Sharon Awanbor

BLACK MUSIC'S ROLE IN BLACK INSURRECTION AND THE LEGACY OF BLACK MUSIC

There’s no denying the impact that music can have on people. The capacity to express oneself emotionally and in harmony through its many channels gives it the power to foster a feeling of community. It’s not only black history; all of history is ingrained in music. Stories, rituals, and values from other cultures are carried in the music that people make and listen to. Also, it is highly significant in the black diaspora. Even Saturday morning cleanings were accompanied by heartfelt ballads or gospel music, as was the case throughout our childhoods. Music has a significant role in our culture and history. It has functioned as a repository for records dating back to Africa’s earliest days.

In Africa, making and listening to music is a communal experience. Often African traditional music incorporates many of the tribal cultures of Africa. Marriage, birth, burial, and initiation ceremonies all have musical commemorations. There’s a tune to go along with every task, including planting, harvesting and excavating. Songs might be about anything, from a celebration to a critique to a recounting of history. Cooperation was often necessary and encouraged in traditional musical settings.

Slaves from Africa were often forcibly separated from their families and sent to the Americas, where they knew no one. With little of their old lifestyles left in their minds and bodies, people in the «New World» draw strength from their solitude to create a new culture in response to the unexpected shift of the environment. The colonisation of Africa and its subsequent continuation of slave trading followed through the 19th Century. African people embraced music as a way to express themselves, connect with their roots, and find creative solutions to their dire living situations.

Black music was used in different forms and functions throughout history as a rupture to the status quo and to celebrate the beauty of black culture. Music was utilised by black people to strive to advance their social station while retaining their cultural heritage. By operating within sociocultural constraints, innovating, and arranging musical styles within the musical tradition became a form of defiance. Historical movements of significant defiance became a colossal element that black people celebrated in our music. This essay will delve into the evolution of black music throughout the black diaspora and how our defiance against sociocultural constraints became celebrated within black music.

The Birth of Spirituals

In North America, music is an act of resistance, it is critical in the organisation of early slave uprisings. Africans brought to the Americas incorporated Christianity, the religion that their oppressors imposed on them, into their songs. Spirituals songs were a clever way for black slaves to deal with senseless violence and the loss of their language and culture, as well as to adapt to their new, hostile environment, which brought up new and strange problems. Spirituals mirrored the slaves’ need to melodically express their new faith. James Weldon Johnson writes: «At the psychic moment there was at hand the precise religion for the condition in which the slave found himself thrust. Far from his native land and customs, despised by those among whom he lived, experiencing the pang of separation from loved ones on the auction block, knowing the hard taskmaster, feeling the lash, the Negro seized Christianity».

Yet, to candidly state that Spirituals were religious music would reduce their significance. Indeed, Christianity served as the fuel for the maturation of the Spiritual; however, Miles Mark Fisher, a Baptist clergyman and historian of the American Negro, argues that not only did the Spirituals not reach their greatest development as a consequence of the forceful conversion of slaves to Christianity, but further, that it had little influence upon the development of the whole constitution of the Spiritual. Fisher writes in «Negro Slave Songs in the United States” that the music of the slaves can only be comprehended when seen through the perception of an oppressed people. Not in the aspect that these songs are to be presumed to be a longing for the deliverance of death from the bonds of servitude through its entrance into heaven.

Comparatively, the spiritual references to «Freedom Land» indicate a desire to return to Africa. The most intriguing and significant hypothesis is probably Fisher’s claim that the slave songs demonstrate how African-Americans evolved a vocabulary and a mode of expression that were uniquely their own. Since the majority of slave owners constantly lived in fear of a slave uprising, intra-plantation communication was highly restricted. It is not implausible that the slaves attempted to get over this obstacle to natural communication, and Fisher hypothesises that they did so by incorporating symbols, images, and ideas into their tunes that were taken from their African history but utterly unknown to the white people. They were able to harbour and communicate ideas that were incomprehensible to outsiders by creating this symbolism as a common language among themselves.

Frederick Douglass also helped reinstate this. The abolitionist explains in his ground-breaking book «Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave,» which was released in 1845: «They were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.»

