played faster than fast, teetering at times on the edge of cacophony, but they also introduced the breakdowns that would come to characterize American hardcore - like the one that happens about 50 seconds into "Banned in D.C." (Bad Brains really was unofficially banned in D.C. in the late 1970s, after earning a reputation for playing raucous shows. In a testament to the axiom that there's no such thing as bad PR, it seems only to have cemented their reputation as the city's essential act.) Occasionally, they played a straight reggae instrumental, like the placid "Jah Calling," on their self-titled debut album.

But Bad Brains also stood out because they were contagiously positive, countering the depravity and vulgarity the genre was already known for with what they called " P.M.A." - positive mental attitude. There was a "whole mode of consciousness" running through the music, bassist Darryl Jenifer recalled in a 2015 interview for Wax Poetics.

"We started kicking PMA in our music, and the message was different than the regular punk rock. You know, a punk rocker can write a song about hate─I hate my mom or some shit, you know? We wasn't on no shit like that. Some kids who wanted to see some regular shit saw us, and every kid's heart and mind was opened. It's like you're just going to see some regular reggae music, and Bob Marley is playing. You might walk away from that and go, 'Damn, that's some consciousness in this music.'"

This was inventive and infectious, the same happy, frenetic hardcore energy that paved the way for " youth crew " hardcore bands in the 1980s and politically minded emo bands in the 1990s. It also served as a potent counterpoint to the violence then polluting the punk scene.

The late seventies and early eighties were a dramatic episode in the history of punk rock, a scene still fighting for its right not just to party but to exist. At the time, Nazi skinheads were organized in many U.S. cities, and they showed up to punk and hardcore shows looking to intimidate and terrorize punks. While Nazi skinhead thuggery became its own brand of punk, it ran counter to the antifascist punk ethos and was largely rejected. In fact, a good deal of the spirit of the punk scene was forged in the management of this menace - sick of feeling scared, punks patrolled shows and bloodied neo-Nazis in parking lots. (The jockish hypermasculinity of the hardcore scene can be seen in part as a reaction to this ever-present early threat to punk's integrity)

Bassist Darryl Jenifer points out that there were also non-racist skinheads, "good skins," "who would beat [Nazis'] ass as often" as punks. In an oral history of the punk scene published in GQ, Jenifer went on to tell a story about a kid at a Bad Brains show who told him, "'Mr. Jenifer, I want you to know, I used to be a racist, and a skinhead and an asshole, and ever since I saw your band I'm different. I have a wife and kids.' That alone was my platinum record."

Possibly owing to Bad Brains' blistering riffs, high-octane live shows, or positive attitude, the band found legions of fans and seemed to have fewer encounters with bald racism than might be expected. Elsewhere in the GQ piece, Jenifer says, "Out of my whole 40 years in Bad Brains, I probably faced racism or heard the word 'n - - -' maybe a handful of times."

Still, the lyrics to songs like "Big Takeover" and the band's commitment to subverting expectations by fusing, and fucking with, numerous genres was itself a comment on the senseless limitations of a stratified world. Bad Brains plowed through these boundaries, creating a sound that would galvanize diverse audiences for decades, inspiring a wave of seminal bands from Black Flag (Henry Rollins got his start as a roadie for Bad Brains) to Operation Ivy, Fishbone to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Perhaps more than any other band of the era, they demonstrated that punk was not just a look but an ethos. It's not an overstatement to say that punk rock and hardcore music would sound different if they hadn't.

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It's been nearly 40 years since Bad Brains shattered stereotypes about punk rock - and black music

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"Understand me when I say: There's no hope for the USA," screams Bad Brains frontman H.R. on the band's anthem "Big Takeover." "This world is doomed with its own segregation, just another Nazi test." When Bad Brains exploded onto Washington, D.C.'s nascent punk scene in late 1979, they were truly breaking ground.

