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THEORY REVISION

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SEMIOTICS

ROLAND BARTHES – Concept 1: Denotation and Connotation

Barthes’ tells us by using a ‘denotative reading’ is how viewers decode media products. This occurs when a reader recognises the literal and physical content, e.g. an older man with his fist in the air, the style and colour of clothing. After this, readers quickly move beyond the recognition of the product and engage with what he calls ‘cognitive decoding.’ This refers to the deeper understanding prompted by advertisers to the emotional, symbolic/ideological significances, e.g. the older man’s fist may suggest defiance or aggression, the clothes may suggest a class.

WHEN LOOKING AT A MEDIA TEXT:

Image Features:Look out for:
POSE
(Subject positioning, stance or body language)		Breaking the 4th wall creates: confrontational/aggressive or invitational feel.
Off screen gaze: Right side – adventure/optimism. Left side – regret/nostalgia.
Body language: strong/weak/passive/active/open/closed
Subject Positioning: Where the person/people stand.
Proxemics: Their distance from people/things.
MISE-EN-SCENE
(Props, costume and setting)		Symbolic Props: rarely accidental
Pathetic fallacy: weather connotations to add meaning – character’s thoughts/tone
Costume Symbolism: Stereotypes help to decipher a character’s narrative function
LIGHTING CONNOTATIONSHigh-Key lighting: no shadows – positive and upbeat with a lighter feel
Low-Key lighting: Serious/ sad/moody connotations.
Chiaroscuro lighting: contrast lighting (light sharply cuts through darkness) – hopelessness/mystery
Ambient: infers realism
COMPOSITIONAL EFFECTS
(Shot distance, positioning of subjects in the frame)		Long shots: dominated their environment
Close-ups: intensifies emotions/impending drama
Open/closed frames: open- freedom, closed – entrapment
POSTPRODUCTION EFFECTSColour control: Red- anger, white – innocence
High saturation: Vibrant colours – cheerful
Desaturation: Dull colours – serious/sombre

Barthes’ recognised that text also gave meaning. He says it helps to ‘anchor’ image meanings in advertisements. Without anchorage, media imagery is likely to produce polysemic connotations (multiple meanings).

“a vice which holds the connotated meanings from proliferating”

Concept 2: The media’s ideological effect

Barthes’ suggests media replaces/replicates functions of myth making. The press, television, advertising, radio – convey the same sort of authority as myths and induce similar ideological effects. Anonymisation of myths shows it’s a collective view rather than singular –> media replicates this.

Naturalisation: Media products present ideas as natural/fact/common sense. When a range of media texts repeat the same idea, audience believe it is a fact rather than perspective, social norm.

Media myths are reductive: Media simplifies and reduces/purifies ideas to make it more digestible. – message reduction discourages audiences to question and analyse thoroughly.

Media myths reinforce existing social power structures: “the oppressor has everything, his language is rich, multiform, supple.” Those who have power tend to control the myth making process through the privileged access – maintain illusion that the system that benefits the powerful is naturally ordered and unchangeable.

C.S PEIRCE:

Peirce did not believe that signification was a straightforward binary relationship between a sign and an object, he viewed this innovative part of his triad as how we perceive or understand a sign and its relationship to the object it is referring to. The representamen in Peirce’s theory is the form the sign takes, which is not necessarily a material or concrete object. Peirce theorised that we interpret symbols according to a rule, a habitual connection. ‘The symbol is connected with its object because the symbol-user and a sign exists mainly due to the fact that it is used and understood. Peirce’s triad of signs concludes of:

Icon – A sign that looks like an object/person, e.g picture of a lamp.

Index – A sign that has a link to its object, e.g smoke and fire.

Symbol – A sign that has a more random link to its object, e.g colour, shape

FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE:

According to Saussure theory of signs, signifier and signified make up of signs. A sign is composed of both a material form and a mental concept. The signifier is the material form, i.e., something that can be heard, seen, smelled, touched or tasted, whereas the signified is the mental concept associated with it. C.S Peirce based his research off of Saussure.

Signifier – Stands in for something else.

Signified -Idea being evoked by signifier.

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Notes, Postcolonialism, Representation, Theory

POSTCOLONIALISM

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Postcolonialism is about where does our identity come from? How is our identity formed? How do we understand our own identity and how is our identity represented in the local, national and global media? 

The slave trade; started in the mid 1400’s as Americans needed workers for the agricultural industry so Africans were sold over to by their own kings. They were brought over by ship and deprived of any legal rights and slave owner had complete power over the blacks. Importation of people ended in the 1800’s but enslavement continued.

postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim

Edward Said

Showed how the West painted a picture of the East

Orientalism is 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

‘the East becomes the repository or projection of those aspects of themselves which Westerners do not choose to acknowledge (cruelty, sensuality, decadence, lazine)’

POSTCOLONIALISM operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘.