Songs like «Great Camp Meeting in the Promised Land» carried key elements of resilience, acts of organised clandestine meetings that were secretly planned, or messages of the activities of the Underground Railroad. Evidently, these songs were used as a means of oral communication passed from person to person. Some of the most popular Spirituals are «Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child», «Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen», «Steal Away,» «Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,» «Go Down, Moses,» «He’s Got the Whole World in His Hand,» «Every Time I Feel the Spirit,» «Let Us Break Bread Together on Our Knees,» and «Wade in the Water.»

The pivotal role that Jazz played in the Civil Rights Movement

When the Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, the American Civil War ended in 1865, and the 13th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, most freed slaves stopped listening to the music that reminded them of slavery. Spirituals, with all of their meanings about being strong in a hospital setting, led to other types of American music, such as gospel, jazz, and blues. During the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, Spirituals were a big part of what kept people going. The songs acted as a call to action for individuals protesting against the laws and policies that denied equal rights to African Americans. Spirituality was, in a way, the unplanned response of people who suddenly found themselves in desperate need of the reality that gives life meaning and justifies its existence.

Black people have always looked to jazz as a means of rebellion and protest. The Civil Rights Movement was a key part of African American history, and jazz was an important part of that effort. Jazz music originated in New Orleans in the years after liberation when African and Creole communities formed social organisations complete with marching bands. Blues, ragtime, and Afro-Caribbean music all have their own distinct African American styles that were melded into jazz.

During the 1920s and 1930s, there was a big change in American culture as a whole, and this was reflected in the music that came out of the country. This time is known as the Jazz Age. Jazz was all about having a good time, defying the status quo, and getting down on the dance floor. After the hardships of war, it helped restore some sense of individual agency. Jazz music brought people together at a time when cultural differences sometimes served to divide them. Despite this link, segregation persisted for a considerable length of time. Many of the earliest African American jazz performers called New Orleans home, but many were forced to relocate to safer areas like Chicago, Kansas City, and New York because of racial violence and tension. Simultaneously, jazz was introduced to new listeners throughout the United States thanks to its airing on national radio.

In 1939 Billie Holiday sang «Strange Fruit», a poem by Abel Meeropol, describing the atrocities of lynching during the Jim Crow era. «Jim Crow» refers to the collection of segregationist statutes enacted in the South between the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. Jazz became a form of resistance music as it developed because it represented African people coming together to create something in the face of oppression. A new force, however, emerged at the end of the 1960s, just as calls for Black Power were inspiring musicians to found their own publishing houses, venues, and record labels. While governments and opposing individuals sought to silence the black political voice, Jazz became an outlet.

Many generally point to this tune as the harbinger of all protest songs in jazz. Jazz musicians were some of the most vocal and active people in the Civil Rights Movement. In the late 1950s, they started recording songs in support of the movement. Many times, record labels and TV networks were successful in silencing these performers. Writers of the jazz genre, such as Nina Simone and Charles Mingus, used their lyrics to push the cause forward despite opposition.

For instance, Nina Simone’s “Four Women” focused on four particular stereotypes about African women, and “Mississippi Goddamn” was a response to the 1963 murder of activist Medgar Evers. Jazz musicians like Duke Ellington, Cal Massey, and John Coltrane did the same thing by writing music that captured the spirit of the Black Liberation Movement.

Many musicians, including Peter, Paul, Mary, Harry Belafonte, Marian Anderson, Mahalia Jackson, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan, performed at the March on Washington in 1963, when King gave him the «I Have a Dream» address. King had this to say on the importance of music in our lives in an essay he wrote for the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival: «God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create, and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations.» Throughout the civil rights struggle, music was undoubtedly a major factor. Songs like «A Change is Gonna Come» and «Blowin’ in the Wind,» written and performed by musicians as diverse as Sam Cooke and Bob Dylan, helped spread the message during freedom marches.

Rap music and its role as a creative outlet for Urban African Americans

Hip-Hop and rap music in the United States has evolved into a potent tool for black people to share their perspectives and experiences. For African Americans, it has been a vehicle for sharing their stories of victory and adversity. Hip-hop and rap music have evolved into vehicles for praising defiance in the face of tyranny. New York City’s Harlem and South Bronx saw the birth of rap and hip hop in the late ‘70s as a direct reaction to two things:  the rabid economic and political inequalities that followed the civil rights movement of the ‘60s, and the Black Arts Movement of the ‘60s and ‘70s, which emphasised radical notions of re-imagining blackness via music, visual art, poetry, theatre, and literature.

