Letter to the Free was released by Common in 2016, and it was less for entertainment than it was for sending out a political message. It was made for a documentary called the Thirteenth which documents black American culture and the legacy of slavery, and highlights the mass imprisonment of black Americans.
Common is an American Hip-Hop artist and rapper, known for intelligent and positive lyrics that were performed in a spoken-word style.
“Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13
Not whips and chains, all subliminal” – References the law that you can become a slave if you commit a crime, and how he believes this to be morally wrong and constituting to slavery’s resistance to dying.
“Barren souls, heroic songs unsung” – talks about how so many people, particularly of the black community, could have achieved a lot more if not for how they are treated – “heroic songs unsung”
“Tied with the rope that my grandmother died” – depicts how the slavery of old is still in effect today with similar principles.
Jodie’s powerpoint – https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/media23al/wp-content/uploads/sites/58/2022/01/Music-as-Political-Protest.pdf
Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means. Letter to the Free’s lyrics could be seen as cultural resistance in response to this.
Post – Colonialism
Postcolonialism is specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.
The Shadow of Slavery
Postcolonial critical thought emerged as a distinct category in the 1990’s, with an aim to undermine the universalist claims that ‘great literature has a timeless and universal significance [which] thereby demotes or disregards cultural, social, regional, and nations differences in experience and outlook’
The Link between culture, imperial power & colonialism
Edward Said was a respected academic. He asked if ‘imperialism was principally economic‘ and looked to answer that question by highlighting ‘the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience’ (1997:3) He came up with orientalism.
Jacques Lacan
THE ‘OTHER’