Black Music Unveiled: From Folk to Hip-Hop, Embracing the Essence of Our Culture

Intro

[0:00] I am having a hot girl summer, but not the type that Meg is talking about. Uh oh.

I am hot. You having hot flashes. Baby, we too young for that. We nearing.

I'm Shannon. And I'm Lisa. And you're listening to Blacktivities.

A celebration of all things Black. Black culture, Black history.

Black perspectives and Black panache. Celebrating our Blackness doesn't mean exclusion.

Everyone's invited, but you gotta come on in and have a seat.

So let the Blacktivities begin!

[0:29] Music.

Opening

[0:43] Hey y'all, I'm Shannon and she is Lisa. Woo-hoo! And we are your Black-tivities host from the Big G-A.

June is Black Music Month, so that's what we're talking about today, but I want to acknowledge our new listeners first.

Shout out to you, but you know you're late, right? This is season three, so you might have some catching up to do.

Of course, our audience is mostly in the U.S. because we talk about U.S. history and issues, Lisa, did you know that we also have listeners in Canada, India, Germany, the UK, Zambia, Ireland, Sweden, South Africa, Kenya, Mexico, Russia, France, Ghana, and Oman?

No, I didn't. Actually, I did not. That's amazing.

Shout out to all of you guys. We really appreciate you listeners.

Really appreciate you listeners.

Since y'all listening, make sure you guys are following us.

[1:52] Slide out on Instagram, BlacktivitiesPod. Just come on, guys.

Just come bring it on in with your family. Let's embrace it.

Before we get on with the show, we really need y'all to share this.

Share this information. Share this love with all of your friends.

That's very, very important.

If you're listening, you're a part of this village, and it takes a village to raise a child.

This is our child that we birthed, so we need your support.

Also, yes, we want to spotlight one of our black businesses who's partnered with us for the Juneteenth drawing.

We did a raffle, which was amazing. The feedback we got was really great.

Special shout out and thank you to Mahogany Love and Services.

This beautiful sister can provide any digital photocopy services, such as business cards, flyers, brochures, she even go as far as creating logos and assisting with building websites.

[2:52] Now, she is the true definition of queen of all trades because she's also a notary, and have her own eyelash line that is available on DoorDash.

Did you know that? You can get eyelashes on DoorDash? Yes, ma'am.

She has, you can go find her on DoorDash. Especially, there has been occasions where I was like, man, I wish I had some lashes to put on.

But it's too late, y'all. I'm not finna go to the dollar store in this outfit I got on, my special outfit.

But yes, you can, Dora Dash, her lashes, which are amazing, okay?

So special shout out to you, Queen Mahogany Love.

You guys, please follow her on Facebook or IG.

That's Mahogany Love and Services.

Tell her Blacktivity's pod sent you, okay? Yes, and we will put her information in the show notes, so check there.

Yes, so let's jump right into the SAC's Facts today. Let's get in.

Come on, share with us, Shannon.

Embrace us.

Share with us your knowledge. Let's go.

SAC's Facts

[3:56] Music.

[4:07] Every song that you've ever listened to was influenced by black people in some way.

I'm not blowing smoke. And we're going to break it down now.

The foundation of all the music we listen to in the U.S. is either in sacred music, folk music, blues or a combination of the three. So let's start with folk music.

We talk about folk music. We're talking about traditional music passed down through generations orally.

Slaves on their way to America were sometimes forced to perform their African folk songs on slave ships.

The purpose of this was to improve the mortality rates on board.

That was something interesting that I found.

Enslaved people also use this music on the plantations as a way to communicate and keep their spirits up through field hollers, which were also called work songs.

It was often a call and response type of thing, which is something that you might also hear in modern day songs.

Other folk music used instruments made from things like animal bones and washboards or whatever it was that they had around.

And this music led to ragtime, which led to jazz music and influenced 60s protest music in hip hop.

And where do you think they got country music from? We ain't, that's another, that's a different territory, we ain't gonna call that one.

Sacred music has been deemed the earliest form of black music in America.