Hip-Hop was, in many ways, an extension of this creative effort. Although hip-hop’s main pillars provide a useful framework for understanding the genre’s history, it’s important to keep in mind that the music itself contains many different types of artistic expression that don’t easily fall into one category, especially given the genre’s growth and evolution over time. Nevertheless, let’s examine these four pillars.

The first is «Dee Jaying,» which is creating music and rhythms using record players and turntables. The DJs’ beats served as the foundation for the second pillar, Rap. Both are based on African and American spiritual call-and-response traditions, West African storytelling, Jamaican remixing and music sampling, all of which have diasporic origins within the black community. Graffiti art is the third pillar, despite its association with symbols of urban ruin and societal degeneration. Yet, many of these graffiti artists are very gifted, and their creations provide a direct challenge to the notion that high-quality art can be found solely in institutional settings like museums and galleries. Break dancing, the last pillar, is a dance form that combines attitude, flair, and even acrobatic agility.

We can’t discuss hip-hop and rap without bringing up the artists that created them. Rap groups like Grandmaster Flash and Furious Five were early innovators who set the standard for lyrical skill and social criticism in the genre. Public Enemy emerged in the late 1980s as one of the most controversial bands in music history. They adopted revolutionary concepts like overturning the government and used the language of black nationalism and black militancy to justify their actions. Released in 1989, «Fight the Power» was a smash song that directly confronted racism and encouraged black listeners to resist white supremacy. Public Enemy’s contemporaries include several other bands and musicians, such as Run-DMC, Eric B., RaKim, Salt-N-Pepper, and Queen Latifah.

The uncontrolled and frequent usage of the N-word in hip-hop’s content is a defining feature of the genre. As a form of protest against the racist slur’s prevalence, hip-hop artists attempted to reclaim and reuse the N-word by changing the last «er» to an «a» in their music. Black women emcees contributed significantly to the production and invention of hip-hop. African-American women entered a field traditionally dominated by men and brought their own unique viewpoints and musical innovations to the table. They helped popularise black feminist messages and revolutionary ideas by shifting the mood of rap music away from antagonising and objectifying women. Female rap artists like MC Lyte, Yo-Yo, and Eve broke new ground by rejecting the misogynistic and sexist roles written for them by their male contemporaries. With their music, they offered novel interpretations of issues of sexual, racial, and social politics. Take Queen Latifah’s «U.N.I.T.Y.» from 1993; it was a social and political statement on the position of black women. Lyrics address sexism, sexual harassment, and societal expectations that have historically made it difficult for women in hip-hop to succeed.

There was a wide variety of topics discussed, from basic braggadocio to parties to race, class, gender, police brutality, and the emerging political difficulties in the Black community. It wasn’t until the 1990s that the hitherto underground hip-hop scene became widely popular, opening doors to success and fortune for its performers. Moreover, many artists included social and political analyses in their work as a means of criticising and upsetting the established order of American culture. They were able to shed light on topics such as police surveillance, drug abuse, criminal activity, joblessness, and racism via their music and their audience. In no time at all, hip-hop had become a multibillion-dollar business that paved the way for innovative new methods of music creation that have since become standards in the industry.

West Africa, the emergence of a music genre: Fuji

The second half of this essay will focus on West Africa, its musical evolution, and how the region celebrates resistance and insurrection through its music. When we look into where Fuji music came from, we are thrown right into the music history and culture of Nigeria. It emerged in the Yoruba-Muslim communities of Nigeria’s southwest, evolving from the «were» played during the seasonal Ramadan festivals. It made its break with some deft sleight of hand by the legend Ayinde Barrister, who dubbed his sound «fuji» after seeing an airport ad for Japan’s famous mountain. Its origins can be traced back to the Yoruba-Muslim communities of Nigeria’s southwest. Fuji music is widely considered to be one of the most prominent forms of traditional music in Nigeria. In the early 1960s, when Nigeria had just attained its independence, the southwest area of Nigeria was the birthplace of the Fuji music movement, which started as a socio-cultural movement.