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Kendrick Lamar--Blacker the Berry This song was brilliant and I am still trying to figure it all out. Lamar's voice is the focus with a beat in the background. The song is an angry call to arms in light of the racism and stereotypes black people face. He calls out the US law enforcement system as a whole, including the CIA, DEA, and the prison system.And he then turns his anger on those who commit black-on-black violence. This  last bit is controversial, clearly, and has been accused of victim blaming. He also, however, directly challenges whiteness by breaking that fourth wall and asking white people "you hate me don't you?" There are allusions here to Mike Brown's death and the Ferguson Riots, as well as the CIA's role in introducing crack cocaine to the poor. He states that he is a hypocrite three times and at the end: "So don't matter how much I say I like to preach with the Panthers/Or tell Georgia State, "Marcus Garvey got all the answers"/Or try to celebrate February like it's my B-Day/Or eat watermelon, chicken, and Kool-Aid on weekdays/Or jump high enough to get Michael Jordan endorsements/Or watch BET 'cause urban support is important/So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street/When gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me?Hypocrite!" Some intriguing names dropped and the question is who is the "I" in the song? Seemingly, by considering these last lines, it is a collective "I", which also means that it is the collective' you, as the listener-- all are complicit. 

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Kendrick Lamar--Blacker the Berry This song was brilliant and I am still trying to figure it all out. Lamar's voice is the focus with a beat in the background. The song is an angry call to arms in light of the racism and stereotypes black people face. He calls out the US law enforcement system as a whole, including the CIA, DEA, and the prison system.And he then turns his anger on those who commit black-on-black violence. This  last bit is controversial, clearly, and has been accused of victim blaming. He also, however, directly challenges whiteness by breaking that fourth wall and asking white people "you hate me don't you?" There are allusions here to Mike Brown's death and the Ferguson Riots, as well as the CIA's role in introducing crack cocaine to the poor. He states that he is a hypocrite three times and at the end: "So don't matter how much I say I like to preach with the Panthers/Or tell Georgia State, "Marcus Garvey got all the answers"/Or try to celebrate February like it's my B-Day/Or eat watermelon, chicken, and Kool-Aid on weekdays/Or jump high enough to get Michael Jordan endorsements/Or watch BET 'cause urban support is important/So why did I weep when Trayvon Martin was in the street/When gang banging make me kill a nigga blacker than me?Hypocrite!" Some intriguing names dropped and the question is who is the "I" in the song? Seemingly, by considering these last lines, it is a collective "I", which also means that it is the collective' you, as the listener-- all are complicit. 

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The podcast I linked to connects 'Blacker the Berry' to DuBois' "double consciousness" concept.

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Our season long analysis of To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar continues with the album's thirteenth track "The Blacker the Berry."

Listen now: iPhone, Stitcher, Google Play, iTunes

The song was the album's second single and released amidst the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. It's incredibly potent, packed with references to the historic oppression of the black community, race relations in contemporary American society, police brutality, the US penitentiary system, and the complexities of black identity, among many others.

Central to "The Blacker the Berry" is an idea known as "double-consciousness." Coined by writer W.E.B. Du Bois, double-consciousness describes the internal conflict experienced by the oppressed groups living in an oppressive society (see: black people in white America). Du Bois argued that attempting to reconcile your African heritage while being raised in a white European-dominated society posed psychological challenges.

In his book The Souls of Black Folk, Du Bois writes:
"In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He wouldn't bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face."
Double-consciousness runs throughout "The Blacker the Berry." On a small scale, it's expressed in lines like "I want everything black, I ain't need black." On a larger scale, it's expressed as the contrast between the frustration and anger of the song's verses and the dramatic "hypocrite" twist in the song's final line.

With so much to unpack, we chose to split this episode into two parts. On today's episode, we'll conduct a line-by-line analysis of "The Blacker the Berry" and divert into a few areas of historical significance alluded to in its lyrics.
If you like what you hear, subscribe and rate Dissect on iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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S1E15/16 - The Blacker the Berry by Kendrick Lamar

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Our season long analysis of To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar continues with the album's thirteenth track "The Blacker the Berry." Listen now: iPhone, Stitcher, Google Play, iTunes The song was the album's second single and released amidst the height of the Black Lives Matter movement.

