Black Folks! Stefan Burnett aka MC Ride is our generation’s Bob Marley, here’s why…
In a day when Black life is quantified virtually- that is to say, online seems to be the only geography were Black life can proclaim its own beginning and end, Black existence regulates itself as futile. Whether this notion is celebrated or not, this thought process is underlying driving contemporary Black popular culture. From our cultural adages shared on social media meant to quell our grandest moral questions, to having platforms like Vine usher in and wipe out the prowess of transnational Black young entertainers, we all understand that to click is to exist. This cultural narcissism has created a type of Black nihilism that is hyperreal, inflated, and has yet given refugee to us as we just try to figure out what the fuck is actually going on. So what am I trying to say? I actually do not know what Migos is saying but I rock with it- mainly because of the visual representation of Migos and the production. Artists such as XXXTentacion, Lil Uzi Vert, Kid Cudi (for the OG’s), and BLACKIE (for the real ones), all are in this same pool of Black existentialists who are using hip-hop, a now pop drenched genre, as a means to juxtapose everything we think we know as Black existence. Some of us, a lot of old heads, do not like this. Oh well.
Bob Marley, in his hay day, was also not highly regarded by some Black folks in the States. This was due to how his music was promoted as reggae- classified as World Music, which catered to college white and Black liberal/conscious American students. An unfortunate recoil of this is that Marley’s political platform of Pan-Africanism did not rise above the college fetishization of the relationship between marijuana and the religion of Rastafarianism. “One Love”, a feel-good song that has been used to promote tourism for the Caribbean, holds the American imagination more than “Buffalo Solider” a bop about Black American Union troops who faced racial terror from the empire they were actively protecting. Pan Africanism, as performed by Bob Marley, really showed itself in his music as a means to continue the cultural legacy of the African Diaspora using an artistic medium to also build political consciousness. Pan-Africanism, defined by the Tate Museum “was the idea that in order to achieve their potential, all Africans on the continent and its diaspora needed to unify under the banner of race”. The Tate’s definition is as stale as the art world is when it comes to issues around Blackness. Scholars would argue that Pan-Africanism is difficult to define and pinpoint as being organized at one point in time. But, overall, Pan-Africanism can be recognized as an anti-colonial movement meant to empower Black folks of Africa and the Diaspora. Unfortunately, the Pan-Africanism of Bob Marley’s music did not captivate as many folks as it could have while he was alive. Some argue that Bob Marley’s music inspired Black folks in the States culturally and politically posthumously. I think this is very sad, imagine if Bob Marley was on the Isley Brother’s Harvest for the World- that could have been like a for real BLA soundtrack.
If we catch the wave that XXXtentacion and friends are on philosophically we may be able to realize new realities for ourselves through this meta time we are in. Without a doubt, XXXtentacion, Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, Earl Sweatshirt, and all of these rappers who old heads can’t seem to figure out, are to me, Afro-pessimists. What is Afro-pessimism? Does it mean you are like, emo about Black life? NAW. Afro-pessimism is about Black social death. It is about the facade of a Black existence in an anti-Black world. I could use this space to provide direct quotes and definitions from the various thinkers who are consumed with this thought- like Frank Wilderson, Saidiya Hartman, Jared Sexton, but instead I am going to paraphrase some of the ideas and also encourage you to start with Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth and Black Skins, White Masks if you are feeling this. Basically, all of these scholars would argue that the Black body is socially dead- and that society is dependent on its status as dead. This all means that when we begin to unravel anti-Black police brutality, lynching, the trans atlantic slave trade, and foreign sponsored genocide on the African continent- we understand that the world functions as the Black body exists in a non-human/subhuman realm. We understand that to be Black means that your body is a commodity- its role in our world-system is to produce, and when it doesn't in the manner society wants, it is regulated to a death that will never be quantified or qualified.
