Submitted by Tim B.
Part 3: Playlist
“Freedom” by Beyonce feat. Kendrick Lamar
The song frequently references how African Americans feel oppressed due to their institutionalization, and the purpose of the Black Lives Matter movement is to stop this from happening
“Be Free” by J. Cole
https://www.ajc.com/news/ferguson-brown-faq/
J. Cole made the song to describe the events that took place when Mike Brown was killed, and went to great lengths to emphasize the brutality that took place in the killing.
“Glory” By John Legend
https://www.ushistory.org/us/54b.asp
Rosa Parks’ protest of sitting at the front of the bus is referenced as a basis for the injustices African Amertican’s put up with today in this song, as he says Rosa Parks was the start of this decades long movement.
“Neighbors” By J. Cole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nfVWiXY3WY
The video of a SWAT team breaking into J. Cole’s house shows the prejudice black people face when they move into higher end neighborhoods. Cole’s neighbors thought he was selling drugs, even though there was no evidence or reason for them to think that.
“Everybody” By Logic
The article talks about the struggles of not belonging to one racial group and how that affects a person’s mentality. Logic talks about how he was seen as white by black people and black by white people because he is biracial. This also relates back to TPAB Because in one of the songs, Lamar says that black people of all different skin tones should accept each other.
“Changes” By 2pac
The link is a timeline of events throughout the Civil Rights Act in the 50’s and 60’s. These movements were expected to bring equality and social justice to African Americans. However, 2pac realized many problems that were happening in this time period he and his peers were still facing them twenty years later.
“High For Hours” By J. Cole
https://constitutioncenter.org/amoreperfectunion/
The link is a speech by Obama speaking of race and oppression in America. In this song Cole speaks about how he talked to the president about these issues of social discrimination and how even though there hasn’t been much change he sees the problem and is working on ways to fix it.
“New Slaves” By Kanye West
https://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/2019/03/04/americas-prison-system-is-flawed/
In Kanye’s song he talks about the flaws in the prison system and how the prison industries make the prisoners “new slaves” in today's society. The article talks about the several flaws in the prison system.
“Murder to Excellence” By Jay-Z and Kanye West
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_crime_in_the_United_States
In the song Kanye and Jay-Z speak on how black on black violence is hurting the African American community and not moving them forward to reach this social equality. The link is relevant to the song by this article shows the statistics of crimes that occur within the same race.
“Untitled” By Nas
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr-assassination
In the song, Nas speaks about how leaders in the African American communities who spoke out against the government had a certain power on the communities. This caused the government to try different ways to silence them. This article shows how people of power who disagreed with Martin Luther king tried to silence him.