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A Tribe Called Quest--Whateva will Be has a simple beat that causes the listener to focus on the lyrics.The group has been together since 1985 and this song was released in 2016 after rapper Phife Dawg died suddenly. The group is regarded as a pioneer of alternative hip hop. This song focuses on the social issues black people face and, similarly to Fight the Power, notes that only the strong will survive. The first verse ends: Fourth grade reading level but he knows how to rap/Are you amused by our struggles? The English that's broken?/The weed that I'm smokin'? The guns that I'm totin'?/The drugs that I'm sellin'? No need for improvement/Fuck you and who you think I should be, forward movement. The assumptions of white people about black people and the stereotypes of black lives are challenged here. Cultural relativity needs to be engaged in order to fully appreciate and 'hear' A Tribe Called Quest's message that the negatives assumed about their race is an obstacle to be overcome but the odds are stacked against that happening.The second verse calls out the media for perpetuating one version of black life: "The media relates it what it thinks it sees". There is hope, however:'Yes, the government will fund, learning is free for everyone/And from that lie, young leaders will rise/In the eyes of despair and adversity/In some universe, this verse will be true." This was a much more 'chill' listen than Public Enemy was. It also calls out whiteness as white people's assumptions about black people are directly and unapologetically stated.I could see using this song in discussions about Song of Solomon.

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A Tribe Called Quest--Whateva will Be has a simple beat that causes the listener to focus on the lyrics.The group has been together since 1985 and this song was released in 2016 after rapper Phife Dawg died suddenly. The group is regarded as a pioneer of alternative hip hop. This song focuses on the social issues black people face and, similarly to Fight the Power, notes that only the strong will survive. The first verse ends: Fourth grade reading level but he knows how to rap/Are you amused by our struggles? The English that's broken?/The weed that I'm smokin'? The guns that I'm totin'?/The drugs that I'm sellin'? No need for improvement/Fuck you and who you think I should be, forward movement. The assumptions of white people about black people and the stereotypes of black lives are challenged here. Cultural relativity needs to be engaged in order to fully appreciate and 'hear' A Tribe Called Quest's message that the negatives assumed about their race is an obstacle to be overcome but the odds are stacked against that happening.The second verse calls out the media for perpetuating one version of black life: "The media relates it what it thinks it sees". There is hope, however:'Yes, the government will fund, learning is free for everyone/And from that lie, young leaders will rise/In the eyes of despair and adversity/In some universe, this verse will be true." This was a much more 'chill' listen than Public Enemy was. It also calls out whiteness as white people's assumptions about black people are directly and unapologetically stated.I could see using this song in discussions about Song of Solomon.

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A Tribe Called Quest's 'Whateva Will Be' - Discover the Sample Source

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"Whateva Will Be" by A Tribe Called Quest contains a sample of another track. Listen to both tracks on WhoSampled, the ultimate database of sampled music, cover songs and remixes.

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Public Enemy: Fight the Power 1989 & 2020

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Public Enemy: Fight the Power 1989 & 2020

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Gotta love Flava Flave! Ahem, anyways: Public Enemy formed in 1986 in Long Island. They are credited with creating "a form of hip hop that was radical both politically and sonically. . no group has ever had so much to say with so much urgency" (BBC).The background for the writing of this song was in 1988 Spike Lee saying he needed "an anthem" for his movie, Do the Right Thing.He specifically asked for a song that was about the racial tension in Brooklyn. According to an interview with Time Magazine, Lee said, "I wanted it to be defiant, I wanted it to be angry, I wanted it to be very rhythmic. I thought right away of Public Enemy." The first thing a listener notices is the drum beat-- it was upbeat and feels energetic. Chuck D has said that "the drums had to feel like African war drums. . ." (Guardian. Apparently there are a lot of samples that I would not have recognized. All of the music creates a sound of chaos, energy, and tension held together by Chuck D's rapping. The complexity of all the samples looped in floors me. Similarly, the lyrics are often allusions-- 'my beloved' alludes to MLK's hope for a "beloved community," church services, civil rights samples. and James Brown and Afrika Bambaataa are also alluded to. There are a ton more that I would have to research separately. This complexity took me by surprise, I have to admit. It's not that I thought hip hop was simple. At the same time, the looping and layers of cultural references was astounding. The fact that the song was remixed for the BET Awards this past year demonstrates how prescient and timeless this song is. Sections were named specifically: 'The Information Age', 'Rapsody,' and 'Black Thought' are a few. The original version calls for the black community to stand up and fight back and rolls its eyes at liberal antiracism in favor of a more direct approach. The 2020 version is much more focused and specific. Challenging whiteness, Chuck D mentioned Elvis and John Wayne in the original as not being anything to him even though they are seen as heroes 'to most.' The remix rips from the headlines: George Floyd, Police brutality, and a nod to the superficial knowledge many people have about Black history: 'You love Black Panther but not Fred Hampton.' I know I am rambling--There is just so much in this song to think about.Another great line is "If racism is the cancer, black thought's the answer." Black militancy is on the back burner here. Intellectual thought and pride are at the helm. Lastly, the remix directly comments on antiracism of 'smashin' your power structure, melanin royal/regal system designed to kill and unprotect. . .' I could see using this song in class as a connection between DuBois or Garvey speeches and the reality of life on the streets in many of our cities.