In the 1950s, Fuji arose from an improvised kind of music called «were,» which was comparable to a muezzin’s call to prayer and was played to amuse Yoruba Muslims during the fasting month of Ramadan. They didn’t nod off throughout Sahur thanks to the peppy rhythm (a meal consumed before dawn). The music woke up the snoozers in time for Sahur. Alhaji Dauda Epo-Akara (also known as the inventor of Awurebe music) and Ganiyu Kuti (aka Gani Irefin) of Ibadan are credited with creating and popularising «were» (pronounced as «wayray»). Ajiwere singers, in groups, would go to the streets in the dead of night and play their songs with unbridled fervour. Several were formed in different cities throughout the western states of Nigeria as music gained popularity in the 1950s and 1960s.

Many bands approached Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister of the Jibowu Barrister and Band to be their main vocalist after hearing him perform at seasonal contests that highlighted the best performers in the genre. He had become famous for his extraordinary singing ability and his ability to play the flute and harmonica. Considering that the vast majority of his fans are Muslims, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister’s innovative new approach struck a chord when he began interspersing Quranic verses with his songs.

According to legend, Ayinde Barrister got the inspiration for the name «Fuji» from a banner promoting one of Japan’s most renowned tourist destinations: Mount Fuji. As Sikiru Ayinde Barrister was juggling many positions in the military, including those of typewriter and clerk, he had a profound realisation. So that he could keep making music even after Ramadan was over, he invented fuji. The strategy he devised was effective. In only a few years, Barrister’s recordings become staples in the collections of many music fans. Using Yoruba lines of poetry, he wrote songs about love, money, death, politics, and poverty and quickly rose to fame. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, when Fuji music was beginning to get international recognition, he rose to prominence, releasing a few studio albums and live recordings and touring the Americas and Europe. After returning from a world tour in the late ‘80s, Ayinde Barrister also started incorporating early aspects of hip-hop into his Fuji performances, including hip-hop flows and rhythm.

Several additional Fuji performers, including Fatai Adio, Waidi Akangbe, Iyanda Sawaba, Rahimi Ayinde, Love Azeez, and Agbada, came to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1970s, Nigeria saw significant political turmoil, with a civil war breaking out that year and ultimately resulting in the massacre of many Igbo Christians at the hands of Hausa and Fulani Muslims. Nigeria was administered by a military, ethno-nationalist administration at the time; therefore, the country was culturally and religiously strict. Even though the people of southern Nigeria were oppressed by the country’s elite, the region’s growing Christian population had a conservative effect on the region’s culture.

Fuji experienced a lot of criticism from these culturally conservative Christians, usually belonging to the middle and upper classes, who labelled the genre local and hooligan. Listeners of fuji music tended to be members of the lower socioeconomic classes, and performers like Ayinde Barrister, who used their music to speak out against the tyranny of the political elite, became the voice of the people. Barrister has published an album named Omo Nigeria, in which he sings critically of the country’s current political and economic climate.

Nigeria’s oil business flourished after joining the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in the mid-1970s. Despite the oil boom’s unequal income distribution among elites and the wider gap between the upper and middle classes and the lower classes, the country’s economy expanded, benefiting everyone. During the Civil War, the government took over religiously-founded institutions to desegregate public education. Several factors helped Nigerians embrace Fuji. Fuji musicians were often invited to play at oil boom-era affluent events. Nigerians were more open to fuji music’s secular ideas and Yoruba Muslim roots than if their education system had emphasised dogmatic religion. Many flocked to Fuji concerts once curfews were lifted between 1979 and 1983 when military rule ended.

Later years saw the addition of new, revitalising sounds from other performers. Musicians like Wasiu Ayinde Marshall, who began their careers in the mid-1980s, breathed new life into the Fuji-style genre by using western instruments like the piano and saxophone. When Fuji gained popularity in the West in the 1990s, several musicians working in the style gained notoriety. Such a fuji performer like Adewale Ayuba, whose fuji resonated with the genre’s high-spirited teenage audience, swept the business. Adewale Ayuba released several critically regarded albums, including Ijo Fuji and Bonsue Tajode, that showcased his expansive and energetic take on the fuji genre. With his «gentleman» style, which was reflected in his lyrics and essentially characterised his brand of Fuji music, the Fuji artist changed the course of the genre and eventually signed a contract with Sony Music.