[5:37] Music.

[5:45] Some of y'all are like, wait a minute, you just said that they were singing folk music.

Yes, I did. But folk music came from African culture with black people on the boats.

So it's technically not the first black American music.

Sacred music would be like spirituals and things like that that reflected Christian values but also detailed the hardships of slavery and evolved into what we think of.

[6:09] Music.

] Birthed in the late: 1800

Those regions included the Mississippi Delta, Memphis, Chicago, and Southern Texas.

Robert Johnson and Bessie Smith. Aye! The Empress of Blues.

[6:44] Music.

[6:53] Soul, funk, and rap, and each of these kind of have their own dominant eras.

Jazz originated in New Orleans. It basically has genres within the genre.

I personally am a fan of big band jazz, which also reminds me of my grandfather, who was actually a bugler during World War II.

I remember him playing big band jazz as he was sitting and relaxing in his living room.

Wait, what's a bugler?

l areas to the cities between: 1916

Interesting.

What was special about this genre is that white people liked it too, so it somewhat broke through the color lines that were put forth. One could argue that it became a catalyst for some of the change that happened. And R&B is how we got rock music.

[8:19] Now I know this is saxophone accent is kind of long, but like the preacher says, I'm getting ready to close. I'm getting ready to close. Here we go.

To close. Here we go. I just got two more things I want to tell you about.

[8:33] Soul and funk came out in the 60s and 70s and gave a sense of energy and hopefulness to our people.

Some pioneers of these genres included the Queen of Soul herself, Miss Aretha Franklin, James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, Sly Stone, and George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic.

[8:56] We're celebrating 50 years of hip hop this year. So rap was birthed in New York in the late 70s and early 80s.

Raps origins were related to dancing and parties and combined pretty much all the types of music we just discussed.

However, the message changed during the mid 80s to reflect the hardships of living in the inner city.

Another set of problems our community was facing at the time, which some could argue hasn't changed very much since.

The impact that rap and hip-hop has had on on. Not only Black culture, but pop culture in general is undeniable, especially fashion.

ade June Black Music Month in: 1970

No. So yeah, let the doors of the church be opened. That's SAC'S Facts!

Discussion

[: 10:12

[: 10:27

That was dope.

So with the SAC's facts, and I know it's a very sensitive topic.

I know you stated where country, where it originated from.

So I'm going to ask you this one question.

[: 10:55

That I feel like has been a point of contention, but I think, did you see the newer Elvis Presley movie?

No, I haven't seen it. I'm going to be honest with you.

I kind of counseled all of them when, you know, they basically refused to give the recognition of where it come from.

And then also Elvis personally ain't no different than R. Kelly, because I counsel R. Kelly, because of his love and affection for underage little girls.

And Elvis was the same way.

So, I think it's not fair that he is glorified and is white when, I mean, it's pretty shady stuff.

So, I feel like a lot of people glorify him and make excuses, but come on man, 14-year-old Girls.

I feel that. OK, I'm saying, but I got girls, you come over here.

[: 12:13

What what top five people can name your songs or what where you fall over the award records? No, sir.

No, sir. As far as like him are giving credit to black people in that movie, they did address that he got his stuff from Black people. They did, okay, okay.

I understand.

So, you know, I feel like as long as you acknowledge it and you don't try to take it as your own, I can rock with that.

But that happens so much though. It does, but it's not just with music, it's with a lot of stuff. Yeah, this is true. Yeah.

I'ma just throw in here really quick, just to be petty.

[: 13:00

That's your favorite thing to mention. I'm sorry, man. That hurt me.

When they announced her two braids to the back, it's Kim Kardashian, boxer braids.

[: 13:16

Okay. So black essence.

So obviously, when it comes to blues, I want to say the old-school blues, but also you did mention the party, and that whole thing with George Clinton.

Because I'm going to tell you, my mom, she had a very interesting Saturday cleanup playlist growing up.

Now, as music progressed, it did change, but I'm telling you, It was something about the parliament and George Quinn. That was a lot.

