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It’s so strange to me that wider-known Black artists are not creating music to reflect this social/political moment.
The last time we were in this place as a nation, it sparked a revolutionary creative period in music and literature that reflected the voices of Black people.
The last time we were in this place as a nation, it sparked a revolutionary creative period in music and literature that reflected the voices of Black people.
I don’t want y’all to think I’m romanticizing that moment. No, I know that music is only a salve.
But language and art can be modalities through which we imagine our liberated selves, and find points of entry to engage radical struggle.
See: James Baldwin, Gil Scot Heron, Nina.
But language and art can be modalities through which we imagine our liberated selves, and find points of entry to engage radical struggle.
See: James Baldwin, Gil Scot Heron, Nina.
Political unrest is wild-making. It creates space for new avenues of expression, freer possibilities in our creative mediums.
Look at the social-political location of the Harlem Renaissance + of Hip-Hop. Black creative expansion has an inherent relationship to Black revolution.
Look at the social-political location of the Harlem Renaissance + of Hip-Hop. Black creative expansion has an inherent relationship to Black revolution.
Folks have rightfully brought up capitalism’s role in this fracture.
After all, how can you create art that authentically reflects political turmoil if you do not yourself feel turmoil? What’s the point, if your life isn’t as endangered as the lives of working class Black folks?
After all, how can you create art that authentically reflects political turmoil if you do not yourself feel turmoil? What’s the point, if your life isn’t as endangered as the lives of working class Black folks?
Celebrity is also a strange, new beast.
Notoriety (even if it isn’t tied to material wealth) brings our fave artists/musicians conditional access to whiteness. Think, the outrage surrounding Beyoncé when lemonade dropped. White folks forgot she wasn’t white.
Notoriety (even if it isn’t tied to material wealth) brings our fave artists/musicians conditional access to whiteness. Think, the outrage surrounding Beyoncé when lemonade dropped. White folks forgot she wasn’t white.
So moving in solidarity, creating in solidarity with radical movements, immediately displaces you from these conditional benefits and that is a risk folks think their “brand” can’t survive. It’s... weird. Late stage capitalism, and all that.
So then you see artists exploiting the language/iconography of social movements as a performative nod towards us, w/o directly/concretely engaging.
Ex: whatever tf Ciara was doing, Mariah Carey’s strange song, Bl*kP*r*de, Lil Baby’s “bigger picture”.
Ex: whatever tf Ciara was doing, Mariah Carey’s strange song, Bl*kP*r*de, Lil Baby’s “bigger picture”.
Folks also are saying “artists don’t have the range” or “if they did they’d get dragged” and that saddens me bc... I don’t think y’all know what radical change is going to cost us... trying and failing in public? Yea... that’s gon have to start being a thing.
#kill #them #egos
#kill #them #egos
Celebrities get dragged for hollow sentiments, respectability politics + exploitation of Black death bc they do us more harm mirroring the State in these ways than if they woulda just stayed quiet.
So are y’all saying that artists only have the range to exploit us or ignore us?
So are y’all saying that artists only have the range to exploit us or ignore us?
Artists are in many ways architects of memory. We remember the civil rights movement the way Baldwin wrote it, the way Nina sang it. We understand the energy of the 70s thanks to Amiri and Gil and the O’Jays.
So yes, of COURSE we gon’ drag y’all if you singing hollow shit about “brown milkin” the babies or going back, back to the south (but also under a boaab tree?!) with some random Swahili words spoken in the background.
Yes, of course. We ain’t interested in liberation aesthetíc.
Yes, of course. We ain’t interested in liberation aesthetíc.
I very intentionally said “wider-known” artist not “mainstream”. The industry is a capitalist, racist beast. Not asking for a major studio Black Liberation EP.
Just wondering where the creatives are, or rather, the *wave* of creatives. The tide of us. The great shift in current.
Just wondering where the creatives are, or rather, the *wave* of creatives. The tide of us. The great shift in current.
1) why tf was I up at 5am listening to the Chambers Brothers and writing this thread lmaoo
2) this angle from @cyreejarelle is everything: https://twitter.com/cyreejarelle/status/1304031674003529731
2) this angle from @cyreejarelle is everything: https://twitter.com/cyreejarelle/status/1304031674003529731