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[Intro: Chuck D]
This is revolution shit
Uh, yeah, c'mon and get down
Uh, yeah, c'mon and get down
Uh, yeah, hey
The year is 2020, the number
A little somethin' to get down
Sound of the funky drummer
Music hitting' the heart 'cause I know you got soul
Brothers and sisters

[Verse 1: Nas]
The Information Age
Got 'em seein' what's really wrong with these racist days
I honor the strong and pity the weak
Your thoughts run your life, be careful what you think
Haiti beat France, a century, seventeen
Salute Toussaint and Dessalines
And I do love France, know what I mean?
It's the system I'm talkin', nobody's agreein'
They say, "Suicide," when dead bodies are swingin'
Cowards are huntin' black men, that's what I'm seein'
How many toasters have been burnt down?
And once Central Park was a thrivin' black town
Yo, Chuck, I'm fightin' the power right now
Thank you, Flav and P-E, puttin' it down
Puttin' your life on the line so I could rap now
The next generation still singin', "Fight the Power"

[Chorus: Chuck D with Flava Flav]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, we got to fight the powers that be

[Verse 2: Rapsody]
Police think they reign, [?] over the law (Yeah)
When they give us short sticks but we really need a long
To the boys in the hood, duckin bullets and batons
From boys in the hood, triple Ks on they arm
Four fingers on my palm screamin', "Fight"
Change the policy, before I buy back our property
You love Black Panther but not Fred Hampton
Word to the Howards and the Aggies and the Hamptons
They book us, won't book us, I'm Booker
T. Washington, George killed, for twenty
Think about it (Think), that's two thousand pennies
The value of black life the cost of goin' to Wendy's
For a four-quarter burger, ended in murder
Fight for Breonna and the pain of her mother, gotta

[Chorus: Chuck D with Flava Flav]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, we got to fight the powers that be

[Verse 3: Black Thought]
Yeah, generations just how long we been at war
The revolution on all platforms
You break a man's mind in his back
Yo, solidarity is what I'm wearin' all black for
For comrades who done fought without me
It's not to try and change y'all thoughts about me
Or to redirect your reports about me
Dear white people, you should take a course about me
'Cause, is it the law, for a four-finger ring?
The sciences and the arts, the songs we can sing?
I really wanna know why y'all so scared
Prolly 'cause the promised land, we almost there
But look, I think of images that fuel my youth
Been influenced by Craig Hodges and Abdul-Rauf
Examples like Olympic, Black Power salutes
To Panther troops, I saw as I pursued my truth
If racism is the cancer, black thought's the answer
Gotta get up off the back porch, emancipate your minds
Get your bodies back from ransom (C'mon)
And all black hands up for the anthem

[Chorus: Chuck D with Flava Flav]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, we got to fight the powers that be
Yo, yo, check this out, man
Bring that beat back, man (Bring that beat back)
In two, three, four, hit it

[Verse 4: Jahi]
People, people, stronger than this evil
Smashin' your power structure, melanin royal, regal
System designed to kill and unprotect
Worldwide, hit the streets just to get some respect
Our fight and our rights for freedom will never wane
But justice Breonna Taylor, salute Chuck and Flava
Feel the same anger since Radio Raheem died
Black power to the people, push forward, pride

