In honor of Black History Month, I am offering matte high quality postcards from The Smithsonian Institution celebrating the contribution of 6 phenomenal women. Black History Month
(Thanks to RAoC friend u/SnailMailMom, who generously shared these cards with me. I am grateful for your kindness.)💐🙏🏼
To claim: 🎼🎶🎶🎶🎵🎶🎶🎵
Comment below your favorite black musician and share your favorite song from that artist.
BRAVE. BLACK. FIRST.
I've been rocking:
"Wade In the Water" by Ramsey Lewis
"The World Is a Ghetto" by War
"Compared To What" by Roberta Flack
"Living For the City" by Ray Charles
"Why Am I Treated So Bad" by The Sweet Inspirations
"America The Beautiful" - Clara Ward
EDIT: Ended up making a mixtape with a buddy of songs from our collections tonight. All vinyl.
Darondo - "Let My People Go"
The Sweet Inspirations - "Why Am I Treated So Bad"
Funk Factory - "Rein Ne Va Plus"
Chocolate Milk - "Action Speak Louder Than Words"
War - "The World Is a Ghetto"
Ray Charles - "Living For the City"
Temptations - "Message From a Black Man"
Stevie Wonder - "Black Man"
Roberta Flack - "Compared To What"
The Temptations - "Slave"
Ramsey Lewis - "Wade In the Water"
I work at a fairly large high school and over the past few months I've been tasked with playing songs during the last minute of passing to 'motivate' students to get to class on time.
Right now I'm in a bit of a rut as I'm trying to pick songs for Black History Month that are school appropriate and, as a personal preference, from the early 90's and before.
So far I've done Hit The Road Jack, Yakety Yak, Beat It, We Are Family with plans to play Fresh Prince and Dance with Somebody later this week.
Any advice?
October is Black History Month here in the UK, so I wanted to shine a light on some black British musicians that you should all check out! I’m trying to focus more on current artists, but of course there could be another whole post of black British artists who paved the way. And obviously I can only list so many in one post, there’s hundreds, if not thousands of artists who deserve a space here. So feel free to also leave some in the comments :)
MNEK - probably best known to popheads users for his songwriting skills, penning tunes for the likes of Dua Lipa, Zara Larson and Little Mix just to name a few. He also had a smash 6 week streak on the top of the UK charts this summer with Joel Corry collaboration Head & Heart, but his solo work is also top notch. His debut album, Language is full of bops and deserves to be listened to in full.
Dave - this rap artist, also known as Santan Dave, who went viral after his incredibly moving performance of Black at the 2020 BRITs, from his critically acclaimed, chart topping, debut album Psychodrama. His music touches on many political and social issues, including on the single Question Time, titled after the British political question show. His lyricism tied with his classical piano skills is brilliant.
Stormzy - probably the most well known British rapper and grime artist, originally known for his freestyles such as Shut Up, but becoming more politically active, for example, wearing a Union Jack stabproof vest designed by Banksy on stage at Glastonbury, in light of rising knife crime. He was also the first black British solo artist to headline the festival in its entire history.
At the BRIT awards he also called out then prime minister Theresa May over her handling of the Grenfell disaster during a freestyle after his gospel inspired track Blinded By Your Grace. These themes are explored more in his 2019 album Heavy Is The Head, also encompasses more high paced tunes such as [Pop Boy](https://youtu.b
)