So, folks that really rock with Afro Pessimism (intently, or unintentionally) have a very f*** this shit attitude toward white supremacy and the practice of proving to a white supremacist structure that a Black humanity does exist. This very attitude creates space toward manifesting various realities that serve no other purpose but just being alternative realities within Blackness. Now, whether this type of project is actually liberatory, I do not know, that is a conversation for another time. What I do know is that at least within the realm of contemporary Black music, we can see this performance as very common and misread by the masses. Just very quickly honing back to my defense of Young Thug- although he now has an undeniable pop/rock presence given the success of his release of Jeffrey in 2016, some of his earlier releases addressed a nihilism that can only be developed through a young black male lens. The track, “Quarterback” ft. Migos and PeeWee Longway juxtaposes the exploitation of an all american southern high school Black quarterback with the same lifestyle as someone who could be successful in an informal economy. The song moves us to understand that exploitation and manipulation go hand in hand within a Black existence that is forced to struggle to survive in an anti-Black context.
Ninth grade, quarterback, Washington High
When you in the trap, all these rules apply
Keep it in your lap, not to the side
Been so successful, all your cars glideThese niggas be watching, they speculate
Feeling myself but no masturbation
I’m 22, rich with no education
The world’s gonna end one day, read it in Revelations
Good brain she deserve a scholarship
The pistol like lighters, you know that I pocket itNinth grade I was serving quarterpound
Trap rules, nigga scrap, jugging pounds
Make them move it like John Cena
Catch a nigga bitch while I’m eating
Diamonds on my neck, blinging
In the phantom of the opera leaning
Stephan Burnett, as part of Death Grips, has a song called “Black Quarterback” that dives into the allegorical understanding of a Black person confronted and confined by the state through an interaction of a police pull-over. Here are some of the lyrics below:
I’m so black quarterback, throw off this app by his badge
Blare my organ for juice, pipes spike blonde kinks on my boots
Approach me licking his fur, whining, “I demand a word”
Swine must be the all the way hatched, hella yolk raining down his chest
Clucking so fucking hard, glance heartbeat through his vest
So I’m like, “Go ahead, blood,” but my mind’s on my wrist
Five minutes pass, I’m-a have to make you my piss
Gimp just kept shaking so I had to braid him like this
Comfort over freedom, pave a path of leisure, have it all
Freedom over comfort, give you back so much leisure, feel small
Xeroxed man dressed in gauze, spider silk, and menopause
Mustache showered with applause, squished out packets like taco sauce
Gather crowd, laugh it off, Mr. Zogged by your boss
Burnett’s relationship to the police officer in that moment is akin to acknowledging the police officers gaze as dialetical, as the truth in question is if the Black body exists as human or just as Black for the officer and the character that has been pulled over. The initial retort of physical silence redeemed by internal anger and conflict can be examined as a continued practice of a Black nihilist performance. Further in the song, the character rejects an allegiance to the preconceived performance of Blackness the police officer expects from the driver.
I’m so black quarterback, air it out, albino
Black quarterback in all black
He’s so white, no
I’m so black quarterback in all black, albinoDangling out the
Waning in the (Black quarterback)
Kicked under the
Vague it on the
Me versus the
Losing to the (Black quarterback in all black)
Cackling like the
Crackling through the
Cool despite the
Abusing the
Lunar as the
Space between the
Fucked beyond the
Eddie as the head that wears us out
The song ends with the character contemplating his own reality in comparison to the perceived Black reality ( read: Black threat) he holds in the police officers imagination. But, nothing is done to actually resolve this conflict between both characters. This “it is what it is” element to what could be understood as a political stance is what has become an excuse for folks to disregard the potential of a Black political nihilism/negation. Needless to say, Burnett’s lack of public interviews or even motivation to his explain himself as a musician as part of this political stance has probably contributed to his unpopularity with Black audiences. As a fan of Death Grips, who is Black, this is really annoying but we can change this. Sonically, the rage that Zach Hill coerces into a cadence that fits the intense melodic intonations of Burnett’s lyrical content which could range from cyberwarfare to suicide/internal isolation. All of this creates a live setting where exciting does not even begin to explain the mosh-like communal barbarian sensations you feel and dance to. If you think seeing ASAP Rocky and Co is lit, then Death Grips is the blaze of fire that offsets the apocalypse.
Pan-Africanism and Afro-Pessimism are philosophies within the Black Radical Tradition that have given us tools to contemporarily explain what Black folks are thinking, feeling and seeing. Granted, I am sure both Bob Marley and Stephan Burnett would refute both political ideologies as part of their identity because both artists are not into the politics that come with identity. However, I think using Black radical philosophical traditions to complicate and honor Black creativity as it acts as a mode of resistance to Anti-Black structures is something both artists would think is a cool way to spend some time.