Letter to the Free
Letter to the Free is a music video produced by the rapper Common 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 which is a documentary by Ava DuVernay discussing the 13th Amendment – the abolition of slavery. The video is highly politicised in the context of a variety of social and cultural movements such as ‘Black Lives Matter’ which are aimed at raising the awareness of racism and the effects on US society.
Through economic context the music video can be considered if and how it makes money through advertising on youtube.
Key Concepts:
● Cultural resistance
● Cultural hegemony
● Subcultural theory
Amendment 13
SECTION 1:
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.
SECTION 2:
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
However, Amendment 13 HADN’T COMPLETELY abolished slavery. Slavery was illegal unless justified through the criminalisation of people of colour. (Poc criminals were legally worked as slaves, which led to a lot of racisim and prejudice from authority figures/people in power who would randomly criminalise poc)
In January 1865, Amendment 13 had passed by Congress. In February 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. It was ratified on December 1865 which abolished slavery in the United States.
With the adoption of the 13th Amendment, the United States found a final constitutional solution to the issue of slavery. The 13th Amendment, along with the 14th and 15th, is one of the trio of Civil War amendments that greatly expanded the civil rights of America.
- Key idea: the political, personal and cultural are always intertwined. The Idea of Resistance and Political Protest. Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.
- Antonio Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s
- Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural mean.
- Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values.
What is a subculture?
● Working-class youth culture
● Unified by shared tastes in style, music and ideology
● A solution to collectively experienced problems
● A form of resistance to cultural hegemony – (re: Jodie’s presentation)
Lyrics:
- “Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13” – talking about how slavery hasn’t been abolished just because rules have changed. They are constantly living in fear of doing the wrong thing or even being falsely accused.
- “Prison is a business, America’s the company” – talking about how the justice system is prejudice to POC.
- “We staring in the face of hate again The same hate they say will make America great again” – how America is great for cultural hegemony like white people . Referencing to Trump who uses this line in his campaign – terminology used in the 60s.
- For America to rise it’s a matter of Black Lives– talking about how America benefits by exploiting POC.
Within the music video, Common uses a black and white filter to further emphasise the segregation of race. The setting is in a prison creating a sombre and claustrophobic atmosphere by referencing to how slavery still exists and how it as justified through criminalising poc. The prison enhances the feeling of entrapment and fear which parallels to the feeling of those experiencing racism from white prejudices. The title also helps to reinforce the idea of voicelessness and unheard- frustration of no change.
Quotes from ’13th’- Documentary
“America is home to 5% worlds population but 25% of the worlds prisoners” – the 13th
“300,000 prisoners in 1972 but now its 2.3 million”
“POC were arrested for minor crimes such as loitering or vagrancy.“
“if you are white you are living the life based on what you’re ancestors chose. If you’re Black then you are living your life based on what your ancestors didn’t get to choose. “
“myths based on needing black bodies working”
“kkk was romanticised…another wave of terrorism…. shifted to something more legal; segregation”
“for the first time justice became at least a possibility”
Exam prep:
MEDIA LANGUAGE:
• Mise-en-scene analysis
• Cinematography
• Semiotics: how images signify cultural meanings
• Aesthetics
NARRATIVE:
• How does Letter to the Free appeal to its target audience?
• How is the narrative being constructed by the song lyrics reinforced?
• How does the narrative position the audience?
• How can the narrative invite a range of responses?
• What pleasures does the narrative offer the audience?
• How is the narrative incorporating views and ideologies?
• What is the role of Common in the narrative?
GENRE:
• Identification of the conventions of the Performative music video.
• How music videos serve the needs of media producers
• How music videos meet the expectations of audiences
• Genre theory including Neale
REPRESENTATION:
Letter to the Free explicitly focuses on the history and contemporary experience of African Americans and allows for an exploration of the effect of social, cultural and political context on representations of ethnicity.
• Representation of ethnicity, with focus on how Common is a black man exploring black culture-specific issues.
• Use of specific historical and contemporary experience to construct a political narrative and argument
• How representations invoke discourses and ideologies and position audiences
• Representation of gender within the video and in the context of wider representations of women in the music industry
• Representation of place
• Common as celebrity persona
THEORIES:
- The idea of culture as a site of political struggle (re: Jodie’s presentation for Ghost Town see below)
- The the theory of hegemony – Gramsci
- Theories of representation including Hall
- Drawing on theories of Postcolonialism (Gilroy)
- Theory of the Public Sphere – Habermas