[Verse 5: YG]
Fight power like it's the opp, though
Born to fight, I made it off the block though
Thought he had a gun and he was black, that's the combo
The police killed George havin' a convo (George)
They killed Malcolm X, they killed Doctor King (Doctor King)
They gave us guns and dope, they wanna stop our kings
They tryna erase our history, stop and think
History class ain't tell us 'bout Juneteeth
Cops don't give a damn about a negro
Pull the trigger, kill negro, he's a hero
Fuck livin' life on welfare, the last one who cared was Obamacare
Round twelve, nose kinda bloody, gotta keep fightin'
Trump flew to North Korea, they respect violence
If you ain't tryna have your city on fire
Put some respect on our name, we come from gold and diamonds

[Chorus: Chuck D with Flava Flav]
Fight the power (Fight the power)
Fight the power, we got to fight the powers that be
Yo, yo

[Verse 6: Chuck D]
Elvis was a hero to most
But he never meant shit to me you see
Straight up racist that sucker was
Simple and plain
Motherfuck him and John Wayne
'Cause I'm Black and I'm proud
I'm ready, I'm hyped plus I'm amped
Most of my heroes don't appear on no stamps
Sample a look back you look and find
Nothing but rednecks for four hundred years if you check
"Don't Worry, Be Happy" was a number one jam
Damn if I say it you can slap me right here
(Get it) Let's get this party started right
Right on, c'mon
What we got to say
Power to the people no delay
Make everybody see
In order to fight the powers that be

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Public Enemy (Ft. Black Thought, Jahi, Nas, Rapsody & YG) - Fight the Power (BET Awards 2020)

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Fight the Power (BET Awards 2020) Lyrics: This is revolution shit / Uh, yeah, c'mon and get down / Uh, yeah, c'mon and get down / Uh, yeah, hey / The year is 2020, the number / A little somethin' to get down / Sound of the

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I just found online a tag for "Hip Hop Speaks to Children." Nikki Giovanni, a black poet, put this together in 2008. It has poetry, illustrations and a CD with it. You can find it on Amazon. It was a bestseller when it was published and is highly recommended for teachers (and other people!). -- John  

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I just found online a tag for "Hip Hop Speaks to Children." Nikki Giovanni, a black poet, put this together in 2008. It has poetry, illustrations and a CD with it. You can find it on Amazon. It was a bestseller when it was published and is highly recommended for teachers (and other people!). -- John  

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I put my work into a Google Presentation. Hope you like it! (The format is what I often use in class.) I explored Nina Simone's "Backlash Blues," which was based on a poem by Langston Hughes. I found another great piece by Simone called "Four Women." I included Chuck Berry's "Promised Land," which was popularized by the white hipster Elvis. The Grateful Dead often paid tribute to Berry's song in performing it. I also added a poem by Nikki Giovanni, which has the "black is beautiful" theme -- it's a lovely poem and it's performed by a choir here. Links and lyrics are included. -- John 

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I put my work into a Google Presentation. Hope you like it! (The format is what I often use in class.) I explored Nina Simone's "Backlash Blues," which was based on a poem by Langston Hughes. I found another great piece by Simone called "Four Women." I included Chuck Berry's "Promised Land," which was popularized by the white hipster Elvis. The Grateful Dead often paid tribute to Berry's song in performing it. I also added a poem by Nikki Giovanni, which has the "black is beautiful" theme -- it's a lovely poem and it's performed by a choir here. Links and lyrics are included. -- John 

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Explorations of Racism in Black Music #3

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I made this word cloud from the lyrics of 3 of the songs from the list..

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I made this word cloud from the lyrics of 3 of the songs from the list..

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Jay Z - The Story of OJ.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM7lw0Ovzq0

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Jay Z - The Story of OJ.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM7lw0Ovzq0

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What a powerful song with a melancholy tone
Imagery depicting the cultural assumptions and expectations of people of color.

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 A Tribe Called Quest -Whateva Will BeI chose this song because I have heard of this group many times but never have taken the time to listen to them on my own. Hearing the first few lyrics reminded me of the sad reality of mass incarceration in the United States for people of color. I have read books and watched documentaries on this issue. One of the most powerful quotes (that I cannot remember verbatim) by Bryan Stevenson was about how mass incarceration is evolution of slavery. As a white woman, it is difficult to imagine walking in the shoes of a person of color knowing that, as the song states, there are assumptions and expectations by society that you are automatically a criminal because of the color of your skin. “Say am I 'posed to be dead or doin' life in prison?Just another dummy caught up in the systemUnruly hooligan who belongs in Spofford’ Verse gettin' that degree at Stanford or Harvard”

