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