Dec. 18, 2014
#BlackLivesMatter
Protest Music
– 22 Track Mix Tape
For The Movement
Over the last four months as the United States has exploded in protest after the police killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and many other unarmed African American men. Hip Hop artists who have been directly involved in the movement as well as some Hip Hop legends and superstars have come out with a steady stream of movement music. This should just be the beginning with a public challenge put out recently to musicians by Questlove of the Roots to make more protest music, “I urge and challenge musicians and artists alike to push themselves to be a voice of the times that we live.” Check out our mix tape of the songs that have come out so far from: J. Cole, D’Angelo, Ali Shaheed Muhammad (A Tribe Called Quest), Rebel Diaz and the Reminders, Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), John Legend and Common, Lauryn Hill, Kendrick Lamar, Alia Sharrif, Wu-Tang Clan, Stevie Wonder, Amir Sulaiman, De La Soul and Chuck D, Hasan Salaam and Immortal Technique, the youth in the streets of Ferguson, Tef Poe, Killer Mike, Jasari X, Muja Messiah, Brother Ali, Boots Riley and one of the creators of the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and movement Alicia Garza
1. J. Cole – “Free” tribute song for Michael Brown
One of the most hauntingly powerful songs you will ever hear. The emotion conveyed in this song is on the level of what Billie Holiday put out into the world with her classic “Strange Fruit.”
2. Protesters on the front lines in Ferguson chant the powerful words of Assata Shakur in front of the police “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support one another. We have nothing to loose but our chains.”
3. CPR – #BlackLivesMatter – Ali Shaheed Muhammad ft. Merna, JaPoet, David Luke
Ali Shaheed Muhammad from a Tribe Called Quest put out this beautiful track this week with footage from the #BlackLivesMatter protests from throughout the country. Merna sings beautifully to end the track, “What if God came down and it was he who walked down the street. Yes it was he you brought to his feet and it was he you held to the ground… Pleading ‘I can’t breathe! Oh with this hold on me! This can’t be humanity, I just want to be free.”
4. D’Angelo – Black Messiah Album
This past week D’Angelo dropped his beautiful new album “Black Messiah,” his first music to be released in 14 years. With it he included this dedication to resistance movements throughout the world “Black Messiah is a hell of a name for an album. It can be easily misunderstood. Many will think it’s about religion. Some will jump to the conclusion that I’m calling myself a Black Messiah. For me, the title is about all of us. It’s about the world. It’s about an idea we can aspire to. We should all aspire to be a Black Messiah.
It’s about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen. It’s not about praising one charismatic leader but celebrating thousands of them. Not every song is politically charged (though many are), but calling this album “Black Messiah” creates a landscape where these songs can live to the fullest. “Black Messiah” is not one man. It’s a feeling that, collectively, we are all that leader.
5. Rebel Diaz featuring the Reminders – “Run”
Rebel Diaz whose members have spent time in Ferguson organizing with the movement there teamed with the Reminders on this powerful track where Aja Black of the Reminders raps, “You can see it in his eye’s, he’s running for his life, his feet are getting heavy, brother don’t stop now, you got to get away, you’ve got to escape, don’t turn around for sherif John Brown is aiming to shoot you down. Run, better run boy, old man trouble’s coming after you, and I heard he’s got a gun boy.”
6. Thoughts on the Upheaval From a Global Perspective – Yasiin Bey (Mos Def)
A poweful spoken word piece laid over the Jazz of the Senegalese Brooklyn-based musician Fallou Diop. “I think many of us are becoming even more aware of where we are and the urgency to change this miserable condition on this earth as Malcolm X said is occouring to many of us and re-affirming itself.”
7. John Legend & Common “Glory” from the film Selma
From the Golden Globe and likely Oscar nominated film “Selma” which tells follows the life of Martin Luther King Jr. during “three intense months in 1965, from the “Bloody Sunday” assault on protesters to the historic march through Alabama that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act.” The film ends with this powerful song by John Legend and Common who raps, “Resistance is us that’s why Rosa sat on the bus, that’s why we marched through Ferguson with our hands up.”
8. Lauryn Hill – “Black Rage”
Written years ago but only recently put out this track by Lauryn Hill is one of the heaviest hitting songs about “Black Rage” being rooted in the “wounds of the soul.” As she raps: “Black rage is founded on two-thirds a person,
Rapings and beatings and suffering that worsens,
Black human packages tied up in strings,
Black rage can come from all these kinds of things.
Black rage is founded on blatant denial
Squeezed economics, subsistence survival,
Deafening silence and social control.
