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. With a disproportionate number of ethnic minorities incarcerated in prison, the lyrics criticise the money-making “business” of the “prison” system when these institutions should be a tool for positive reform and rehabilitation. Released in 2016, the rapper also worried about “staring in the face of hate” of Trump’s vision of America.
COMMON
Born: March 13, 1972 (age 49 years), South Side, Chicago, Illinois, United States
Net Worth: £45Million
First rapper to win an academy award
Common was formerly known by common sense
Commons genre of music he records is Hip Hop, Neo Soul and Progressive Rap.
LYRICS
“Prison is a business, America’s the company” linking to how Americas prison system is just a money making business, and how instead of rehabilitation they focus on punishment. The Documentary 13th explains how people of colour were incarcerated for simple things like ‘loitering’ and how since crack was more popular was more popular with people of colour having 10 oz of it meant more jail time than 100 oz of cocaine even though thy are the same drug.
“No consolation prize for the dehumanized” links to how ethnic minorities are dehumanized and wouldn’t get the same benefits as other ethnic groups. Furthermore, “dehumanized” relates to how poorly ethnic minorities are treated.
Antonio Gramsci
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
Postcolonialism
But here it is specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.
The Shadow of Slavery
In other words, postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim towards what constitutes ‘good reading’ and ‘good literature’; questioning the notion of a recognised and overarching canon of important cultural texts – book, poems, plays, films etc – much of which is institutionalised into academic syllabi.
The Link between culture, imperial power & colonialism
“the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism“
Edward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii
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)
Jacques Lacan
The ‘other’