Fuji music, which originated in a traditional musical area of Nigeria, has had far-reaching effects on subsequent generations of musicians and the music they create, as well as on Nigerian society at large. Despite its early days as a «local» genre, Fuji music has spread all over the globe. Native and expatriate music fans alike continue to sing the praises of artists like  Barrister and Wasiu Ayinde Marshall. Acts from both genres engage in potent duets, which help keep fuji alive while catapulting Nigerian pop to global recognition.

The perfect fusion of African and Black American musical influences yields the interesting genre known as Afrobeat. Afrobeat originated in Ghana and Nigeria in the 1960s and 1970s. Even though the term was coined as early as 1968, Afrobeat is a traditional blend of Yoruba music with jazz, funk, West African highlife, and fuji. Fela Kuti, a Nigerian musician who gained fame for his musical ability and activism in post-colonial Africa, is widely credited with pioneering Afrobeat. Apart from having a profound effect on the development of Nigeria’s musical landscape in the ‘70s, Fela’s records also went on to achieve swift international acclaim. There is no longer any doubt that he is among the most important musicians in history.

Afrobeat a tool for rebellion

The 1970s saw the explosion of Afrobeat throughout Africa thanks to Fela’s thrilling music. The Black Power movement and the Black Panther Party were major influences on Fela. His songs were full of scathing political analysis, witty societal observations, and Nigerian adages. The military regime in Nigeria was something he spoke out against. Fela was an advocate for African liberation from colonial control, and his music promoted independence and pride in one’s heritage. In addition to challenging successive regimes in Nigeria via his Afrobeat music, Fela also provided a philosophical undercurrent in his music’s lyrics, which enriched more academic discussions of Africa and African culture. Afrobeat and the blackist philosophy that Fela espoused placed him alongside black liberation leaders like Malcolm X, Kwame Nkrumah, Marcus Garvey, and others. He was steeped in Marxist thought and was opposed to class distinctions because, in his view, they always impeded the advancement of powerless people. Due to his adherence to this norm, he has amassed a group of opponents from Nigeria’s highest echelons of society. Constantly slamming the government ensured he would constantly be the centre of attention, which in turn led to major disagreements with the administration in question.

During a vacation to America in 1969, Kuti met Sandra Smith. Singer and ex-Black Panther Sandra Smith (now known as Sandra Isadore) used to go by Smith. Activists like Martin Luther King Jr., Angela Davis, Jesse Jackson, and Malcolm X were all made available to Kuti via Sandra’s reading recommendations. Around this time, Fela Kuti departed from his African music roots and began incorporating elements of funk and soul into his performances. When asked about his inspirations, Fela cited James Brown. Afrobeat forebears like Tony Allen and Manu Dibango soon joined Fela on the scene.

Black jazz performers in the United States have found inspiration in Afrobeat. From Roy Ayers in the 1970s to Randy Weston in the 1990s, there has been a plethora of collaborations. In 1994, Branford Marsalis sampled Fela’s «Beast of No Country» for his album Buckshot LeFonque. Producers and artists like Brian Eno and David Byrne have been influenced by Afrobeat, with Fela Kuti being cited as a primary source of inspiration. Nonetheless, Kuti’s music was crucial in the development of Afrobeat, and the genre has since been carried on by a wide range of African singers, including Kuti’s former drummer Tony Allen.

Fela contributed to the critically acclaimed 1980 album Stay in Light by Talking Heads, which popularised Afrobeat in the West. Knitting Factory Recordings (KFR), a record company, released the musical FELA! on Broadway in 2009. The play was nominated for eleven Tony Awards. FELA! was produced by Shawn «Jay-Z» Carter, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, and other celebrities. Fela! revitalised Afrobeat, which in turn spawned a new genre called «Afrobeats» in 2010. The Afrobeat genre, which Fela Kuti helped birth, has seen a meteoric ascent to the top of the British charts during the last decade. Afrobeats, which owes its existence to Fela Kuti’s anti-establishment philosophy, continues to pay tribute to Kuti’s heritage by being defiant and unrestrained in both its sound and its production.