Black rage is founded on wounds in the soul!
When the dogs bites
When the beatings
When I’m feeling sad,
I simply remember all these kinds of things and then I don’t fear so bad!”
9. Kendrick Lamar – “i” – Saturday Night Live
10. Alia Sharrief feat. Amina Bell – “Black Heroes”
Powerful lyrics and video from the up and coming Oakland based emcee Alia Sharrief celebrating black heroes, “Roots of the tree stronger then these, no comparing branches baby. You’re gonna see we’re gonna bring truth cause we’re black heroes baby.”
11. Wu-Tang Clan – “A Better Tomorrow”
12. One of the most powerful pieces of poetry you will ever hear in your life – Amir Sulaiman “Come To The Hills (We Must Win)”
13. Stevie Wonder Goes on Tour Dedicated to Ferguson
At a concert at Madison Square Garden Stevie Wonder gave this short speech about the secret grand juries in the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner before singing his classic song “Living for the City,” that sounds like it could have been written yesterday.
15. “JERICHO” – Hasan Salaam ft. Immortal Technique & Hezekiah
16. Killer Mike’s Powerful Run the Jewels pre-show speech the day that the non-indictment of Darren Wilson was announced
17. Kendrick Lamar – “Tell em we don’t die, we multiply”
A powerful new and untitled track that Kendrick Lamar premiered this week on the Colbert Report.
18. “Jordan Miles” – Jasiri X
This video came out three years ago but is just as relevant today, “Jasiri X tells the story of Jordan Miles, the 18 year old honor student who was brutally beaten by 3 undercover Pittsburgh Police officers while walking to his grandmother’s house.”
19. Tef Poe – “War Cry” Powerful words from one of the protest leaders who has been in the streets of Ferguson since day one
“Darren Wilson got rich for murdering Mike Brown, if I’m lying may God me strike me down right now.” Tef Poe released this statement with this track “My city is on the brink of utter confusion and destruction. All of our elected officials have forsaken us. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are both guilty of murder, racial profiling, and several other continuous hate crimes.
Since August 9th we have been attacked and assaulted by a militarized police force while pleading for justice for our fallen brethren. The entire city of Saint Louis is about to explode and no one in a position of power has decided to step up and take ownership of this moment. We are crying out to the world for help yet no one hears us. This record was made out of a sense of desperation. Our backs have been forced into a corner and we are currently trapped in the belly of one of the most immoral situations this country has birthed. Darren Wilson is a murderer yet we are hoarded up and treated like cattle for demanding his arrest. Vonderitt Meyers and Kim King are both dead and the police refuse to give us answers. The Ball family still has not received a moment a clarity and honesty concerning the death of their lost family member. The police in Saint Louis Missouri have decided to declare war upon people of color and Gov. Jay Nixon alongside with many other elected officials has decided to close his eyes to these atrocities. He has shielded and aided Michael Browns killer from prosecution. He has cosigned our community being brutally attacked by a uncontrollable force of wild cowboys. Jay Nixon is blatantly standing on the wrong side of history with zero regard for the pain we currently feel as a community. He is not our friend . He is not our comrade.He is not our Governor.He does not work for us. He works for those that have used institutionalized racism to kill us.
We cry for justice and they tear gas us in return. This situation has turned into a political game of cat and mouse and we are the mice. We believe in non violent protests. We advocate strongly for non-violent protests. Our mission statement is non-violent protests. We say this while we know for a fact that every police precinct in the metropolitan area is preparing to partner with the National Guard and attack us as if we are not tax paying citizens.”
20. “Pocket Full of Slave Owners” Muja Messiah ft. Brother Ali, and Boots Riley
“Admit it Jewish brothers might feel a little funny if somebody put Nazi’s on their money and I ain’t being funny, I just want you to think about your country…. The guy whose side appears on the $5 died when he gave slavery a disguise. No more bondage except they convict you of a crime, then it’s back to the depths, prison industrial complex.” – Brother Ali
21. #BlackLivesMatter Co-Creator On The New Civil Rights Movement
“Ferguson sparked a new national movement that’s sweeping across the U.S. And it’s young people leading the charge. They’re demanding the end to what they see as systemic racism in law enforcement that targets black people. Alicia Garza, co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter, tells Dena Takruri who these activists are and the tactics they’re using to get what they want.”
22. Rebel Diaz – “Which Side Are You On? Remix” (feat. dead prez, Rakaa Iriscience)
>via: http://www.buzzfeed.com/ummahwide/blacklivesmatter-protest-music-20-track-mix-tap-1572o