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 A Tribe Called Quest -Whateva Will BeI chose this song because I have heard of this group many times but never have taken the time to listen to them on my own. Hearing the first few lyrics reminded me of the sad reality of mass incarceration in the United States for people of color. I have read books and watched documentaries on this issue. One of the most powerful quotes (that I cannot remember verbatim) by Bryan Stevenson was about how mass incarceration is evolution of slavery. As a white woman, it is difficult to imagine walking in the shoes of a person of color knowing that, as the song states, there are assumptions and expectations by society that you are automatically a criminal because of the color of your skin. “Say am I 'posed to be dead or doin' life in prison?Just another dummy caught up in the systemUnruly hooligan who belongs in Spofford’ Verse gettin' that degree at Stanford or Harvard”

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The Roots -  What They DoI chose this song because I have listened to The Roots before but did not know this song. Watching the music video, I was a bit surprised at first when they showed a mansion and a fancy car, men sitting around a table drinking champagne and women in bikinis dancing on tables. I thought “hmm that’s odd, I didn’t think The Roots were about that?” As the song continues, I think they are mocking this style of music video as the lyrics announce, “The principles of true hip-hop have been forsakenIt's all contractual and about money makin” . This connects to the video we watched where Bell Hooks explains that the top record sales of hip hop/rap music were coming from white suburban neighborhoods who wanted to buy into the rap fantasy of a fast life, money and easy women. I love that The Roots stood up to call out this exploitation happening in the music industry.

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The Roots -  What They DoI chose this song because I have listened to The Roots before but did not know this song. Watching the music video, I was a bit surprised at first when they showed a mansion and a fancy car, men sitting around a table drinking champagne and women in bikinis dancing on tables. I thought “hmm that’s odd, I didn’t think The Roots were about that?” As the song continues, I think they are mocking this style of music video as the lyrics announce, “The principles of true hip-hop have been forsakenIt's all contractual and about money makin” . This connects to the video we watched where Bell Hooks explains that the top record sales of hip hop/rap music were coming from white suburban neighborhoods who wanted to buy into the rap fantasy of a fast life, money and easy women. I love that The Roots stood up to call out this exploitation happening in the music industry.

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"You know, our great-great-grandfathers and grandmothers that came here, they found some kind of way to make the rhythm. You know, and they kept rhythm, no matter what"

I cried. There's something about talking about generations and perseverance that really gets to me. And, wow, just the spoken words about keeping the rhythm going- rhythm of life, rhythm of the spirituals to get them through the day, and the rhythm of their own heartbeat and bloodline.

These first two songs I've chosen (Lamar and Solange) demonstrate the history of racism and what people have done to get through it.

One of my favorite things about Lexington's mindset in both English and history classrooms, is its focus on perspectives. We are already trying to teach the idea of cultural relativity- how do we step outside ourselves and try to understand others? Identifying my own lens and personal biases is one of the first steps.

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Written as a poem for Abraham Lincoln’s birthday by James Weldon Johnson and set to music by his brother. 500 school kids from the Stanton School were the first to sing it. The NAACP adopted the song and many consider it the Black National Anthem. The poem is about hope, fighting injustice, community, and fighting for freedom. It will be played at NFL games this year, which is one way the NFL is trying to support Black Lives Matter. I picked a couple different versions of the song because I thought each offered something different. It was interesting to look at the comments for the song. Many (I assume white people) complaining about how there is a second national anthem and that shouldn’t there be only one anthem that unites people. I think they are forgetting that not everyone is treated equal in this country.

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Beyoncé HOMECOMING Lift Every Voice (HQ)

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Melba Moore "LIft Every Voice" ft. Stephanie Mills & Others!

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Love this song. Have been listening to it on repeat since I first heard it. The beat and lyrics are awesome. She wants people to go out and be a part of the community and make. It’s time to take a stand and people that have a platform need to use it. Her combination of reggae, soul, and dancehall come through in this song. In interviews she discusses combining different types of music from her country.

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Queen Ifrica - Lioness on the Rise | Official Music Video

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Both Teyana Taylor and Tupac used the symbolic image of a rose growing out concrete in their songs. Both rise from very little and create their own path/destiny. Taylor’s song uses love as way to “get back” at people that have treated poorly and are jealous of what she is trying to accomplish.” But I ain’t callin’ no names out, No, no free promotion”.  The background stanza of “ Rose in Harlem” is soothing and calm.