Jacques Lacan- The “other”

we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not

Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror in media, why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.

The West uses the East / the Orient / the ‘Other’, to identify and construct itself. 

REPRESENTATIONS of – the East /the Orient / the ‘Other’ – are CONSTRUCTED through the lens of WESTERN COLONIAL POWER.

Postcolonialism, Research

post- collonialism

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Empire and collonialism

 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 arguments around postcolonial critical thought ‘constituted a fundamentally important political act’ (MacLoed, 200: 16)

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

Edward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii

‘In this view, the outlying regions of the world have no life, history or culture to speak of, no independence or integrity worth representing without the West.‘ (Said, 1993: xxi). Orientalism (1978) alongside Culture and Imperialism (1993) are key texts written by the respected academic Edward Said. 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)

‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’V. G. Kiernan (American: The New Imperialism) (cit in Said, 1993:350)

To link this to postcolonialism would be to suggest that the West uses the East / the Orient / the ‘Other’, to identify and construct itself. How it sees itself as the ‘West’ as opposed to . . . in other words, it acts as The Other, a mirror by which a reflection of the self can be measured out and examined.

Essentially, and most crucial for postcolonial critical thinking, it is possible to identify a process whereby REPRESENTATIONS of – the East /the Orient / the ‘Other’ – are CONSTRUCTED through the lens of WESTERN COLONIAL POWER. So as much as the concept and image of ‘the West’ itself, the Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West. The two geographical entities thus support and to an extent reflect each other.

Jacques Lacan – The Other

 we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror. Applying that theory to culture, communications and media studies, it is possible to see why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.

Representations and stereotypes are created by us humans against one another.

Letter to the Free, Moving Image, Music Video, Postcolonialism

Letter to the free

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Music Video – Letter to the Free is a product which possesses cultural and social significance. It will invite comparison with other music videos allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed

This is a targeted CSP and needs to be studied with reference to two elements of the Theoretical Framework (Media Language and Media Representation) and all relevant contexts

“Letter to the Free,” like “13th,” addresses the issue of mass incarceration in the United States, “The 13th is an amendment that says slavery is abolished unless someone commits a crime… It’s evolved [and] is now targeting black and brown people across America for mass incarceration. It’s an epidemic that’s destroying America in many ways. So, for me to write a song about this, it’s fulfilling. It’s what I want my music and art to be, part of the enlightenment, part of moving things forward.”

When we first think about political protest, what comes to mind?
○ Attempts to change to laws or legislation
○ Organised political movements
○ Public protests
○ Petitions, marches

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
inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.

Lyrics

‘Not whips and chains, all subliminal’

‘Shot me with your ray-gun
And now you want to trump me’

‘And we gonna free them, so we can free us’

POSTCOLONIALISM:

has a kind of hook or link into empire and colonialism

great literature has a timeless and universal significance [which] thereby demotes or disregards cultural, social, regional, and nations differences in experience and outlook’ (Barry, 2017: 194).

The arguments around postcolonial critical thought ‘constituted a fundamentally important political act’ (MacLoed, 200: 16)

Edward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993

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

The mode is characterised by ‘the desire to contain the intangibilities of the East within a western lucidity, but this gesture of appropriation only partially conceals the obsessive fear.’ (Suleri, 1987:255)

‘an economic system like a nation or a religion, lives not by bread alone, but by beliefs, visions, daydreams as well, and these may be no less vital to it for being erroneous’V. G. Kiernan

 ‘the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience’ (1997:3)

Jacques Lacan:

The other:  we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. 

Letter to the Free, Moving Image, Notes, Postcolonialism, Uncategorized

Letter to the free

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Music Video – Letter to the Free is a product which possesses cultural and social significance. It will invite comparison with other music videos allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.

His output is highly politicised, existing in the context of a variety of social and cultural movements aimed at raising awareness of racism and its effects in US society.

resistance a political protest:

Key idea: the political, personal and cultural are always intertwined, Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.

Cultural Hegemony:

Antonio Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s developed this theory.

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 inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.

Key Concepts:
● Cultural resistance: the use of art/literature to challenge or fight oppressive system or power holders.
● Cultural hegemony: domination or rule maintained through ideological or cultural means. It is usually achieved through social institutions.
● Subcultural theory: Cohen’s subcultural theory assumes that crime is a consequence of the union of young people into so-called subcultures in which deviant values and moral concepts dominate. Subcultural theory became the dominant theory of its time.

Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13
Not whips and chains, all subliminal – amendment states that you can still be a slave if you are a criminal even though we don’t see it with whips and chains it is still apparent in society.

