How Black Music Lost Its Soul

[@BeastNationXIV]

Short answer: Capitalism.

[@nairsheasterling9457]

Well, that intersectional with the social/cultural commodification of blackness. Which is both capitalism and white supremacy in intersection.

[@lilbilliam]

Yes

[@nerdfantasyxox]

Capitalism that black people don’t benefit as majority the way others are able to monopolize from sharing their culture while retaining ownership of it.

[@StakeFromJateFarm]

Blackitalism

[@BellamyJay]

Racial capitalism*

[@amuhammad27]

In the words of Danny Brown: “I don’t even fuck wit yall niggas Y’all let Jack Harlow sell y’all chicken.”

[@MichaelTurner856]

Love that song

[@amuhammad27]

@@MichaelTurner856 whole album is 🔥

[@BlackVulcan22]

​@@amuhammad27 I remember playing that on the way to work, on a Bose sound system with borderline too much base, where less would be an injustice, but more would screw with the listenability. It did, in fact, scare the 304s in the lanes adjacent to me

[@amuhammad27]

@@BlackVulcan22 🤣🤣🤣

[@williamk6605]

@@BlackVulcan22lmao

[@Attivian]

Taking American music history courses made me realize how much of American culture was built off the work of black people, from music, comedy, aesthetics etc... and yet people somehow choose to be racist and believe their ass is superior to anyone else.

[@josiahattlin2798]

except that is just delusional cope. American culture comes from white culture. nothing blacks did on their own. from its government, to its culture, to its novels and books, to its aesthetics, to its architecture, to its way of life came from white people. America is undeniably a white civilization with a white culture. you are just engaging in the typical "black people started everything" trope to: 1)pull a fast one 2) cope and overcompensate for your inferiority complex of having accomplished so little. Even what you consider "black culture" came from white southerners. america is an extension of white culture and civilization. Everything blacks have done in a America is by being put on to and civilized by a white society and learning in the foundations of knowledge white people pioneered in.

[@landresking3988]

American history in a nutshell

[@diggao77]

The funniest shit it's call black lazy when in the past, they worked and the others races dont

[@zachwashtub2250]

@@diggao77 imagine being in the mindset of viewing people the way that slavers grouped them, but today

[@jessewhite2879]

We don’t. The fact you believe we think that is crazy. You’ve been manipulated by this huge delusion lol

[@lilbilliam]

Y'all...so I didn't know enough about country to know it's also black, doesn't surprise me but I didn't know enough to say so in the video. Forgive me 😅

[@JustAJauneArc]

Country's roots are INCREDIBLY black, and believe me when I say I'm offended about what white folks did to country music. Lord in Heaven, I'm sorry for what my people have done to that poor genre.

[@kensmechanicalaffair]

KZbin Arnold Schlutz.

[@kensmechanicalaffair]

KZbin Arnold Schlutz.

[@olliepops1124]

Yeah, I was pretty surprised that you were given us that one of all the genres/styles lol

[@terrygallagher2545]

Of course it's black. Beyonce invented it.

[@jnyerere]

Artists like PJ Morton, Jazmine Sullivan, BJ the Chicago Kid, Kenyon Dixon, Ledisi, Joonie, and even Ari Lennox kinda give me hope that maybe the Soul in R&B is not completely gone. There are artists that are pushing back. But we certainly need more of them.

[@nervousallday]

I strongly believe that listeners will go where you take them. If you was to take everything that is on contemporary Black radio right now and replace it with those artists, I am sure that it would be the new standard. Meanwhile, we got to keep boosting them wherever we can because the culture depends on it.

[@unfazedjae2645]

Add Ravyn Lenae and Durand Bernarr :)

[@TheErikaShow]

And we have to support them like crazy people, too. They don’t get the same promotion as other artists. I feel you.✊🏾

[@erisgh0sted961]

Right. R&B is like sexualized love poetry. There really isn't anything else quite like it.

[@Remember_the_Time]

@@erisgh0sted961 R&B used to be Romantic or it was about heartbreak etc. It was more sensual. Now it's similar to Hip-hop/rap with how sexual it has become.

[@yoreomerey1753]

Bruno also credits and cites the culture, he acknowledges and respects it. He never pretends he created it from scratch.

[@majorlazor5058]

I get that but it still doesn’t erase the fact he is a culture vulture. He literally imitates black music. If he stuck to one genre of black music and did something new with it, emphasized his own upbringing and/or culture, I think people would have less of an issue.

[@anaknangfilipina5846]

@@majorlazor5058 Lol. Okay. You say that. But it is easier said than done. Singing is different from rapping. It would be OG if someone could rap poetry like a Haiku. But, no one would listen to traditional Filipino/Hawaiian music. And would more than likely find it strange that it’s in your R&B/Soul. A lot of people want originality yet doesn’t like to consume it.

[@d2dar459]

​@@majorlazor5058 To be fair to Bruno, he grew up performing loads of different genres in a cabaret-style act with his folks since he was like 5 or some shit. He's always been musically all over the place. I get and agree with what u say about sticking to one genre and infusing it with ur heritage (Nobody calls Outlandish vultures, and they're not), but I think the fact that he cares enough to study and credit the originators and innovators of his chosen genre counts for a lot in the vulture argument. A lot of people just lift the face value aesthetics, some even disrespect the very genre they lifted from after doing so (MFC is the absolute worst for this).

[@majorlazor5058]

@@anaknangfilipina5846 I never said it was easy. The “easy way” is the rout Bruno chose. Don’t get me wrong. I like his music, but it’s hollow. I can’t stand watching his music videos because all we see is a black-passing nonblack person with a bunch of black backup singers and musicians behind him… it just cries blackfishing. If I never saw his music videos I might feel different, but I can’t erase my knowledge. For example of music that took a black style and made it their own is Jawaiian music (Hawaiian Raggae). They play Raggae style music, use Ukuleles and their native language and has a new authentic genre that doesn’t feel like a performance… which coincidentally Bruno spent part of his childhood in Hawaii among a large Filipino population.

[@joelhenry5489]

How could he? Who doesn't know what black music sounds like? You're grateful for that?