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This song is for anyone who has felt oppressed or ostracized. It also helps empower people - they can feel a connection and also know that there are all other people going through the same thing. I think this song would be good for kids to hear in school because I think you can have some good discussions about different types of people - cultural relativity.

Q – Queer, LGBTQ

U – Untouchables – people living in poverty

E – Emigrants – forced to leave their country

E – Excommunicated – serving or have served time in prison

N – Negroid – black people of all origins

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Janelle Monáe - Q.U.E.E.N. feat. Erykah Badu [Official Video]

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“White kids are brought in alive/Black kids get lit like five”

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Meshell Ndegeocello: To Be Young, Gifted and Black

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Meshell Ndegeocello: To Be Young, Gifted and Black

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Oh, my...this is a truly magical cover of Nina Simone's tune - the forthright words of affirmation mingled with the tenderness of the delivery are so moving. I can't wait to use it for movement activities in my elementary music room. I've been working on decentering Whiteness in my teaching practice, and this is a perfect addition to my toolbox.

One danger music teachers face is erroneously thinking that we don't have the same issues as other teachers with regards to anti-racism because our repertoire is so multi-cultural. I've been realizing how much Whiteness can still be the dominant paradigm in the delivery of a multi-cultural curriculum.

Back to "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" -- the words call to mind a song I've always loved that Ricky Ian Gordon wrote for the talented soprano, Harolyn Blackwell in 1993 on a poem by Langston Hughes:

"The night is beautiful
so the faces of my people

The stars are beautiful
so the eyes of my people

Beautiful also is the sun;
also are the souls of my people"

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Harolyn Blackwell sings "My People" by Ricky Ian Gordon

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Benjamin Clementine: God Save the Jungle

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Benjamin Clementine: God Save the Jungle

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"Old alien in foreign lands again
You better beat it and go back home" (from God Save the Jungle)

What an unbelievable artist! Listening to this song led me to a hearing of both his albums (2015 and 2017) and he is an incredibly distinctive voice in music - he defies categorization and will be a regular in my playlists.

"God Save the Jungle" makes dark references to the Calais camp (referred to as the 'jungle') in France, where migrants and refugees awaited entrance into the United Kingdom.
This song sticks with you...the way he weaves in the tune from 'God Save the Queen' but with a twist, by using the word 'jungle' in place of 'queen', as well as shooting past the tonic (the expected landing note)on the word 'jungle' -- so so good! Stop everything and listen now!

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Benjamin Clementine - God Save the Jungle | I Tell A Fly | 2017 | HQ AUDIO

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The Last Poets: When the Revolution Comes

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The Last Poets: When the Revolution Comes

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This summer I have been reading some studies on white music teachers using Hip-Hop in the classroom -- black students' perceptions of their white teachers, teaching methods, etc. One thing I've learned is that a common pitfall for music teachers is to present Hip-Hop as just another musical genre to teach musical concepts in the curriculum - in other words, to use it for the sole purpose of teaching rhythmic elements, removed from the themes of social justice. I was thinking about that as I listened to "When the Revolution Comes." What a disservice it would be to focus instruction just on doing a rhythmic dictation of the percussion or spoken word of this song! I was reading a little bit about The Last Poets as I listened to their first album, and found a quote from founder Abiodun Oyewole that sticks with me. He said their group was founded as a direct result of their anger over the killing of Martin Luther King Jr and they marked their debut on what would have been Malcolm X's 43rd birthday:

“Growing up, I was scheduled to be a nice little colored guy. I was liked by everybody. But when they killed Dr King, all bets were off.” (Abiodun Oyewole)

Until recently, I haven't put a lot of thought into the social justice roots of Hip-Hip. Truthfully, I just haven't put a lot of thought into Hip-Hop period. I do some composition exercises with late elementary that perhaps mimic the style, but I haven't tied that to anti-racism or social justice in general. I think that's a subtle shift with a potentially big impact going forward.