And then I cannot shake Barry White practice what you preach.

My mom had that on repeat.

And then of course you have like Bobby Brown, you know, the early Bobby Brown, the bad Bobby Brown, you know, that was hunching the stage.

You know, that was a very, you know. My prerogative. Yeah, my prerogative.

Right, right. So, I mean, we live by that now. I just don't punch the stage.

But it does, and I'll be honest with you.

[: 14:36

So I started venturing out as I became a teenager, listening to other things.

As I started venturing out and listening to other things, it kind of, I start picking out some of the things that was relative to black music.

So I was like, hey, maybe that's the reason why I like it, especially sampling.

But to answer your question, I would have to go back to George Clinton in the parliament, that era.

That's my mom and them's people too. Yeah, yeah. Oh, we can't forget about Franklin Bedwyne Mays.

That's what I was going to say. Yeah, definitely them. I would say Earth, Wind, and Fire too.

Yes. The elements always got something on.

Growing up, I thought that it would be so dope. I even may do this now.

If I can do like one of the old school videos, especially Earth, Wind, Fire did.

What's that? That do do do do, and it was like they had the little thing and it was going slow and it was like bouncing.

You know how the computer screens would bounce, that little thing?

I wanna do one of them too. I might do one for my birthday.

[: 15:59

I have to.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I have to.

The Supremes, Temptations, all of them.

Yeah, you have to. They have to be mentioned. And then people like Little Richard and James Brown.

Like, there's so many people.

The thing about it, though, is the music is so great. But when you sit down and actually look at the lyrics and see the things that we're going to do, they were going through it just like us.

It's not even worse. Yeah. I mean, so it does make it very relatable.

[: 16:46

Well, we did get to interview some people. at Bear Park, and this is what they said about the music that they felt like embodied the essence of black music.

My name is Robert Washington Jr. Okay, Robert, black music man, what song or music genre do you feel represents the essence of black music?

Well, they just put Tupac on the star at Hollywood.

I saw that. He represents the essence of a black man now. I'm Audrey Simmons, here from Dalton, Georgia.

All right, Miss Audrey.

So what song or music genre do you feel represents the black essence of black music?

Definitely like R&B, 80s, definitely, and some before that.

But I think back to like Frankie Beverly and Maze, you know, that type of music.

Earth Wind and Fire, that type, yeah, that genre. You wanna sing us a song?

I would, but get back to me in about 15 minutes, Lisa. Hi, my name is Sharon Clark.

Thank you for speaking with us today. I just wanna ask you a question. Okay, sure, okay.

[: 18:09

[: 18:23

And I don't know if you know, but there are other people that know that that's my favorite go-to, you know, when it comes to doing, you know, singing at places.

So I'm gonna let y'all know that you can sing a Gladys Knight song.

Hit me with just a couple bars.

And say I've had my share of life's ups and downs but life has been few I guess you could say I've been lucky I guess you could say that it's all because of you if anyone should ever write my storyline story.

All right. Hey, yes. Thank you. I appreciate that. No problem. No problem.

Baby, let me tell you. That was amazing, especially just to hear Miss Sharon Clark sing Glad It's Night.

Oh, brought back memories.

Glad it's. I'm telling you, that was a part of my mama's playlist. It really was.

It really was. So let's just have a little fun. So let's, I'm gonna ask you this.

What would your name be if you were a music artist?

[: 19:46

Do you think you, are you the type that just uses your first name?

Like Kim, you know what I'm saying? Like Beyonce? Yeah.

Shannon. Shannon. I don't know.

Well, you call me Shea Boog sometimes. Yeah, yeah, see? That could be my music name. Right.

See, I want to be on a level, if it was me, I want to be on a level.

You know how Prince went through that Rebellion stage? Oh, with a cymbal?

With a cymbal. Oh! Oh!

Oh! The artist formerly known as Mona Lisa. Yeah. I'll be the banker formerly known as Talisa.

That way, and it's genius. That way nobody know what to call you.

They ain't in your face.

It used to be that you had to put a little in front of your name.