[@darthmisogyny3828]

Jack was straight being pushed by the industry as the new face of white rappers, the fact that both him and Khalid was nominated for Rap album of the year over people like lupe or Freddy Gibbs is crazy

[@thebigcapitalism9826]

I’m not Black and I’m white-passing so I don’t know how much my opinion counts/should count, but I temper my disappointment by mentally adding in an explicit way the implicit part of that award title: “Rap Album of the Year (That Isn’t Even Adjacent to Upsetting the Status Quo)” or “Rap Album of the Year (That Appeals to White Shareholders/Audiences)”. These award shows are meant to uphold the status quo of both the music industry and wider society; they are bourgeois events with a working class audiences. Hell, I’d say it’s an honor to not be nominated since that means you’re not sucking up (at least not enough to appeal to their pockets and audiences); hell, if it weren’t for K-Dot’s magical talent to combine his largely liberal, if still powerfully and penetratingly conscious, lyrics and ability to make bops, he never would have achieved the level of notoriety nor the profit he has seen these last few decades.

[@Hoodiehov215]

That's not jacks fault I think he really respect hip hop/ rap and he works hard on his bars. He don't rap pretending to be some top shooter in his hood or that he took the 94 keys that jayz lost and flooded the streets with hard and dope lmao if he grew up with blacks and afro-latinos he gonna love the music he gonna get the drip he gonna wear the jewelry and assimilate. Which by the way any type of people are gonna assimilate into the neighborhood and it's politics and culture if there parents let them hang out there.

[@katlynnbell]

What’s so wrong with that they been doing that to fully black women for years all the most important ones are biracial

[@amb600cd0]

​@@katlynnbell the answer to your question is in your comment

[@JTScott1988]

@@Hoodiehov215 we are black people not blacks. Secondly Harlow grew up like Ariana grande- in a gated all white suburb devoid of anything resembling black culture.

[@MrEek11]

i would love to see a video on the black culture influence on punk and hardcore. I mean, bands like bad brains defined the genre.

[@lilbilliam]

Who gave you my upload schedule?

[@joelhenry5489]

There's a black proto-punk band named Death that was making punk rock music in the early 1970s.

[@rockinroller25]

@@lilbilliam I look forward to your continued dope videos and now you teasing a video on the influence of black culture on punk just got my hyped AF.

[@majorlazor5058]

Punk music arguable came from Ska, and ska music is clearly reggae with horns. Even the whole punk aesthetic came out of the Rude Boy culture which originated from Jamaican British young men in the 60’s/early 70’s.

[@MrEek11]

​@@majorlazor5058 you are thinking of the 90s ska punk thing for the ska influence. agree with the rude boys influence but early 50s rock and roll was a huge influence for bands like the ramones and the danzig era misfits

[@foodiusmaximus]

Here’s a bit of a mindfuck; the banjo is essentially an African musical instrument. It had a central place in black traditional music. And now? It’s seen as the whitest of white things.

[@XxQueenChristinaxX]

So is Country and Americana music in general.

[@keviabernard5051]

I read somewhere that the root of country music came from blacks Also the first cowboys were originally Africans Americans

[@kensmechanicalaffair]

So is Folk, Bluegrass and country. Black people got the nerve to agree that's white people music...can't make this shit up.

[@kensmechanicalaffair]

@@keviabernard5051 Look up Arnold Schlutz from Kentucky. His father passed down guitar a popular finger style to his son. Unsurprisingly, the music named the technique after a white man. It was called "Travis picking" ironically Travis didn't create the shit and they gave the orginator no credit. I had to dig for months to find out that style of guitar playing, was pioneered by a black man...they smile in your face till they can steal your shit, then they kill you for it.

[@kahyui2486]

Times change?

[@joelhenry5489]

Any black person defending culture vultures: try and rent an apartment or open a store in a non-black neighborhood. Try and get a job in a store not owned by black people. Try and get in a relationship with a non-black partner and catalogue the response of their family. Other groups ruthlessly put tribal barriers between themselves and black people. Music is one of the few things that we have mastered and we just give it away.

[@MrEek11]

every community does this. we are tribal by nature. unfortunately, for the last couple of centuries american and euro victorian culture has been dominent in the west.

[@joelhenry5489]

@@MrEek11 No, black people do not do this. Who owns the stores in black communities? Who owns the buildings black people rent from? What happened when Lil Nas X tried to get his songs played on country music stations? Why is it every major form of popular music, all of which have been created by black people, all have a non-black face winning all the awards and making the most money?

[@lilahdog568]

I've seen plenty of black people do all those things just fine. I'm not denying that racism exists in America still but you are out of your mind insane if you think there is as much resistance as you're implying. In 1960 maybe. Not today. If you find that interacting with non blacks is like being in a war Joel, have you ever considered moving to a country that is majority black?

[@fluidthought42]

I think all the difficulties of such endeavors are if not more attributable to systemic factors then at least strengthened and defended by those systemic factors. After all, due to the effects of redlining and white flight creating the modern American inner-city ghetto, "Black neighborhood" is synonymous with "ghetto" in many parts of the country. And the thing about the ghetto is, it's designed to make it hard to escape, even if you flee one ghetto the system is designed so another ghetto is ready to snatch you up the moment you falter and fall. To show what I mean more directly, think about how (educated and wealthy) African immigrants can have an easier time moving into the middle class and White spaces than African American people do. This isn't, as right wing pundits would have the country believe, because African-American culture is "deeply flawed" or anything of that sort, but rather because they don't inherit all the socioeconomic ramifications of growing up in ghettos and inheriting poverty. In contrast to legal African immigrants, there's the communities of the children of illegal Latino immigrants in the US who have outcomes statistically very much more similar to Black Americans than they are to White Americans. Now many Latino cultures have problems with colorism and anti-black biases (or rather, often a national identity that asks everyone to abandon any smaller identifiers of ethnicity... while still being racist and colorist as fuck in the bigger picture). However, if you've been in any city ghetto you can often find black and brown communities living if not side by side then close enough for our children to regularly share schools and classrooms. (Yes, I'm Latino and born and raised in the ghetto) This isn't too different from how early 20th century working class communities in cities operated with Black and Eastern European immigrants or Italian or Irish communities cohabitating neighborhoods, even if one block or street had a higher ratio of one ethnicity the next "ethnic enclave" was a few streets away, not miles away and separated by a freeway. White Protestant America uplifted their White immigrants while abandoning their Black communities. Furthermore this separation was maintained by systems of racism in our laws, customs and institutions that oftentimes utilizes economics as a proxy for race. tl;dr culture vultures are a symptom, not the disease, and popping pimples by dismissing culture vultures isn't how you treat an open wound, which is what ghettos and it's existence as a tool for upholding White Supremacy is on America's soul

