Monday, June 30, 2008

June is Black Music Month?

note:

This was written and posted last year for Brig Feltus' blog, but I'm bringing it out again for thought and commentary. I think it's ridiculous that we're pacified with Black Music Month.





June is Black Music Month?

It's kind of amazing that there's a
black music month, when we revisit the fact that music has its direct origins in the Motherland, and its peoples, regardless of their more recent cultural names. Perhaps a great deal has been forgotten, or we've been distracted by and large by the trappings of modern remix culture, forgetting the contribution Kemetian/African culture has made in the reality we enjoy so fleetingly today.
Maybe fewer of us then we realize see reality, let alone appreciate what it tells us.
It would be a mistake not to bring the truth to light so we can all have another look.

Do we embrace the entirety of the
black music experience beyond the 'beats'?
Do we respect the historical legacy of what this 'honorary'
month calls 'Black Music'
enough to stand for its root significance or are we just living in a politically correct culture that has yet to adequately answer the real questions a
month commemorating 'Black Music' signifies?

What is
Black Music if not the origin of all music?
Soul has its roots in the motherland. Rock has its roots in the blues.
Chuck Berry is in those roots.
Muddy Waters is in those roots.
Lady Day is in the roots.
All of the Ancestors have lent their spirit to the amalgam that has come into development.
Would our time be better spent during this American government sanctioned
month remembering the music as a 'Black Genre', or would it be better spent remembering the passion of a people and the light of a people struck in times of abject darkness from whose passions popular artists gain their framework, as shamans would gather ancestral bones for presentation to their inheritors?

Shall we remember the struggles of our forebears, and the tears that went into their musical poetry? The ache that bound the strands of genius tonal tapestries that so many are still sampling and using to reinvent?
Shall we even endeavor to remember beyond the
month of June?
When we turn on the radio will we remember where that sample came from? Will we go to the library and take out some vintage cd's to get in touch with Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk? Will we allow John Coltrane to soothe our souls when we're restless?
Will we still be able to feel them? Are we connected enough to what's happening in world society to feel on the level that they felt in worlds that were not padded, or even afforded distractions to a quarter the degree we have available to us now?

More importantly will we remember that
music used to be sacred, or will we commence to shaking our 'moneymakers' and 'pimpin those hoes' 'juss like those black bucks was 'spected to' when they were driven from plantation to plantation with a feather in their caps to mount their female counterparts and produce, produce, produce for those good ol' plantation owners?

Pimpin' ain't easy right?

Kind of sounds like what's happening now, doesn't it?
I mean... are any of these hiphop labels still owned by people of color? What about
Black Entertainment Television, or Essence magazine? Do we care about our wealth any more, or are we so depressed we don't try for fear of loss?

Too heavy?
Really?
Or has it just been awhile since reality has been reintroduced?
When do the divisions and the commemorative labels start becoming helpful and stop seeming like charity for those of brown skin? Charity instead of reparations for the people whose resources are the origins of the wealth world society has enjoyed?
I could be wrong but I don't think I am.

I'd like a little reality in my holidays and commemorative months...
So for the ancestors, I'll leave you with this, because I am sure this would be the best way to commemorate them.
Take back your culture. Feel your art.
Remember but don't be chained by memory.
Do something with your wisdom.
Be the profound creations that you are.

You ain't nobody's nigguh, and you ain't nobody's hoe, unless you buy into that concept and wear those mental chains willingfully on account of those impressive beats... The beats that are so hot, the message of the words that essentially tell you, that you're nothing, can't hurt right? They certainly can't hurt your children...can they? I mean...the kids don't really know what they're listening to right? The beats are just soooo hot. You gotta move a little somethin' to it...give it some of your spirit in appreciation.

What's consciousness anyway when you can get them dollars?
Isn't that the message hidden in the beats (of your heart)?
I'd say get with the program, but which programming are you gettin' with?

Happy
Black Music Month.

-
Your sister Dazjae



3 comments:

admin said...

Peace sis,
Love the post. I agree that its ridiculous to even suggest that black music is not the root of all music.

I know, however, that, though people like you and I understand and know that, some other people do not. Some of those people happen to be other black people.

On my site Liberated Muse, I post blog posts that highlight a specific genre of music. Past genres have been Zydeco, Hip Hop, Blues, Reggae and Dancehall. Some of the info on the origins of these forms are things that some have mentioned to me they weren't aware of.

No, I don't intend to halt my postings once the month ends, but I do use the theme to get people's attention and use the opportunity to share knowledge. In my profession as a educator on a college campus, I do the same when months are culturally themed.

For me, though I am holistic and teach on a variety of things, themed months help me putting a little more emphasis on one area then I may do throughout the year...just a share

Peace:-)

Moon

Eb the Celeb said...

Amazing piece... made me think, made me appreciate, made me wonder what I have done to downplay our past, and also what dongs I have refused to like because they degraded it.

PurpleZoe said...

Peace *_^

Thanks for stopping through.

@Khadijah
Thankyou for stopping through and for your comment.
It's beautiful that you utilize your your Liberated Muse site to share and highlight important figures in our culture. I have much respect for what you're doing with your site and for music with your HipHop Soulfest.

Keep doing your thing. We need more people keeping our culture alive on a regular basis.

@Eb
Thankyou *_^
I just think we have to redevelop our systems and stop allowing nonsensical intrusion define our culture as a whole. Months like Black Music Month set us back, in my opinion. The many achievements of our people are largely discluded from history books, and I can't see myself chomping on the 'Black History Month Bone' thrown at us like we're easily pleased dogs.
Until there is equality in our education that includes the reality of our Moorish, Kemetic heritage and the truths of Kush and Kemet at least, we will continue to get these little 'patch up' offerings to keep us quiet.
It's a tired game but the white supremacist system is still using the same old tricks...

I mean, how many people know a Black man invented the PC? His name is Howard Dean but there hasn't been any built name recognition like you see with Bill Gates. There are plenty more slept-on inventors where he came from and it has to stop.
Thanks again for your comment.

Shine on Sisterstars
-PZ