Now it's like. I still do.

Now it's like NBA somebody. Yeah, let me tell you something.

Now I'm not throwing shade at the music today. Yes, I am.

I'd be damned if I'm finna be out here calling a grown man, the baby.

[: 20:57

But come on, it's just like the names aren't as, they don't use their real names.

Like what is up with that?

I think that's a rap hip hop thing. Everybody has like this alias.

Yeah, and everybody is NBA or whatever. Yeah, NBA or what's the other one?

It's like- It's so many. In something, NLE. It's so many. I also want to put this out here again.

I'm not trying to throw major shade, but I am tired of hearing that Poundtown song.

Her name is Sexy Red or something like that, Red Sexy.

And it's like pound town, he finna take me to pound town. I'm like, sir, ma'am.

That don't even sound. It is two o'clock in the afternoon, okay?

My children in the car, it's summertime, all right?

[: 22:00

I'm sick of it. They're not subtle with anything these days.

Right, but now again, I guess with music nowadays, they're more upfront because back then when you go, now it's been some songs that I was jamming to when I was little and as an adult, I played it and I was just sitting here all calm, like I was singing this when I was little or I was in the backseat.

Okay, I'm going to ask you a question.

[: 22:35

[: 22:46

Oh, there's been plenty of times. I was in my mom's car. My mom was driving or my dad was driving. I was in the backseat singing a song. I would look out the window like I was shooting, a music video. I'm more of a look out the window and dream.

Oh, no, I was shooting a video, baby. It was a movie. I'm like, look up in the sky.

Right, right. She put on a, can you send a brand new edition? I look out the window, son, you need it, girl.

I would be crooning on that song, though. Yeah, you couldn't tell me nothing, baby. Nothing at all.

Hit that Johnny Gale part in the background. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, you couldn't tell me nothing. Straight Superstar. I had my little plaid sticking up.

Bo Ritz. Bo Ritz. Bo Ritz, you couldn't tell me nothing.

My mama was driving that brown Cutlass. I remember it was a T-top.

[: 23:51

It was a tan Cutlass, T-top. You couldn't tell us nothing.

All right, that's enough of that.

But I do want to ask you one more silly question though. Y'all know I like throwing in these little questions to kind of throw Shannon off a little bit.

ook over for the Nine-Nine in: 2000

Where were you? I guess we were both at don't know who.

[: 24:25

My mother, shout out to her, because I'm gonna be honest with you, in my house, music played a major, like a major part in how we work.

Oh, yeah. And I feel like this with all households. Yeah. Especially when it came down to cooking.

My mom, my granny, they was in the kitchen cooking. I mean, that playlist, I mean, That house was jumping, okay? But I have to say that Juvenile is one of my mom's favorites, okay?

And if, I hope that I'm not the only one when it comes to your mom and rap music, but at my mom, my mom, she just turned 60, okay? Back in January.

We threw a surprise birthday party for her, okay?

[: 25:25

She was like, first we surprised her, when she heard Mystical, oh, it was a wrap.

Now, again, maybe Mystical should be counseled as well, as many times I just found out, as many times he has been arrested for sexual assault. So I think I'm gonna call my mother later.

We're going to see what we're going to do about this.

But yeah, so music played a major part, a major part when it comes to, you know, our childhood, it comes to our lives.

Are you still R. Kelly listening? No. No.

I absolutely canceled him. Yeah. I mean, I did too. I wasn't a big fan anyway.

Seriously? No. Then his music, why though? I mean, how can you say?

Some of the songs, yes, but I wasn't like a, there are people who went hard for R. Kelly.

I was not one of those people.

Yeah. And again, this is one of those situations where as an adult, I went back through and I started paying attention to some of the things he was saying.

It was very questionable things.

So of course I don't, you know, R. Kelly, come on, no.

[: 26:48

[: 26:56

It's something about Jamaican music or this thing that makes you want a dirty wine, girl.

That's all right. How about this? Y'all pause it, pause the podcast right now.

Just listen to just maybe the first couple of seconds. Okay.