[@johnnyviking8152]

​@@joelhenry5489you had me until Little Nas X

[@DrAnarchy69]

Sister Rosetta Tharpe originated the fast picking guitar riffs that people like Chuck Berry used in early rock b roll. Tharpe did it with gospel music, so the connection is even stronger than what you put in the video. Overall great video, I guess I’m “Yes and”-ing you

[@lilbilliam]

Nah you on it! I didn't have time to get into the gospel connection and really connect the dots between that, delta blues, country, rockabilly etc. and how the combination of all that made rock music cuz that would've been an extra hr

[@Jimmy1982Playlists]

As with what happened to the blues... and jazz... and rock'n'roll... and - African-American culture is basically the foundation of almost all American culture. It _should be_ impossible to love just about any aspect of American culture without cherishing the black community, but millions and millions of people suffer cognitive dissonance to a stunning degree! At least there's been a major return of "real" HipHop in recent years.

[@fbafoundationalbuck-broken6011]

you do know culture exist outside of music?

[@FASBLAQUE]

All American music was created by Blacks. Even square dancing. The only music that was not created by Blacks is native American music.

[@warlordjr.jr.]

​@@fbafoundationalbuck-broken6011 you know music wasn't the only cultural contribution of Black people in America?

[@truvy_5544]

in order for other blks to get in the door they have to network with blk Americans even if they are Jamaican American or Nigerian American ( blk)

[@fleebee4115]

Yeah I'll take it a step further and say African Americans created modern music period. We literally deconstructed Europen music theory through Jazz.

[@mikailagray]

The point that Bruno Mars has more authenticity and talent is that can buffers him from people gatekeeping makes complete sense. I love soul and before I could talk I would hum Isley brothers and I love Bruno because he has that comfort and confidence of his musical abilities and he is extremely talented. In terms of non-black rappers I wish that many of the bigger names would focus on their legit stories and experiences and go from there. Rap and hip hop comes from poetry and I think that sometimes people can forget. One of my favorite non-black rappers is dumbfoundead because he speaks to his experiences authentically and also props others up including Anderson Paak. Just like with comedy you have to have it come from a rooted place for it to really reach and make an impact.

[@lilbilliam]

I think that’s the part a lot of people miss. You don't have to be "from the hood" to be a good rapper. I'm nit gon lie it helps, but hip hop is literally based in the dozens which itself is based in Afrian vocal warfare traditions, it's really interesting

[@BluEx22329]

Anderson is 2/3 black American

[@mileenakhan4778]

The issue is that Bruno is afforded opportunities black soul artists aren’t because he is non black. Yes his music is great. And he may have an authentic appreciation for our culture. But he is elevated because America(including black ppl) would rather see someone non black performing soul music. Anderson is also biracial. They contribute to black erasure because they’re the only ones being pushed in the mainstream. Durand Bernarr, Brent Faiyaz, PJ Morton are just as talented as Bruno. Hell Durand will sing them all under a table. But the point I’m making is that Bruno and Anderson are privileged due to their racial ambiguity(immediate saturation). No matter how talented they may be. When R&B music was gatekept by black people; there was way more diversity in the artists who went mainstream and got FM radio play.

[@GrapeTesting101]

@@mileenakhan4778 Afforded? Bro looks black. You think he's white passing enough that he'd get by easily? He barely even mention his filipino heritage.

[@MultiBuck23]

@@mileenakhan4778Amen

[@sjbrooksy45]

I don't know much about Malone, but I do like some of his songs. I think, other than being talented, Em was embraced by the hip hop community (not white kids in the suburbs who wear du-rags) not only because of where he grew up, but because he wasn't rapping about blunts, 40s, and bitches. He was mostly talking about his experiences and his feelings towards them. When he played a character it wasn't a drug dealing gangster, which would have been called out immediately, he instead played the drug consuming, crazy white boy.

[@xboxgamer474246]

At 22:31 I’d say the biggest thing about R&B is that you can’t just be a good singer, you have to be a good actor as well. You have to sing in a way that makes a song feel personal to everyone who listens.

[@ATTACKofthe6STRINGS]

I doubt I ever will, but I pray that I can remember to express thanks to the author of this comment in some way if I ever become anything in music. This is the way I conceptualize music in general, and the entire goal of my performance of it is to work together with a group of people to impact others with music, expressing ourselves in a way that, as you so beautifully put it, “makes a song feel personal to everyone who listens”.

[@Skoopyghost]

To be a good musician, singers count too. You have to be good at a instrument too.

[@brandonbates9259]

2 prime examples would be Sisqo and Wanya from boyz 2 men

[@cindytwo3260]

When I listened to the earlier Bruno Mars stuff I immediately picked up that he was Filipino. So to some southeast asian ears, at least, those roots are noticeable. I did assume he was blasian for the longest time. But I'm glad that he is mindful of giving proper credit and respecting the legacy of black pioneers. His music is meant to appeal to a wider audience and that's who gets awards and etc. I think black music made by black artists, rooted in the black experience, just isn't going to have that mass appeal, and isn't going to get the same level of recognition. But the core audience for that kind of music isn't going anywhere and I think such loyalty from a dedicated fan base will keep black music for black folks alive.

[@joelhenry5489]

"I think black music made by black artists, rooted in the black experience, just isn't going to have that mass appeal, and isn't going to get the same level of recognition." Yes, because we live in a very anti-black world. So the culture vultures like Bruno swoop in and win the awards and get the money.

