ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$:
I want to introduce you to a new character in the mix of our lens of postcolonialism in music. The idea for this one is a full call-out to the American people. The artist that we are going to talk about is also from New York, but the Brooklyn side of New York. The way that we look at him is that in his music he uses the boom-bap style and New York influence to create a more indie influence in the songs and art that he produces, and that is proven time and time again with his art. I say art because he is also a producer in the film industry. One short film that I enjoy more than most is called Two Distant Strangers, it's on Netflix, but today I want to look at his early works, which carry a combined ideal in ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ by Joey Bada$$.
At the time, there was civil unrest in the nation. This was during the first presidential term of Donald Trump, where Americans were put off by what Trump was putting out into the air. The idea that a president wasn't on your side, for people of color, was something a lot of us hadn't experienced in a while. Every artist in the world, from comedians to musicians to producers, made it clear that we will not stand for this. What made it so interesting is that as a nation we needed a comeback. We needed art to show our voices, and then we have this influence, this trend that Joey created. When it comes to that...
Today we are going to look at his song "Land of the Free” The fourth song on the album ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$. The song talks about the history of African Americans and the idea that we don't need the ways of Trump while trying to fix the streets of American culture because that is our culture. Having a president that spoke to us the way he did was telling. As of 2016, Trump frequently asked Black voters, "What do you have to lose?" by voting for him, citing poverty, failing schools, and lack of jobs in some communities.
The lens that we are using for Bada$$ is ideology and postcolonialism to dissect the ideas being told in the song. This song perfectly calls out the people in higher power in the political world. The framework comes from the introspections of Louis Althusser's "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses." He says something really powerful about the modern discourse of the state and how we treat people: "It is also possible that democracy, as an ideology and/or a governmental form, is also coterminous with capitalism, as democracy gives the 'illusion' that all people are equal, and have equal power and hence masks relations of economic exploitation." The illusion that we are all equal, but I think that Joey puts it into an interesting, worldly view:
"Can't change the world 'less we change ourselves / Die from the sicknesses if we don't seek the health / All eyes be my witness when I speak what's felt / Full house on my hands, the cards I was dealt / Three K's, Two A's in AmeriKKKa / I'm just a black spade spawn out the nebula / And everything I do or say today that's worthwhile / Will for sure inspire action in your first child / I'll begin my verse now"
Let's break this down. There are three K's, talking about the KKK, the Ku Klux Klan, the idea that the group didn't believe that we are all equals. The idea of there being no equality tied to Anglo-Saxon heritage. Bada$$ tells us that we are not even on the same level as them, not an equal, but a pawn in the chess game that these people in power call life.
The next thing I want to point out is the two A's in AmeriKKKa. This ties to the idea that there are two different Americas in the United States. Historically, when we look at it, the oppressors became inventive in the idea of separating people. During Jim Crow, one example was the idea of neighborhoods in the suburbs, the idea being to regulate without appearing to be part of the problem. They would create something called redlining — the systematic denial of services to residents of certain areas based on race or ethnicity. The idea was to remove anyone who was not of British or "true American" blood, pushing the notion that people aren't the same if you were anything other than the purely white ideals in the political structure of America. Those ideas and divisions created the mistreatment of others, including people of color. The so-called "pure Americans" created literacy tests and rules about where people could and couldn't go if it was their "side." But that's not the whole point, we all know that America has a racist history. Let's go back to breaking down Mr. Bada$$.
The next thing that he says in this song is:
"Sometimes I speak and I feel like it ain't my words / Like I'm just a vessel channeling inside this universe / I feel my ancestors arrested inside of me / It's like they want me to shoot my chance and change society / But how do I go about it? Tell me where I start? / My destiny rerouted when I chose to follow heart / You told to follow suit, but tell me what it do for you? / Except weigh you down, now you trapped inside the cubicle they built for us / The first step in the change is to take notice / Realize the real games that they tried to show us / 300 plus years of them cold shoulders"
Bada$$ tells us that he doesn't know if his words are getting through to his audience. He goes on to tell us that it feels like he is saying something his ancestors are trying to tell us: "I feel my ancestors arrested inside of me / It's like they want me to shoot my chance and change society / But how do I go about it?"
He's debating whether it should be through art or his voice that makes the ultimate difference, and he tries to work that out right here. This is like a fourth-wall-breaking moment in the song. It shows a conversation about what he wants to do as America is breaking down around him. He seems to be breaking too. He wants something more, and we all do. He shows us, as humans throughout the song, that he would like us to be better to do better. But he also goes on to say:
"Except weigh you down, now you trapped inside the cubicle they built for us / The first step in the change is to take notice / Realize the real games that they tried to show us / 300 plus years of them cold shoulders / Yet 300 million of us still got no focus / Sorry America, but I will not be your soldier / Obama just wasn't enough, I just need some more closure / And Donald Trump is not equipped to take this country over / Let's face facts 'cause we know what's the real motives"
Bada$$ talks about the discourse of how he feels responsible to the American people, to step up and be the next person to carry the torch. He combats that ideal by saying that one Black president wasn't enough and that we are still behind on equal rights. The idea being pushed, that Black Americans have had their turn at equality, is a false ideology to the oppressor.
Lugones puts this into perspective. Lugones says everyone belongs to a racial state and is thus interpellated as a subject within the ideologies of that racial state. Within the state, however, exist marked and unmarked racial categories, what Lugones calls "victims" and "oppressors," meaning people of color and white people. The comparison between Lugones and Bada$$ is that they both know the victims and oppressors are operating within the same system. Bada$$ calls out the oppressors in "the land of the free." There is an idea in the Black community that nothing was built by the oppressors for them has always been built on the backs of the oppressed. We live on stolen land, and yet we are denied the very idea of what "freedom" means in the United States:
"In the land of the free, is for the free loaders / Leave us dead in the street then be your organ donors / They disorganized my people, made us all loners / Still got the last names of our slave owners / In the land of the free, it's for the free loaders / Leave us dead in the street then be your organ donors / They disorganized my people, made us all loners / We can't change the world 'less we change ourselves / Die from the sicknesses if we don't seek the health / All eyes be my witness when I speak what's felt / Full house on my hands, the cards I was dealt / Three K's, Two A's in AmeriKKKa / I'm just a black spade spawn out the nebula / And everything I do or say today that's worthwhile / Will for sure inspire action"
Writers of all kinds have trouble knowing what is right and wrong because the world keeps on changing. The certainty of what we would like to do when it comes to a better future — I stand by this as a writer. I don't know if my words hit my audience, but at least I can put something out there.
