Music Artists That Woke Me
I began my rap career as Jay L’Booth at the young age of 11, it’s clear that music has been very influential throughout my life.
Now, at the age of 27, I look back at the artists I feel woke me up to the racial issues around the world.
Nas - I Can
The first artist I was enlightened by was NAS, coming with tracks like I Can, where he touches on the history of Black people but then goes on to talk about ‘them’ and says “They heard about the gold, the teachings, and everything sacred. Africa was almost robbed naked. Slavery was money, so they began making slave ships”. This touches on the colonisation of Africa, He also refers to the literal robbing of African people during the Atlantic slave trade. Although we are being educated on such awful events, the song is still an uplifting one, with the chorus stating “I know I can, Be what I wanna be, If I work hard at it, I’ll be where I wanna be”.
J. Cole - Be Free
Another artist I’m inspired by is J Cole, he touched on recent issues in his song Be Free, where he stated: “All we wanna do is break the chains off, All we wanna do is be free” This implies that we are still slaves to this day - it also relates to a line from his song Runaway which states “Rich white men rule the nation still, Only difference is we all slaves now, The chains concealed in our thoughts” - This is in reference to the power elite and those that own giant corporations filtering what we see and hear.
Beyoncé, Blue Ivy, SAINt JHN, WizKid - Brown Skin Girl
A song I really like is Beyonce’s Brown Skin Girl and the fact that it encourages young women to be proud of their skin and embrace it. My favourite line in the song is “Melanin too dark to throw her shade” to throw shade is to disrespect someone. Here Beyonce refers to higher levels of melanin being a pride counter to any criticism/disrespect.
H.E.R. - I Can’t Breathe
H.E.R released I can’t breathe, just a month after the passing of George Floyd. This is a very powerful song that touches on racism throughout with lines like; “How do we cope when we don't love each other? Where is the hope and the empathy? (Yeah) How do we judge off the colour? The structure was made to make us the enemy (Yeah)” - Meaning how can we move forward without love, hope, and empathy against the injustices in the world. This also refers to critical race theory which is an examination of how laws, social and political movements, and media shape, and are shaped by, social conceptions of race and ethnicity. In verse 3, she uses spoken word rather than singing and a line that really sticks out to me is “To say all men are created equal in the eyes of God, But disparage a man based on the colour of his skin”.
Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love?
Black Eyed Peas touch on issues in Where is the love, stating “But if you only have love for your own race, Then you only leave space to discriminate, And to discriminate only generates hate” This song explores the different issues that divide us, yet really brought us a sense of unity at the same time.