[@ricanredru4760]

You do understand and realize that Bruno Mars only gave himself that stage name because he couldn't Market himself by his birth name Peter Hernandez. Bruno Mars is half Puerto Rican and honestly he's more in tune with that side of his heritage then the Filipino part! The music industry what didn't want to allow him to do the type of music he wanted to under his first man because they thought and told him to only focus on Latin American Music when clearly he was inspired by other kinds of genres. So people and this blog over here calling him a culture vulture just because he's not a black man is a very slap-in-the-face

[@cindytwo3260]

@@ricanredru4760 I think the fact that he got pigeonholed for his real name really sucks. But no one is calling him a culture vulture. Did you even watch the video? Or the top comments?

[@ricanredru4760]

@@cindytwo3260 no I'm only responding to the comments and some of these blog of him being called a culture vulture even if he acknowledges that he is inspired by black music. Basically trying to say by him doing black invitations of music that he is Voltaren off of the cultures experience which it is stupid because if he's properly giving his due credit to the people who started the musical artforms that's not appropriation

[@Doomer253]

@@ricanredru4760 Those "critics" are dumb. Real lovers of Black music know Bruno is invited to the Cookout.

[@SymbiSpidey]

Seeing you and FD Signifire collab is like watching the black Avengers come together

[@travelingjohn69]

They love our music our soul our rhythm.....But not us. People who don't respect and appreciate you will only steal from you.

[@friendlyfire2374]

Is that what you know or is that what they teach you??? What happened to getting to know people before passing judgement? What im getting from this Is a follower who doesn’t know how to think for themselves. No one talks about about how black people took heavy metal music and made it their own. You dont never hear any whites complain about how black people take what white people made. Because “SOME” of them aren’t a bunch of stuck-up snobs. But the moment a white person does something thats made by black people It becomes a problem,People start crying and whining “OOHH THEY ARE STEALING OUR CULTURE.”,Blacks start throwing (Tables,Ladders and Chairs.),Hugfing and puffing like little elementary school kids,and Blacks start jumping hurdles over the fence just to argue with that white person who simply just minds their own business. Idgaf what you say or what any black say cuz YES I AM BLACK!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT THIS MINDSET!!!!! I always tell black folks If you have a problem with how the world is progressing because like it or not this will go on for the rest of your life then go protest or go talk to your therapist about it. No one is going to stop their life all because you dont like “The white man” stealing from you. 🤷🏽‍♂️

[@CeeNeye_Music]

Bruno is Puerto Rican too bro. Latinos and black folk always made music together.

[@BURRBRAND]

They are trying to gatekeep black culture, like they were the ones tasked with guarding and purifying it, unbeknownst to them they're just racialists, 2% thruth and 98% opinion, they git doja cat up there because the black part of her is not American black

[@wais_45]

It's crazy how much influence African Americans have had in the United States and around the world. When I went to Japan with my brother I would sometimes get people asking for pics or telling me how much they love hip hop culture. Thing is, im not African American, im Somali Canadian. AA's have elevated the image in such positive ways and it has had a big influence amongst the Black diaspora. AA writers, inventors, revolutionaries, acitvists, athetes, etc has had such an imporant impact on my life even though I already have a culture of my own and grew up in an entirely different country. I think a lot of us our generally thankful for the culture that AAs have brough to the world, and sometimes it looks like we're being "vultures" but I guarantee you a lot of us are just appreciative and want to be involved in something that has changed our lives for the better.

[@awkwardsanchez6231]

Respect

[@eve3363]

And Somalis are very racist against non Horn of African people.

[@prowl2288]

Tell that to the Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal rap scene 😂🤣. They look goofy doing it too 😭😂

[@rubyy.7374]

@Donaldo Thomoson They don’t want anybody of any race in their country, not even other Asians.

[@diggao77]

​@@donaldothomoson yep. Black people have to wake up!

[@ThomAvella]

lots to chew on here for me as a white saxophonist. the debate among people in the jazz scene lately is over the word "jazz" itself, with people like nicholas payton and theo croker leading a charge against the word, and seemingly any label in general apart from "black american music". they view "jazz" in a similar way to how "blue-eyed soul" was framed in this discussion, a version of "the real thing" that's more palpable to white sensibilities. i'm not sure how much i agree with payton, croker, etc. regarding everything they have to say about why they don't like "jazz" but the discussion they've sparked has definitely made me more aware of the privilege i came into studying the jazz tradition with. these days most jazz students in music college are white, as is much of the faculty at those colleges. it's possible to get an entire degree in jazz music and never learn anything from a black mentor. the state of it!

[@nykareem2001]

We don't want your kind in jazz music

[@olliepops1124]

I play with a quartet (occasionally a quintet) with a stupendous keyboard player who probably has more music knowledge than anyone I’ve ever met. She was turned onto a lot of big band and early bebop stuff by her mother initially as a toddler, and lived a very remote life in the Virgin Islands being homeschooled by her mother and exclusively hearing jazz. She talks about how she didn’t realize that jazz was far removed from being the leading music of black Americans basically until she got to Emory University in ATL for undergraduate. She describes taking the Marta (train) to class from her apartment around midtown and seeing all these black people that she presumed were blaring Oscar Peterson or Johnny Hodges on their iPods. Then getting to her intro composition class and she was the only black woman and one of two black people there period. She also once told me she thought the occasional piano sonatas her mom would sprinkle into the playlist occasionally was just weird improvs that Art Tatum or Phineas Newborn jr we’re doing in between takes with their ensembles. No clue it was a totally different type of western music being played and composed by very different sorts of musicians. Lol

[@123612100]

Seems like a lot of black people have abandoned jazz other than if it's in a rap sample.

[@jalenchildress716]

Yoooooooo nice af to see you collab with FD. I've always thought you 2 were more or less 2 sides of the same coin. Nice to see yall link up and make a video about black music on this good Sunday? This is all the proof that Jesus is black that anyone should need

[@nickv1212]

You don't typically see "two sides of the same coin" used in a positive way. But hey, I guess there's two sides to that coin.

