The radio disgusts me. No, not in a lighthearted sarcastic way that will still allow myself to listen to the radio because I’d rather hear something than nothing, but in the literal meaning of the word. I experience a feeling of, “revulsion or profound disapproval aroused by something unpleasant or offensive.” Like Webster describes, the radio is not only unpleasant but also highly offensive. I could go out onto the street and easily find 100 people who feel the same way in less than an hour, so than why does it continue to be this way? As with anything else, when the masses are unsatisfied with a specific area within society and it continues regardless, that is because in this Capitalist social structure there are individuals with money and power that benefit from things continuing as is. We can see this in many facets of our lives. For example, when 80,000 signatures were gathered to stop Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners from constructing the Dakota Access Pipeline through Native American land, it had no effect on the oil company’s plans to do so. Things continued as they were because the well-being of the masses, especially when they’re people of color, do not outweigh the potential for profit, especially when it comes to white dollars.
I bring up the radio because earlier today I was riding in the car with my family. In my own car I have CD’s, but in my father’s car I was forced to succumb to whatever FM decided to throw at us. Kehlani’s voice appeared. She’s a California born ‘mixed’ girl signed to Atlantic Records, owned by white CEO Craig Kallman (literally). I thought I liked her until I heard the song that was playing in this moment, Crzy. If you haven’t yet heard it please spare yourself because it will be stuck in your head for hours and not in a good way. The song, like a lot of songs on the radio, has no meaning. Meaningless music is a waste of time. A lot of the music we listen to now is crazy because it’s pointless.
Like our powerless melanin, we have sacrificed another tool to the enemy, our music. Black voices have been making white record owners millions of dollars for decades, Atlantic records owned voices from Aretha Franklin to Ray Charles. Not to discredit the beautiful music we’ve created for years but imagine how much more powerful our music would be if it were not filtered by white writers and producers.
Although there are many famous black rappers and singers working under white owned record labels, they are only famous not that successful. Our measure of success is not monetary, it is spiritual. Success is being able to say that you lived impactful and meaningfully, only those whose lives we touch will remember us. Money means absolutely nothing, it comes and goes, but our spirit stays with it and it must be satisfied in order for us to feel fulfilled.
This is one of the reason why Chance the Rapper works for himself, refusing to sign onto a record label. His music is powerful and meaningful, which is why it is freely available without charge, because he wants as many people to be impacted by its meaning as possible. The most profitable record labels charge for music that has no meaning or positive messages. Paying for this is like buying a 10 piece nugget, wasting your money on something unedifying and ultimately destructive only for the benefit of a select few who have no interest in our well-being. These wealthy few may actually be working against our well-being, doing anything it takes to accumulate wealth. This can only be done as a product of ignorance and complete disregard for humanity, sadly these are the types of people running our world.
“Come on now baby, come on now baby, come on now baby come on…” as Lauryn Hill sung on her track Superstar, “Come on baby, light my fire, Music is supposed to inspire, How come we ain’t getting no higher?”
As we say, music is fire. Music is powerful, so when I’m humming “I go crazy” around in my head and I hear my little sister screaming the lyrics because they’re so catchy I get annoyed because I don’t go crazy and neither does my 4 year old sister. I’m also not a bitch, bad or basic and I wouldn’t want my sister to define herself in that manner either. Yet the song continues to play, we continue to consume it and it continues to consume our minds and transform our thinking regardless of if we want it to or not.
I do go crazy, however, thinking about the fact that we’ve allowed ourselves to be called bitches and niggas so carelessly just because the derogatory statements are paired with a rhythm. We are not the only people listening to this music, white people listen to it to too. The more we call ourselves these names, the more they believe it. The more we desensitize ourselves to these statements, the easier it is for any man could call me “a bad bitch” and actually think it’s a compliment. I’m not a “difficult or unpleasant thing”. I am not a bitch; no black woman is. So stop allowing them to write the songs, put these derogatory lyrics in our mouths and frame our thinking negatively towards ourselves while making millions of dollars in the process. The more we can uncover the root of the injustices our community faces, the more effectively we can pluck out the weeds.
Because I am, like all black people, a spiritual creature I know that music has a spirit. A slow song can make you feel sad just as quickly as a faster song will make one feel upbeat. Rhythm flows through my body like water, it enriches my soul. Therefore, I cannot allow unpleasantness or disgust to flow through my body, listening to the radio litters my mental and emotional system. So I bought CDs, I drove to local record store and purchased music that is written and sung by black women: Erykah Badu, Nina Simone and Lauryn Hill now play on my radio. If you’re a black women support black women and enrich your spirit by buying music for us by us, the messages are crafted for our soul’s enrichment.
Along with these women I also purchased India Arie is one of my favorite artists, along with being a black woman and a musical genius (a singer, songwriter and guitarist) she also urges artists in her music to use their platform appropriately by making meaning and spreading positive messages with their music.
So is convenience worth trashing your spirit and mind on your way to work, school or wherever? Listen to the sound of nothingness, talk to yourself or your creator before allowing the 1% that own the media outlets to force repulsive lyrics into your brain, this goes for television as well.
Music is our power so let’s take it back
That goes to our black artists too. If you’re not happy with your current arrangement let it be known and exit you have that power and our community’s support.
Hill warns artists,
“Just as Christ was a superstar, you stupid star
They’ll hail you then they’ll nail you, no matter who you are
They’ll make you now then take you down
And make you face it, if you slit the bag open
and put your pinky in it, then taste it”
-Superstar, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (1998)