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The Last Poets - When The Revolution Comes

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This solemn piece honors the lives of the four girls killed in a bombing while attending Sunday School in Birmingham, AL. What I didn't know about this piece is that Coltrane's inspiration and the instrumental patterns were drawn from  Reverend Martin Luther King's "Eulogy for the Martyred Children", which was delivered a few months before this song was written.

There is a palpable ache in the music, as the instrumentalists lament the lives lost. I've never thought about it before, but I think this would be an amazing piece for my elementary music students. I read that when Coltrane gave the music to his quartet, he did not share what it is about. This is often done in music class - to play something without explanation at first to gather interpretations before diving in. Additionally, this song could be used in arts integration lessons at all ages because the music truly speaks louder than words and would evoke meaningful reflection.

Rhiannon Giddens's take on the folk song Birmingham Sunday makes a nice pairing. She's one of my favorite artists, and I've learned a lot from her concerts and writings about the history of Black music. I highly recommend having a listen to Birmingham Sunday and really anything else by her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_T5KlTpvoM

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In looking into this song, I learned that it was listed as one of the top songs that shaped the last decade by Billboard Magazine. I don't remember hearing it before, but it is hard to shake now that I have -- Jay Z wrote it in response to O.J. Simpson's remark "I'm not black, I'm O.J." The lyrics portray the way blacks are viewed in our culture...that having black skin supersedes any individual achievement or characteristic.

It is a challenging song to listen to for me, and watching the video, with portrayals of black peoples' experiences in cartoon images, felt uncomfortable and almost confrontational (it almost felt wrong to be watching it...like something I shouldn't be viewing, and, for me, the cartoon images made it even more uncomfortable than photos or videos might have.)

Leaning into the theme of money, it makes me glad for the rallying cry to support black owned businesses the last few months. I hope that society isn't distracted from that message as time continues on.

Finally, really cool shout out to Nina Simone, with a sample of 'My Skin is Black' running throughout the song.

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Keedron Bryant’s video shared by Barack Obama, Lupita Nyong’o, and LeBron James and it;s been viewed more than 3 million times. Now, Bryant has signed with Warner Records, who has released a studio version of “I Just Wanna Live.” and he wrote, “Just singing what’s on my heart. Hope this blesses someone.”

This song is very short, but has a clear and strong message. Here is the lyrics. -  "I'm a young black man, doing all that I can to stand. Oh, but when I look around and I see what's being done to my kind every day, I'm being hunted as prey. My people don't want no trouble, we've had enough struggle. I just want to live. God, protect me, I just want to live."

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The title of the song attracted me from the playlists. “I just wanna live.” Keedron Bryant who sang this song is a teen gospel singer who is only 12 years old. After George Floyd was killed while in the custody of Minnesota police, Bryant sang a cappella, “I’m a Young Blck Man/Doing all that I can/ To stand.” which was written by his mom, Johnetta Bryant, and posted on social media. And he says that he just wants to live! The lyrics express everything that everyone needs to hear and understand.

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The title of the song attracted me from the playlists. “I just wanna live.” Keedron Bryant who sang this song is a teen gospel singer who is only 12 years old. After George Floyd was killed while in the custody of Minnesota police, Bryant sang a cappella, “I’m a Young Blck Man/Doing all that I can/ To stand.” which was written by his mom, Johnetta Bryant, and posted on social media.. And he says that he just wants to live! The lyrics express everything that everyone needs to hear and understand.

Keedron Bryant’s video shared by Barack Obama, Lupita Nyong’o, and LeBron James and it;s been viewed more than 3 million times. Now, Bryant has signed with Warner Records, who has released a studio version of “I Just Wanna Live.” and he wrote, “Just singing what’s on my heart. Hope this blesses someone.”

This song is very short, but has a clear and strong message. Here is the lyrics. -  "I'm a young black man, doing all that I can to stand. Oh, but when I look around and I see what's being done to my kind every day, I'm being hunted as prey. My people don't want no trouble, we've had enough struggle. I just want to live. God, protect me, I just want to live."

He is singing, but also is wailing for life. He is singing, but also is shouting out for a living.

He sings this song in a cappella that means to sing without instrumental accompaniment. I think it makes me more sad. But also, I could see his hope that he can go out and enjoy life without having fear someday. And he stepped forward to change the world as singing his song.

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Keedron Bryant - I Just Wanna Live (Live Performance)