The music video is a product which possesses cultural and social significance. It has a comparison with other music videos allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.

Common which is the rapper and writer, was born March 13, 1972 (age 49 years), South Side, Chicago, Illinois, United States.
He has a net worth of £45 million and was the first rapper to win an academy award.

A subculture is a working-class youth culture, unified by shared tastes in style, music and ideology. It also has a solution to collectively experienced problems and finally a form of resistance to cultural hegemony.

– Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
– Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
– Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
– Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values

Antonio Gramsci is a Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s

Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.

In the 1970s, a group of cultural theorists in Birmingham applied Gramsici’s theories to post-war
British working-class youth culture
● Looked at working class cultures like the teddy-boys, mods, skinheads, and punks – subcultures
unified by shared tastes in fashion, music and ideology.
● They argued argued that the formation of subcultures offered young working class people a solution
to the problems they were collectively experiencing in society.

Lyrics:

“We let go to free them so we can free us”

“They stop, search and arrest our souls”

“Instead of ‘nigga’ they use the word ‘criminal'”

Postcolonialism:
postcolonialism was thought as a distinct category in the 1990s with the target to undermine the universalist claims that literature has a timeless and universal significance.

The link between culture, imperial power and colonialism:
“the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism“

 Orientalism (1978) alongside Culture and imperialism  (1993) are key texts written by the respected academic.

Edward Said – known for the book “Orientalism” 1978, he was a critic of the cultural representations that are the bases of orientalism.
The conclusion of Edward Said’s theory was that Western writings depicted Orient as an irrational, weak, feminized ‘Other’.

Jacques Lacan, The ‘other‘
“we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not.”
Lacan proposes that infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror.
representations of the east/ the orientation, the other are constructed through a lens of western colonial power.

“Letter to the Free” was written as part of the soundtrack to “The 13th”, the song speaks out against America’s justice system which helps to perpetuate the inequality endured by many African Americans

Cultural Hegemony:
● Antonio Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s

Key Terms:
● Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
● Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
● Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
● Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values

● Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.
● The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral,
and social institutions (like the education system and the media).
● These institutions socialise people into accepting the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social
group.
● As a result, oppressed groups believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and
inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.

Key Concepts:
● Cultural resistance
● Cultural hegemony
● Subcultural theory

Lyrics
“We ain’t seen as human beings with feelings” – Common states that black people aren’t seen as humans by some

“Will the U.S. ever be us?” – Common is asking if black people will ever be seen as true Americans

Letter to the free is a music video which possesses cultural and social significance.

Common is an Oscar and Grammy award winning hip/hop rap artist who wrote Letter to the Free as a soundtrack to The 13th – a documentary by Ava DuVernay named after the American 13th amendment and is stated laws which seem to discriminate against impoverished ethnic minorities who are then more likely to be convicted of a crime and imprisoned. It is related to the context of a variety of social and cultural movements aimed at raising awareness of racism and its effects in US society.

Awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, Common’s “Letter to the Free” speaks out against a justice system which helps to perpetuate the terrible inequality endured by many African Americans.

Common is an advocate for criminal justice reform and is the founder of Imagine Justice, a non-profit organisation dedicated to “empowering communities and fighting injustice wherever it appears”.

Youth Cultural as Political Protest

The political, personal and cultural are always intertwined.

Overt political protest is uncommon. When it occurs, it often results in a backlash. Even if overt political protest does results in changes in legislation, it won’t necessarily change public
opinion. Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.

Cultural Hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.

Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology. The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral,
and social institutions. Oppressed groups believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and
inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group

Prison is a business, America’s the company
Investing in injustice, fear and long suffering – I have chosen to use this quote of the song to illustrate how Common wants to create a non-profit organisation dedicated to “empowering communities and fighting injustice wherever it appears”.

Black bodies being lost in the American dream – This is also a good quote to use as it refers to the racism and slavery that Black people suffer in.

Common, byname of Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., (born March 13, 1972, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), American hip-hop artist, actor, and activist who became a mainstream success in the early 21st century, known for intelligent and positive lyrics that were performed in a spoken-word style. He was the first rapper to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and an Emmy Award.

Common is an advocate for criminal justice reform and is the founder of Imagine Justice, a non-profit organisation dedicated to “empowering communities and fighting injustice wherever it appears”. “Letter to the Free” is his rally call against racism and the different forms of slavery still being used in America.

Music Video – Letter to the Free is a product which possesses cultural and social significance. It will invite comparison with other music videos allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.

● Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.
● The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral,
and social institutions (like the education system and the media).
● These institutions socialise people into accepting the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social
group.
● As a result, oppressed groups believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and
inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.

The caged birds sings for freedom to bring
Black bodies being lost in the American dream
Blood of black being, a pastoral scene
Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13
Not whips and chains, all subliminal – this resonates

letter to the free is a social political cultural prostest song similar to the ghost town nea that we did although this song focuses on the inequality of the social stading between races and how the past shapes a bleak future.. the abolishment of slavery came withan uprise of discrimination even they were just people like we are people the song tries to tear back the curtains on the dark past of history and to make it known and seen and to make an example of what we can not go back to.. the black and white pictures of the vidioe represent the white americans and black americans and the clash between the two shades create a grey area within the subject

COMMON –

Common, byname of Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr., (born March 13, 1972, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), American hip-hop artist, actor, and activist who became a mainstream success in the early 21st century, known for intelligent and positive lyrics that were performed in a spoken-word style. He was the first rapper to win a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and an Emmy Award.

the lyrics quote I used

Instead of ‘nigga’ they use the word ‘criminal’
Sweet land of liberty, incarcerated country
Shot me with your ray-gun
And now you want to trump me
Prison is a business, America’s the company

the lyrics suggest that slavery is just under a new name and the old terms we use to use has been replaced with something different although they have the same meaning they created the prison business in order to gain the power they lost after slavery and The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution provides that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” saying that slavery is okay if they did something wrong first as if we are still in the same old mindset that is really dated and old. the trump me is where the make America great again but for who and how is this great America going to affect the minority’s that are within their jurisdiction are they going to be as slave but under a new name a criminal for they aren’t white and they are different to them makes them a criminal?

We staring in the face of hate again
The same hate they say will make America great again
No consolation prize for the dehumanized
For America to rise it’s a matter of Black Lives

this quote highlights the dehumanisation of slavery and that they are not human and are being dehumanised by all the hate and the subjugation of those who still live in the past and the thought of black lives are less than a pipe dream for greatness and the black lives that are layed down and used are for the greater good for the best america… but for who does this great america suppor those who are white and those in power or the equality of black people and white people..

Gramsci a theorist of hegemony says that cultural resistance is also hegemony or a form of hegemony

the politican and the personal and cultural are always intertwined – https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/media23al/wp-content/uploads/sites/58/2022/01/Music-as-Political-Protest.pdf

POST-COLONIALISM