[@theleelife313]

A few things: Doja is the Sage Steele of RnB. Yeah. Being from Detroit, I wish the hip hop artist that is first associated with the city was J Dilla instead of Em. Not that Em is bad, far from it, but when I think of growing up in the D in the 90s, Dilla's music fits the vibe more. Shout out to the Soulquarians btw. I feel like Macklemore caught a little too much flack. Dude was in a lose/lose when he won that Grammy. With him being the guy that made not 1, but 2, songs about white privilege, apologizing to Kenny and all of Black America shouldn't be a shock. I'd rather that then him acting like he's God's gift to rap like drake does. Overall, I'm all for people expressing themselves as long as it's coming from a place that's authentic. Like logic for example, is corny as hell, but that's who he is so I can respect that. (He also catches a lot of worthy flack since he made everybody.)

[@lilbilliam]

I feel you about Em but I mean...we all know why he got the rub and it ain't his bars. I really only Brought Macklemore up because he made the apology public, like we know what the Grammys are about anyway so it wasn't mad he got the dub, but him publicizing that text made him and Kendrick look kinda bad tbh. I feel like Logic wouldn't be so vilified if his whole persona weren't based on his tragic mulattoness. Like bruh we get it, can you talk about something else for a minute?

[@theleelife313]

@@lilbilliam That's the thing about Logic. Before Everybody dropped, being biracial wasn't something he talked about much. I was a mixtape junkie from like 02 -13 and I used to think he was going to go somewhere after he dropped his first official album, under pressure (Still one of my favorite debut albums of the mixtape era dudes.) Sadly though he was burning out after that. The incredible true story was cool, concept wise, but you can tell he swagger jacked kanye and drake on some tracks. On the other hand, Everybody, sonically anyway, was doing something relatively unique (outside of the travis scott jack on the first track). So that part was good but my man's had nothing left lyrically besides the biracial shit and big message songs like the suicide song. He had a period of pure trash after but starting with no pressure, he has started making albums with good tracks on it. I'd say Vinyl days is worth listening to just for that mixtape era nostalgia, especially with the features. All that said though, he's still a cornball who can flow so don't mistake my praise as he's Kendrick. He's better than what Drake is now though, but that's not saying much since drake doesn't have to try anymore.

[@somniatic]

I’m with you about being ok with ppl expressing themselves as long as it comes from an authentic place. If you are being honest and get my brain going with lyrics, with a catchy melody/beat- I like you. I’m no one to elevate, but I’ll appreciate it.

[@nervousallday]

Word to this. I really wish Em would have done a mixtape to all Dilla tracks, collaborated with Black Milk or just invited Elzhi as a guest feature. Those guys have always represented the real Detroit scene and I wish Em would have platformed them as much he did Slaughterhouse. However, I will say that Em wanted the respect of Black people and has always seemed to be well aware that much of his success with white audiences was because they could more closely identify with him. It just so happens that he is genuinely nice.

[@TheBlackAVClub]

@@nervousallday nah drake aint the problem lets leave that alone

[@captainlinsano7739]

Bruno is a born showman, doing his thing since he was a child in Hawaii. Can’t knock his talent and 24k is a damn near perfect album.

[@seanmanscott]

While I'm not a person of color, I am a student of sociology, having earned my BA in sociology and political science, so I very much enjoy watching your videos and learning more about the issues you're talking about and hearing your perspectives on black culture and other relevant topics. Do you ever do any speaking tours or teach at a University? I'd love for you to come to my alma mater sometime to hear you speak.

[@ascetix444]

As a hwhite musician, I do owe the majority of my musical influence to black composers and creators. Every genre I operate in (house, dub/ska/reggae, jazz, funk, and ofc hip hop, plus the rock and soul and blues I grew up on) is founded in African-American music and culture. This is a really informative video for me in terms of operating in a white supremacist and capitalist music industry.

[@vanellesmith4598]

We know all of that already. Take your knowledge and tell your own people. They're the ones with the denial.

[@ascetix444]

@@vanellesmith4598 I do that, but a lot of people don't listen even still. Fortunately I'm in a position where I get to educate young people about these constructs, and ofc I absolutely emphasize the origins of these genres. It's integral to the cultural function of music. Sorry if I sounded like I was just parroting the video, I was just giving my perspective on the topic.

[@rockinroller25]

This has easily become one of my favorite videos you uploaded. I grew up in a heavily diverse music household with my mom from Puerto Rico and my dad being a white dude from New Jersey who played keyboards in bands for long before I was born. Growing up they’d go out of their way to show me all the roots of music I was into, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have been taught the history of genres I love which I think also has helped me become a better musician. Now I do session work on guitar and bass for local producers. The content you covered throughout the video had me cheesing so hard with a grin out of joy hearing your coverage on a important topic around music.

[@CrimeandMysteries]

What's crazy is, I found this channel looking for the bill Cosby show "lil bill" and this came up!. I subscribed after watching a few videos

[@ArtemisUnderscoreJ]

I scrumpt 🤣

[@morganqorishchi8181]

As a Central Asian American, I found this video really interesting, and was surprised midway through this video to find out an Asian rapper even existed. Growing up, my father emphasized to me that rap was a black art form. That meant I couldn't do it, and he was only moderately okay with me listening to it. "It's their art, about their lives - I don't think we really get it," he would tell me. Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park being half Japanese, half white made my father uneasy. He didn't know the term 'cultural appropriation' then and still doesn't, but he's an Uzbek immigrant who remembered white Russians singing Uzbek songs and wearing chapans and getting fawned over for it while Uzbeks doing the same thing didn't. The thing that made him eventually come around on Linkin Park was that their lyrics were about mental and emotional problems they personally faced, rather than it being a case of "I'm going to act like I've lived the black experience". Much as my dad was trying to prevent his kids from being yet more kids in all-white towns who try to dress like everyone in rap videos do and poorly imitate AAVE, a thing he finds absolutely insulting and insufferable, I think he may have missed some nuance here. The problem isn't inherently with white people singing in a black originated genre. The problem is in the putting on of blackness like a chapan, to be taken off later when it's no longer useful to you and discarded. But the bigger problem is how many people who aren't black won't listen to actual black artists but will instead happily listen to non-black people doing the exact same thing. It speaks to an underlying anti-blackness that's still embedded into the minds and unconscious biases of millions of people. Society has not progressed much, if at all, when it comes to being willing to give black people their due accolades for the music they created and popularized.