Genres of today are a mash-up of their predecessors

When we cross the pond, we’ll be in the United Kingdom. Historically, hip-hop in the United Kingdom has been influenced not just by hip-hop in the United States but also by the particular sounds of Jamaica. This was an immediate reaction to the growing number of West Indians moving to the UK in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and music has always been and will continue to be a reflection of the people it serves. Grime singers including Durty Goodz, Doctor, Ms. Dynamite, and Dizzie Rascal have integrated aspects of London vernacular and Jamaican slang into their lyrics, while artists like Monie Love, Rodney P, Blak Twang, and Roots Manuva did the same in the 1980s and 1990s.

The 2015 UK music scene has a growing number of tunes with obvious afro-beat elements, which were previously solely recognisable as a result of their success in the 1990s. African cultural allusions and famous ad-libs in African languages are scattered throughout the verses, while musical inspirations range from the sounds of Nigeria’s Fela Kuti to the road-man rap influenced by South London’s Giggs. Even though Grime is seeing a huge comeback right now, more and more musicians are merging afro-beat and rap styles. British and African influences are being combined by musicians to form a new and growing genre. From Naira Marley’s sudden viral hit with «Marry Juana» to J. Hus’ upbeat «Calling Me,» it’s evident that these songs are radio staples.

One of several J-Hus with six freestyles and the mixtape The 15th Day Mixtape is representative of the artist crafting a new musical hybrid by fusing UK road rap with afro-beats. From the streets of East London, his fusion of road-man rap and afro-beats made its way to the speakers of listeners throughout the country. If you listen to J. Hus, you might catch him referring to his enemies as «little lads,» mentioning the «juju man,» or incorporating African pidgin into his raps, like in «Are you de craze?» Afrobeats, drill, and hip-hop together represent a diasporic celebration of black culture and a need for individuality. UK grime connects a disillusioned and neglected community, while contemporary Afrobeats continue to honour Kuti’s tradition by being unrestrained in sound and production. This mashup is pure bliss, a joyous celebration of the many ways in which people of African descent may be seen, heard, and celebrated as one. It gave young black Brits, who have traditionally shunned society, a renewed sense of pride and community. «Uk Afro-Rap» or «Afro-Hop,» a mix of Afrobeats, drill, and hip-hop, bears a flag of style that conveys music genres that harbour a message of rapture against the status quo. It also provides the black youth living in the UK with a sense of voice, as is evidenced by the radio singles that it has produced.

In this sense, the contemporary preeminence of rap and hip-hop is but one link in a lengthy chain of music that extends from the slave plantations of the South to the present day. Black music has always been an influential representative of black culture. Paradoxically, slaves’ songs from centuries ago helped spread the concept of freedom in a country where that ideal has long been a driving force.

Our Black Music is a Means of Persistence, History and Celebration.

Many music genres have a foundation in black music. Country music and rock & roll were both developed by white producers and singers who borrowed heavily from the blues. Genres including folk, heavy metal, techno, and indie all evolved from those first dark sounds. There can be no discussion of music without acknowledging the contributions of black composers, performers, and producers.

Black music has been the constant companion of black people throughout history. I can’t remember a time when music wasn’t a major part of my daily routine. I can’t imagine my life without  Black music. The ability to express oneself musically, both joyfully and melancholy, has always been a fundamental aspect of our culture. Notwithstanding their obvious artistic accomplishments, black musicians should be honoured for the role we’ve played in shaping the globe at critical junctures. Black music serves as an anchor, a balm, a catalyst, and a storyteller. Black music has touched every possible human feeling and event. Whether you need a good weep, a good chuckle, or a reality check, black music is there for you. Some who claim that modern black music lacks the depth that was there in the original recordings often make this argument. In fact, modern black music draws not only from the sorrow, rage, and frustration against the social environment, but also from the celebration of identity and history, but to add to already existing mediums of the celebration of black culture.

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