We staring in the face of hate again
The same hate they say will make America great again
No consolation prize for the dehumanized- no great version for those that’re dehumanised and treated differently, questioning who the great America is for and wanting it to be elaborated.

Post Colonialism:

-Has a hook or link to empire and colonialism, it occupies the shadow of slavery.

the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialismEdward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii

Overall, POSTCOLONIALISM operates a series of signs maintaining the European-Atlantic power over the Orient by creating ‘an accepted grid for filtering through the Orient into Western consciousness‘. (Said, 1978:238). Or as Paul Gilroy puts it, ‘a civilising mission that had to conceal its own systematic brutality in order to be effective and attractive’ (2004:8)

Post colonialism deconstructs and asks how we are measuring good or bad, post colonialism political thought 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

Orientalism: The idea of stereotyping the middle east in a way they are exaggerated to be something worse so that the west can stay in power. Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world.

Jacques Lacan: “The Other”.

 we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror. Applying that theory to culture, communications and media studies, it is possible to see why we are so obsessed with reading magazines, listening to music, watching films, videos and television because, essentially, we are exploring ‘The Other’ as a way of exploring ourselves.

WE can not explore ourselves and will be constantly misunderstood, we are always looking for assurance.

Linking the two together the Other theory can be used to show how people compare others to us to justify a class and reinforced stereotypes.

Letter to the Free, Music Video, Postcolonialism

Common – Letter To The Free

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Common is an advocate for criminal justice reform and is the founder of Imagine Justice, a non-profit organisation dedicated to “empowering communities and fighting injustice wherever it appears”. “Letter to the Free” is his rally call against racism and the different forms of slavery still being used in America.

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’s “Letter to the Free” was written for a documentary exploring this criminalisation of African Americans. Directed by Ava DuVernay, The “13th” also focused on the “systems of racial control” and state laws which seem to discriminate against impoverished ethnic minorities who are then more likely to be convicted of a crime and imprisoned. For instance, despite making up 13% of the total US population, black inmates account for nearly 40% of the prison population.

Why is letter to the Free in black and white? The marches were a non-violent protest to demonstrate the desire of black Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote. Common returned to the theme of protest with Letter to the Free – highlighting the mass incarceration of black Americans.

Quotes

‘Black bodies being lost in the American dream’ – This quote portrays the meaning that black people living in America are being forgotten about in the ‘progress’ of America.

‘Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13’ – Common believes that slavery is still alive no matter how hard America are4 trying to push down the actual word ‘slavery’. He provides evidence for the modern day slavery with the 13th amendment.

‘Not whips and chains, all subliminal’ –

Who is Common?

Lonnie Rashid Lynn, known by his stage name Common, is an American rapper and actor. He debuted in 1992 with the album Can I Borrow a Dollar?, and gained critical acclaim with his 1994 album Resurrection. He maintained an underground following into the late 1990s.

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.

Common quit college to devote his time to music. He originally performed under the name Common Sense, but a band with the same name sued, and in the mid-1990s he shortened his stage name to Common.

Youth Culture as Political Protest – Jodie’s PowerPoint.

1 in 4 people are locked up in America.

Postcolonialism

Specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism. The Shadow of Slavery. Postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim towards what constitutes ‘good reading’ and ‘good literature’.

ORIENTALISM:

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)

Edward Said – He argues that Orientalism is “a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction between ‘the Orient’ and ‘the Occident’ (2003: 2). In this way, Orientalism tends to rely on a binary opposition between the West and the East that most of times is misleading and destructive.

Jacques Lacan – The ‘Other’

Moving Image, Music Video, Postcolonialism

letter to the free

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https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/media23al/wp-content/uploads/sites/58/2022/01/Music-as-Political-Protest.pdf

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 .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’s “Letter to the Free” was written for a documentary exploring this criminalisation of African Americans. Directed by Ava DuVernay The “13th” also focused on the “systems of racial control” and state laws which seem to discriminate against impoverished ethnic minorities who are then more likely to be convicted of a crime and imprisoned. For instance, despite making up 13% of the total US population. black inmates account for nearly 40% of prison population.

common

Common is an advocate for criminal justice reform and is the founder of Imagine Justice, a non-profit organisation dedicated to “empowering communities and fighting injustice wherever it appears”. “Letter to the Free” is his rally call against racism and the different forms of slavery still being used in America.

Common eventually teamed up with Karriem Riggins and Robert Glasper to create “Letter to the Free,” a powerful track off his latest album Black America Again that delves into slavery and mass incarceration. “We dealt with the whole subject matter from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration which is what we’re dealing with right now,” he explained. “We wanted to make something that was strong, unapologetic, but that was also hopeful.” 

common is worth 45 million dollars.

lyrics

‘We staring in the face of hate again
The same hate they say will make America great again‘ – when was America great? do you need to turn black people into your slaves to make it great again?