[@SavāgeBückeṭ]

Amy Winehouse came to my school in 2008 when I was year 8 (7th grade?) I'll never forget everyone running to the front gates to see her. Her voice was beautiful!!!

[@BluEx22329]

​@grounding vedeos what makes a non black person not a cultural vulture if their making r&b

[@BluEx22329]

8 is like 3rd grade

[@BozeDoesGodsWork]

@@groundingvedeos9381itch please Amy Winehouse should be the least of your concerns when your talking about a culture vulture. Don’t you dare insult fucking Winehouse or Teena Marie. Those women wrote their own shit and talked about their own struggles with realness and authenticity. The fuck are you on?

[@AngeBiampandou]

@grounding vedeos Bobby Caldwell, Michael McDonald, Teena Marie, Lisa Stanfield, Jon B, were not culture vultures tho. Neither was Robin Thicke

[@maryconnor6173]

@@groundingvedeos9381Amy respected the culture. She made very clear that her influence and music was black.

[@taylorbugg11]

I love this topic and glad y’all are talking about it. I had been wanting to talk about The Erasure of Soul for some time, but don’t have the right people around me socially to talk about it.

[@Tirrrb]

The intro alone sent me 💀 Finally got time to watch this masterpiece

[@sheresefrancis7691]

Great video! Also even country music has some Black influences in its roots. The banjo was based on a West African instrument.

[@mordakie3805]

there is black country artist..but black peolpe arent the genres demographic

[@stevereyyt]

Bluegrass was influenced by black people in the Appalachian mountains way back supposedly. The stuff I like has the influence and the stuff I don't is Celtic. Just from listening to it. Found that interesting. Not supposed to be a dig but Celtic music does not touch me for some reason.

[@citizencoy4393]

Blk ppl are the creators of country as well they have simply been pushed from their own culture just as they are today.

[@RafaSarriaBustamante]

Facts. All country western, high & lonesome, bluegrass was all invented and cultivated by Black people. 100%

[@stevereyyt]

@@RafaSarriaBustamante Celtic plus African. Plus the zither somehow. A great cultural melding, even though I find most bluegrass annoying.

[@nervousallday]

Black music hasn't lost its soul at all. Any casual listen to a Black radio station on a Sunday morning will quickly remind you that truly soulful Black singers and amazing Black musicians have not gone anywhere. It's just that those gospel influenced artists no longer have a place in either the present day Pop or R&B zeitgeist. This is wild because the Black church, along with the chitlin circuit (which really is adjacent to the Black church culture), is where most of our most enduring artists would receive their musical rights of passage. Most Black music now is the outcome of the secularization of the American public, people drawing their musical inspiration from artists who had already jettisoned much of the gospel and blues influence due to most prominent artists being steered down a more vanilla sound direction, and an Internet culture that rewards short attention spans versus a taste for music that takes a while longer to digest. There is another Stevie Wonder out there. There is another Marvin Gaye out there. There is another Patti Labelle out there. Heck, there is another Keith Sweat out there. There just needs to be media and live performance outlets with the capital and patience to platform those type of singers and REAL musicians enough for that type of music to get a hold again.

[@RTDF516]

Thanks for bringing a point my thinking might not have approached (even though lil' bill kind of alludes to it in the video title!): how much of the direction pop music forms are taking intersect with the secularization of western culture. Removed from the folk blues/church music influences that produced modern blues, jazz and their evolutions, contemporary pop won't have that source for substance and broader cultural relevance- roots that gave Amy Winehouse, Bruno and maybe even John Mayer their appeal. To another of your points, how best to get whoever's doing the steering toward vanilla out from behind the wheel...

[@nervousallday]

@@RTDF516 Radio playlists are centrally controlled and record labels influence those playlists more than anything. Record labels go for pop and hip-hop acts because it appeals to young people with short attention spans. These young people drive the labels choices by which songs they choose to stream and which videos they choose to watch. If there is to be any chance for soulful music to be prominent again, I think we would have to find a number of young, highly talented, and photogenic young people who adhere to that type of vibe and campaign for them like the BTS fans do for them. BTS fans gamed iTunes to drive them up the charts because MP3 download purchases count far more than streams or views. They have to be young because young people need to be able to relate to them. The talent is a no brainer. They also have to be photogenic because a generation of music fans have become accustomed to paying more attention to an artist's image versus their music. It would be a big plus if they were melenated. It also has to be a number of them. One artist would just be an anamoly. It would have to be a large number of people agreeing to get behind a number of artists and be willing to spend a little money so that they can get the attention of the playlist makers. I'm just spitballing, but I think this would be a way to start. I don't know how to jump that off though.

[@Dave102693]

Most people rather listen to mainstream RnB-rapper hybrid artists instead… partially because of the record labels.

[@roxas_brook_skys_7063]

Fd's videos brought me here and i can't be happier. Thank you for the content you make!

[@chreeess]

I think some of this comes down to upbringing and geographics. I grew up with R&B but especially the blues. My dad always told me because he grew up in a Hispanic-majority town, Motown artists like the Supremes were always more popular than the Beetles. In his mind, the Supremes were a bigger and more successful group than the Beetles. He got to the 80s and realized the music he loved from the 70s was always just a variation of the blues and has listened to artists like BB, Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor etc since. That was huge for my development of music taste.

[@chreeess]

I may be wrong, but I’d consider Jazmine Sullivan r&b. Her voice and the stories she tells are just so good 😊 Also love the music of Leela James and Ama Lou. Shamekia Copeland is also a very talented young blues musician. *sorry 500 edits on this comment 😅

[@ewno1566]

@@chreeess “consider?!” What are you talking about Miss Sullivan is literally the definition of soul and R&B why do you think she’s not successful as she should be?

