Black music and me

As a lover of blues, jazz, reggae, and so many other genres of black music, I have similarly used the lyrical content of great songs to immerse myself in the highs and lows of black life, while the polyphonic manifestation of black music has influenced and impacted my understanding of black people, their criminality, and proximity to the criminal justice system, ranging from the power of reggae as folk music, jazz and blues as a rallying cry for civil and human rights issues, through to the uncompromising and defiant stance of hip-hop, UK grime, drill, and trap music. Black music has always illuminated my connection to, and relationship with, the structural determinants that have disproportionately criminalized, incarcerated, and executed, many black people. Whether I am listening to the music of Miles Davis underscoring a noir movie, being pinned to my seat by Public Enemy's powerful rendition of ‘Fight the Power’ in Spike Lee's movie Do the Right Thing, crying to the powerful words of acapella group Sweet Honey in the Rock, or nodding my head to the latest hip-hop, reggae, or grime track, black music has always been the glue that binds my personal understanding of my black experience. Important here is that the past cannot be divorced from the future when it comes to black music, which is inextricably linked to a culture that praises ancestors, chants, sings, laments, and expresses itself through the combination of words and music. Important here is to pay tribute to the durability of the black musical tradition that has survived slavery, emerged unscathed through colonialism, kept the civil rights movement going, and fueled the momentum for many of the black political movements we see today.