‘No consolation prize for the dehumanized
For America to rise it’s a matter of Black Lives’ no comfort for the black community who have been dragged through the mud

‘Blood of black being, a pastoral scene
Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13′ pastoral meaning used for the keeping or grazing of sheep or cattle. implies that black being were treated more like animals instead of human. amendment 13 = 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.”

Letter to the Free, Moving Image, Music Video, Postcolonialism

Letter to the Free

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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’

Letter to the Free, Music Video, Postcolonialism

Letter to the free (csp)

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Music Video – Letter to the Free is a product which possesses cultural and social significance. It will invite comparison with other music videos allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.

Released in 2016. The genre is hip-hop/rap

Letter to the free’ is in black and white as the marches were a non-violent protest to demonstrate the desire of black Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

Common

Common is an American hip-hop artist, actor, and activist who became a mainstream success in the early 21st century.

He is known for intelligent and positive lyrics that were performed in a spoken-word style.

A Grammy winner, Common has also turned to acting, as seen with roles in projects. For the latter film, he and vocalist/musician John Legend have won a Golden Globe and an Oscar for the song “Glory.” 

Common made his album debut with Can I Borrow a Dollar? An artist known for often thoughtful, verbose lyricism and exploring varied sounds

Lyrics from letter to the free:

‘Freedom (Freedom)
Freedom come (Freedom come)
Hold on (Hold on)
Won’t be long (Won’t be long)’

:Shows that black people will come together to fight for equal rights and work hard to get it as soon as they can.

‘Instead of ‘n****’ they use the word ‘criminal’ ‘

:He’s saying that a lot of white Americans believe that people of colour are instantly criminals due top their skin colour.

‘The same hate they say will make America great again’

:White people think that to ‘make America great again’ white people should be superior to black people

‘Investing in injustice, fear and long suffering’

:American’s are paying to make ‘America great again’ at the cost of Black people suffering.

Jodie’s presentation

Postcolonialism

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.

ORIENTALISM:

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

As a cultural critic, Said is known for the book Orientalism (1978), a critique of the cultural representations that are the bases of Orientalism.

The conclusion of Edward Said’s theory was that Western writings depicted Orient as an irrational, weak, feminized ‘Other’.

Jacques Lacan:

Letter to the Free, Moving Image, Music Video, Postcolonialism

Letter to the Free – CSP

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Key Concepts:
● Cultural resistance
● Cultural hegemony
● Subcultural theory

– 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. The media can change how people see the world.

– 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.

Jodie’s Presentation

Letter to the Free – Common

  • Lonnie Rashid Lynn, known by his stage name Common  (formerly Common Sense), is an American rapper and actor.
  • Common’s first major-label album Like Water for Chocolate (2000), received commercial success. In 2003, he won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Song for the Erykah Badu single “Love of My Life”.
  • Commons genre of music he records is Hip Hop, Neo Soul and Progressive Rap.
  • He achieved mainstream success through his work with the Soulquarians.
  • Common signed a major label record deal with MCA Records and relocated from Chicago to New York City in 1999. He began recording almost exclusively with a loose collective of musicians and artists (dubbed the “Soulquarians” by central figure Questlove).
  • Commons net worth is $45 million.

Letter to the Free Lyrics:

‘Black bodies being lost in the American dream’ – This explains that the dream for America is to be equal and racist free however black people are being taken out of the community and sent to be prison making America a white supremacy.

‘Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13’ – This expresses that slavery is still alive and is not used as a punishment but used because ‘they’ are black. Amendment 13 is “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.” meaning, slavery should only be used if someone has committed a criminal act. As well, people with power, e.g white racist police officers are arresting black people for no reason, due to them being a different race.

‘Prison is a business, America’s the company’ –

‘Instead of ‘n***a’ they use the word ‘criminal’ –

13th Netflix movie (2016)

  • 13th explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation’s prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.
  • The movie was directed by Ava DuVernay and was distributed by Netflix.
  • 13th was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards, and won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards.
  • The 13th documentary made $566 USD in box office.

Postcolonialism

Postcolonialism specifically looks at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.

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.

The Shadow of Slavery:

Key figure: Edward Said who wrote a book about culture, imperial power and colonialism. His book is called Orientalism.

Quote (Edward) – ‘the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism‘.

Jacques Lacan was a intellectual French philosopher and psychoanalyst. He expresses that we can never discover ourselves as we cannot see ourselves from the outside, from a 3rd person perspective. Lacan proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror. (You see yourself differently the way someone else sees you, in both looks and perspective.)