[@chreeess]

@@ewno1566 sorry I just meant that I don’t see her as like pop-r&b, but also that I’m not the arbiter of who is what musical genre. Hence the opinion-based/subjective language 😅

[@mordakie3805]

i agree i grew up on motown and blues because i was raised by grandparents ...also gospel..the only rap that was allowed in my house was run dmc and 2 pac

[@rasheedjamal9091]

​@@mordakie3805 My father caught me listening to NWA when they first came out with "Dopeman". He was like " Let me borrow that".

[@wiljohns8655]

Along the lines of liking black music while not liking black people, I went to a blues concert here in Southwest Virginia (in the heart of Trump country) where Buddy Guy was headlining and one of the first people up was Chris Kingfish Ingram who at 24 has more soul than half of the people there.... but most of the people were there for Kenny Wayne Shepherd, who may be a guy who honors the roots, I don't know. And while Buddy Guy still received lots of applause and love, he's like a blues statesman. Bottomline it was a blues concert where most people were most excited for the white performer and it was weird

[@ARareAndDifferentTune_13]

Kingfish is amazing 🔥

[@YouCallThataKnife253]

Did Bill say Drake was not like us a year before Kendrick's diss? 🤔

[@stereotonic]

great analysis, I really like your point about how traditionally black art forms/genres need to be "proven commodifiable" by non-black artists. your guests were great too and I would love to see more music-related videos!

[@WEAREALLJUSTMEAT]

The mainstream did the same thing with punk and electronic music. Strip it of all meaning and commodify it to the extent that it becomes a homogeneous paste of audio manure. Its understandable being protective of art that means a lot to you, because if you're not they'll be playing a sanitized version of it at the mall, while the people who built it can't even afford to go on tour.

[@jordansikes534]

How did the mainstream strip all the meaning out of electronic music?

[@WEAREALLJUSTMEAT]

@@jordansikes534 here's the most well documented version of what I'm talking about kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5mvnYmMgLeqoZI A video of how skrillex and mainstream pop music erased what made dubstep unique, and took it away from the (largely black) people that invented it.

[@jordansikes534]

Well, you see, you didn't say unique, you said meaning, and this is a specific genre, not electronic music as a whole.

[@MiketheNerdRanger]

I tend to roll my eyes at people who condescendingly refer to music thats made with live instruments as "actual real music," as if their too stuck up to understand that music can be made with any sound.

[@antcantcook960]

You probably consider fast food “real food” as well

[@kensmechanicalaffair]

You can't call someone a musician if they don't play an instrument.

[@mrelegoboy]

@@kensmechanicalaffair someone who makes music is a musician, someone who plays and instrument is an instrumentalist (and a musician)

[@dee_seejay]

@@antcantcook960 _Not_ a good analogy.

[@dee_seejay]

@MiketheNerdRanger Exactly. As long as you are utilising those sounds to make music then you can be a musician, whether it's a violin, a modular synth, musique concrète or playing spoons. *_instrument_* /ˈɪnstrʊm(ə)nt/ [noun]: *_a tool or implement'._* ヅ

[@PharaohDom]

Aesop Rock was very active in the NY underground scene and was definitely in community with Black people/artists in that movement.

[@KrashyKharma]

He *became involved* in Hiphop in the City, but Aes is from Northport, Long Island where the median income per household is around $90k a year.

[@boundarylessconnections5496]

He's saying though that the music is supposed to be made in response to the circumstances someone has lived in and Aesop Rock along with the majority of his fans have no experience LIVING in the extremely harsh environments someone like Eminem came from, and that's why I have always tried but never been able to feel what Aesop is saying. I'll admit he is a talented wordsmith but music is just as much about feeling as it is meaning and his music lacks feeling which is likely due to not coming from an environment like Eminem, Tupac, Whitney Houston etc.

[@KrashyKharma]

@@boundarylessconnections5496 Lacks feeling you relate to*

[@merrybeans3029]

Your music descriptions are savage and im 100% here for it.

[@troybarnesgcc]

Was not expecting this the be the first YT video I've ever seen to reference that scene from It Might Get Loud with Jack White. I always thought that was cool as hell. Love the channel and your feud with FD lol

[@IronDBZ]

Mos Def comes to mind in conversations like these. "I'm leaving" was the farewell address to an Era where authenticity existed in conflict with market demands. Nowadays, you make it with the expressed intent of never going back home. Your respect for the culture is more rote memorization of the acceptable attitudes "Biggie and Pac are my top two" rather than a genuine understanding of where all this came from.

[@JustAJauneArc]

I've seen this in action, even. I've got pretty racist white parents that don't like "new rap", and say it hasn't been good since Biggie and Pac, verbatim. They don't like rap, they like a handful of songs by two artists, then go off on how black people have it just as hard as white people do, CLEARLY missing the point of 2Pac and Biggie's music and how they reflected their communities and environments. And think they know better than them about their lives, or know what it's like to be in places like that in bumfuck, rural ass nowhere. Brainless.

[@gfys756]

​@@JustAJauneArcWhy are you involved in this conversation, white boy?

[@somniatic]

Melt my eyez is so good. Denzel Curry makes me a proud Floridian. We ain’t all crazy 😂 love this video, glad I found your channel

[@lilbilliam]

Denzel single handedly redeemed the whole state fr 🤣

[@Sennacherib-e9g]

this is the best channel and I dont know why. Just the shit about your own musical journey etc is such a refreshingly realistic take on how it goes

[@ChooseLoveToday316]

You guys have a good balance of raw information with the right amount of production value.

[@lucaswickmansound]

When I attended Blackbird Academy(audio engineering school) we were taught so much about history of music, and we had ~10 days give or take just about black artists and bands being inspirations for popular artists. They nailed it into us that a lot of black music is still under appreciated, it opened my eyes and ears to real black music, and my goodness it’s better than I ever thought it could be I’ve visited Jack White’s venue/studio/store called Third Man Records. He wasn’t there, but our teacher knew him and told us all about Jack’s life and inspiration. From what we saw and what I’ve been told he’s one of the coolest guys alive. If you’re ever in Nashville, TN, highly recommend checking it out

[@jadedskull3162]

Another Singer like Bruno Mars also have had success in various Genres and are accepted by many Communities. Mariah Carey (Afro- Latina, Caucasian) she has had racial ambiguity, especially in her early albums. She’s not stealing the culture but her ambiguity and her voice has made her a star.

