Letter to the Free is a product which possesses cultural and social significance.

The rapper in the music video is called Common and he wrote the lyrics as a soundtrack to the film The 13th which is about the abolition of slavery.  It was aimed at raising awareness of racism and its effects in US society (e.g. Black Lives Matter). It focuses on the history and contemporary experience of African Americans and can explore of the effect of social, cultural and political context on representations of ethnicity.

Cultural hegemony: theory developed by Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s. How social classes come to dominate society (capitalist). Hegemony implicates power into cultural texts by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate ideology.

Theory of communicative action: theory developed by Habermas. Public sphere excluded the poor and uneducated. Habermas argues that the development of early modern capitalism brought into being an autonomous arena of public debate. Where and how is news talked about by the public; democracy depends on a public which is informed, aware, and which debates the issues of the day. Habermas believes the mass media has reduced the effectiveness of the public sphere.

Lyrics

• Prison is a business, America’s the company
• Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13’
• ‘Black bodies being lost in the American dream’