Music: The New Slavery

By Alfred Boyd

 

Swing low, sweet chariot,
Coming for to carry me home...
I looked over Jordan and what did I see...
Coming for to carry me home...
A band of angels coming after me...
Coming for to carry me home.

 

For centuries, Africans and African Americans have used music a way of celebrating, communicating, counseling, and coordinating. They used music to celebrate the successes of battles won; communicate valuable information needed for travelers of the Underground Railroad; counsel those weary; and coordinate heavy arduous labor, such as moving substantial objects.

Music was used for expressing personal feeling, and for cheering one another. These enchanting religious songs were to the men more than a source of relaxation; they were a stimulus to courage and a tie to heaven, because that was all slaves had to drive them. They gained strength from their religion. They knew that there was a better home for them. Swing Low is a famous Negro spiritual with hidden message. It refers to the Ripley Station of the Underground Railroad. Ripley was town by Ohio River, which is not easy to cross. In order to reach Ripley, fugitives had to wait for help. The words of this spirituals say, “I looked over Jordan and what did I see/ Coming for to carry me home/ A band of angels coming after me.” The chariot was their mode for traversing the river and the angels were the people who came to get them.

Hip-hop music is used for different purposes. It is used to express the disdain for authority and conformity; devalue education; disrespect everyone, including oneself; promote and enslave our youth. Hip-hop artists have to writer music that “sells.” Corporate America sets the standards for what sells. If an artist wants to be successful, he has to leave his morals, if he or she had any, at the door of the high rise. Artists may record over 25 songs for and only 10 to 15 won’t make the album because the executive might think that they aren’t hot enough.

Hip-hop music is enslaving the minds of this generation. Instead of having shackles on our hands and feet, music is putting shackles on our kid’s brains. They walk around with sagging pants, speaking and writing in slang, cursing in front of – and worse- at adults. This generation does not have their eye to the future. Their eye is to the here and now. They believe that money, cars, and clothes are easily attainable. I don’t have to learn to read- I’m a rapper. I don’t have to learn to write- I’m a rapper. I don’t need a diploma or college degree, my favorite rapper ain’t- and I do mean ain’t- got that.

Hip-hop music is the new form of slavery. If we don’t filter what our kids are listening to, we will be singing Swing Low for the same reasons our ancestors did.