No. Never mind. I'm promoting.

No, we're not promoting RQ. No.

But there is that one song that I can't shake. I have to listen to it all the way through and then after that I'm done.

[: 27:36

Regardless to R. Kelly, but like anything you just like absolutely not.

That one song, I was like, what are they saying? And then I heard throat baby.

Oh, I was like, oh no. Yeah.

No, no, no. And they play that regular. They do. Yeah, just regular.

I was like, wow. I was appalled. They have no shame. They have no shame.

They have no shame. But I mean, what we're gonna do is about being creative, right? For you and speech.

That's too much. Yeah. Doing too much. Yeah.

All right, you ready for some fun? Yeah, let's have some fun, let's go.

All right, here's the Blacktivity. Let's go!

Blacktivity

[: 28:35

[: 28:40

I like that song.

You're going to pretend that you're deejaying the ultimate Black celebration.

What songs are you going to play in the following categories?

So we'll start right off the bat.

What song are you playing to get these people hype?

Okay. Montell Jordan. This is how we do it.

John find some song, this is how we do it. Yeah. That one right there.

I'm going to go with it. Straight rock. Knock a few bucks.

Yes. This is true. Or tear the club up. Yeah. But see, now you got to wait until people are bored of my tipsy but not 100 percent.

But then people get into fighting. Yeah, just like, when they there, that's when they just feel it.

I'm a cat, thump doop doop thump doop doop doop doop thump. I don't know the lyrics, but...

Turn it on, I'm drunk. I bet y'all know it then. I'll be saying something.

[: 29:55

So we gotta do with that, or the cupid shuffle.

Which version of the electric slide? Because, you know, we got several songs.

I like to keep it straight. It's electric, looky, looky, looky.

With the ladies singing. OK. Yeah. Just keep it simple.

Because they do the electric slide on the Beyonce song, too.

Yeah, this is true. She did. Yeah. OK.

[: 30:30

We have to. Because it was, what's this one girl, this some girl that just came out, she sampled Ludacris area codes.

And she did an interview. I interviewed her. And they were asking her about it. And she had no idea.

She said she had never heard of Ludacris area codes song. She lying.

Unless somebody else wrote the song for her.

Of course, you know that's how they do it. They just go to the studio and be like, here, I got this song for you. You record it or whatever, and they do it.

But yeah, she's a younger girl, and she said she had never heard Aria Coates before.

She definitely had the song written for her then because that definitely was inspired by that song.

Look, Shannon said, she lying. That's what she said. She said she had never heard it before.

Out your life. This is what the world has come to.

[: 31:33

But our parents would say that about our generation songs too.

This is true. You know what I saw new with my daughter, with Avery?

If there's a popular song she liked, I would purposely play the original version while we're in the car, just to see if she pick up on it, and she does.

Yeah, she does. Challenge for y'all. Y'all start doing that with y'all kids.

I think a song that always gets me dancing is Poison.

Yes. I can't hear that song and not do some kind of- Right, something.

Yeah, but my children, they still listen to that to this day.

That's a part of their clean up music.

Mine do too.

But talk about questionable lyrics if you listen closely. Right. My older two, they know, but Avery don't know yet. We're going to keep it that way.

Unicorns and sprinkles for now.

All right. What song are you going to play to get people crooning?

[: 32:46

Okay. That's a good one.

[: 32:55

Everybody knows that one. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do.

Or, probably before I let go. Everybody knows that one too. Oh yeah.

Yeah, this is true. What about if you want to make them feel in love?

Okay, so I'm toxic, right?

Pfft. Pfft. And I know this song has nothing to do with being in love, okay?

[: 33:33

Oh, I was like... Can you get with it? It's like that.

You got to go back and listen to it. I know it's weird.

And the lyrics, he's basically telling her like, look, I ain't looking for no long term nothing. OK?

That's not love. That is toxic.

But baby. Hey, I admit it, I'm toxic from the beginning. We already know this.

We already know this, but it's just something about it that gets you in the mood.

Okay, okay. All right.

So for you, what is that song where you want to get them in the mood and you want to take your bae home?

What's that particular song?

[: 34:25

Right. All right. I'm going to throw some new music at y'all. It's not new, but if y'all not on Eric Billinger, baby, he done wrote music for so many people. But Eric Billinger, he came out with the song Goat. That's what everybody really started using that term, goat, a lot. He made a song out to his wife. His wife actually is a sister to Megan Good. Oh, okay.

So, but his albums, I'm telling you, fire.

I went and seen him. My bae took me to go see him in Atlanta when he did his tour with Sammy and a couple.

Oh, and that's when I seen T.I.'s son perform too for the first time, fire. Okay.

We ain't talking about the bad one, King. I would not, I'm sorry.

The oldest one. No, the middle one.

Oh, he's the middle one. Yeah, he's the middle one. The oldest son.

No, no, no. The oldest son? He got three sons.

[: 35:28

Then he has another song called I'm Not Ready, which is Fire.

Demoni, that's his name. Demoni. So he got Messiah, which is the oldest one, Demoni, King, and then there was another one. I don't know his name.

Another one. He was real cute on the show.

But yeah, DeMonte Harris, music fire. I just want to throw that out there.

But anyway, back to what I was saying.

Eric Billinger, he has one song called Drive-By, will get you in the mood, want to take you home to bae.

He has another song called Freaky Deaky, fire.

He talked about eating it on the table, and he uses it in a metaphor, fire.

That's all I'm going to say. Check out Eric B. Eric B for prayers.

That's what he go by, fire.

Jenea Aiko has some good songs too. I like her too.

What song would you play to help people move on from a breakup?

To move on? I'm toxic, baby. I'll be gone stay with me.

That's hard. To move on?

To the left.

[: 36:46

I was gonna say tell him, but she was like, tell him I need him.

That's begging him to come back, so you toned it down.

[: 37:00

You a little stupid at home? Yes. Yes.

Now Big Sean and Jhene, Jhene Aoki, that song, I Know. Girl, what you say?

Jhene, Jhene, Jhene Aoki, or whatever her name is. Janae Aiko.

Yeah. Whatever the baby girl name is.

That song they got, I Know. And that's a nice song too. It's just when you say, I know you've been running on empty.

Seem like you need a vacation. I'm on poppy movie go.

I'm ready to go. All right, last one. All right.

What song is going to make them reflect on how wonderful it is to be black.

Say it loud! I'm black and I'm proud! James Brown. Yes.

Something off of Beyoncé's album that she did that was like Lion King inspired.

Brown Skin Girl, or, there's a lot of songs on there. There are. There really are.

Well, let's shift gears and go to Lisa's pieces.

Lisa's Pieces

[: 38:19

[: 38:33

To my eyes, a beautiful sight of motivation, each shake to the 808 proves my rhythm.

It contributes to what has been taught.

Talk to me, hand it down, share with me. my hands. Figures to my fingers seem silly but they work hard to floss the bands even though the actual bands carried them all. To my tongue, my first kiss, I felt every word to my soul as you made me feel special even though I never saw you again when that summer ended. I fall, fell into a state to only remember the influence you have over for me to this day. You set my mood.

You set my motivation. You express every movement inside of me. Always there for me.

A great example of how a mode is used often. You are the tone to my life. You are music.

Yes. Give me brown sugar vibes. Yeah.

[: 39:55

Outro

[: 40:01

We're nearing.

But anyway, there's so much more that we could say about Black music, because it really has been that much of an influence on everything.

But we ain't going to hold you. Hope you enjoyed the episode.

Hope you learned something. and hope you'll tune in next week as we talk about Black Fathers.

I know Father's Day already passed, but every day is a good day to celebrate Black dads.

And if you haven't already, follow us on IG.

We're at Blacktivitiespod. We love to hear from you guys, so feel free to DM us and tell us what you liked, or what you don't like.

Just keep it respectful.

Until next week. King and queens, keep doing big tings, let's go.

[: 40:57