[@ricanredru4760]

I leave Bruno Mars out of this equation he actually went out of his way to honor and respect black contributions to stuff like Motown and he himself paid homage to Teddy Riley and New Jack Swing when he won those Grammys years ago. But with that being said, if the black community really cares about how the representation of historical black music is presented they y'all may need to borrow a page from Bad Bunny because he just pulled off an amazing tribute Latin music stations throughout the ages from the salsa generation which was basically the Hispanic Motown equivalent and he even honored old-school OG reggaeton pioneers. Perhaps the black musicians of old and new really need to start honoring each other because that maybe the the core reason why a lot of this is happening & bunny honored black people contributions to Latin music!

[@mampenza]

DON'T PLAY THAT IS BLACK PEOPLE'S FAULT, White people are the biggest consumer of 100% of black mainstream artists and white people also own the labels who push this kinda music

[@nicholasjordan7334]

This strange thing about black musicians, they never go away or retire, they have to die to stop. The most recent mass example of this was/is Verzuz which is just basically just older artist performing their old songs. Puts you in a weird space when trying to pay homage to a guy who is actively on tour. We pay homage in every major city in America around Valentines Day and Mother's Day, name an artist and they will be performing somewhere.

[@Doomer253]

Don't need you telling us how to run our business homie.

[@Doomer253]

@@Meditatedaily94 You can gon' head and keep that defeatist energy over there.

[@Doomer253]

@@Meditatedaily94 Maaaan shut yo' 'Future Dylan Ruuth/Wannabe Nihilist' butt up. lol You gotta be a yt dude trying to get your Ops on. Kick rocks, Agent.

[@curtiszyr]

I’m Nigerian I feel the same way , we went from fela to rema

[@MistaP13]

This is the collab I’ve been waiting for! 👊🏾

[@Surreal469]

Amy's "alternative lifestyle" didn't put a cap on her career. Her druggie lifestyle did. C'mon son

[@mateusmachadomartinsjunior4309]

I think that was the lifestyle he was referring to

[@truvy_5544]

I showed my friends this song I made, And hearing her say “I can bring rnb back” brings me joy to my soul. My brother told me to research, I didn’t understand what he meant, coming across this video made me see what I need to research on to better improve my music. I’m telling y’all I’m finna bring it back ‼️thank you for this video

[@destinixshakur]

This how I feel

[@nathanbells4180]

Mate your killing me this is a great video, I can't turn it off but it's 3am on a Monday here in Australia.

[@professorskye]

Killing me with the Jack White and Green Onions references. Great video.

[@kemywa7787]

aye whats up skye

[@tgime1]

The Jack White guitar reference cracked me up. I don’t know how I found that doc or where to find it now but you unlocked a memory for me

[@maxfli95]

just discovered this channel, brilliant stuff !! It's really important that people with channels like this exist and go out and create such content, because many culture vultures (regardless of whether they are actively or passively doing so) has indeed tricked many white consumers (like myself when I was younger) into thinking that politics can simply be divorced from the roots of certain art without any problems or even consideration of these implications. Example, when FDS made his vid on the myths of black sexuality, I was completely unaware of the cultural significance of D'angelo and how this has had a lasting influence on (black) artists in not only R&B but the wider music industry, in terms of their marketability and way they should be presented. In this video, you precisely articulated what I have been thinking of about Justin Timberlake for a while, but didn't know how to. Great great content all-round

[@badbadgilead2552]

this made me realize the soul genre is a mode of collective therapy

[@miroam3989]

Mad respect for ya content, new subscriber ive been seeing that even the Indigenous culture doesnt get recognized within the blues, rockabilly, etc. With our start of one on beat like our ceremonial drumming, in bird siging to pow wows, mad respect for the black relatives I am with and that have been in our past. Lmao aslo this shi was funny ass hell too, have a good day beautiful ppl, dont let the otha man get ya down, lay your head on a brotha mans shoulder or a sis's arms. Yah at eeh abini!!🙌🏾💯 shout out Binni Zaá nation

[@fannepak]

Damn. Stick this out viewer. Well worth the watch/listen. Took me a bit to get into, but glad I did.

[@RayyanKesnan]

I just had to say your videos are funny, insightful, and really entertaining. I've been binging them since I just discovered your channel. So thanks for making them.

[@Johncllctn]

whats the video at around 48:07, i cant find it 😭

[@ApolloandMuse]

You too? 😭 I feel so dumb

[@Johncllctn]

@@ApolloandMuse a link in the description or smth would be cool but at the same time I feel like most ppl here probably already know her besides me or you haha

[@howiemandel5787]

Tell me if you found it I’m so frustrated that he couldn’t have said her channel name cause I cannot for the life of me find it just based off the thumbnail

[@Dzoui]

Country music is black music too. Remember, the banjo is a west african instrument.

[@fbafoundationalbuck-broken6011]

and the saxophone, piano and guitar aren't.

[@mrlofi333]

No the banjo was first created in America due to the drums being took

[@cyke171]

I appreciate you so much. I learn so much from your videos just like FD’s videos. Thank you. And keep them coming. That ending makes me think about all the contemporary music I enjoy and how it’s only about girls/relationships. Not the condition itself. I also appreciated seeing you play that guitar! That was dope!

[@disgruntledmoderate5331]

I loved him playing the guitar with the credits as well. Would love to see Bill do that on other videos, even if they aren't about music.

[@crystalcastillo7575]

Such a well done video. I throughly enjoyed every SINGLE SECOND on this !!

[@flaminghotcheezits]

Thank you for providing this education ❤this content about why society is the way it is, and how to break the cycle is really important for building a better future for humans and should be taught in school.

[@randallcraft4071]

I remember reading that Country and Western styles were an out growth of mixing traditional sounds the 2 ethnic underclasses in south. The Black and Irish the sounds of mixing gaelic instrumentation with southern spirituals and gospel. "The rhythms of the dark continent mixed in a pot with the jigs of the emerald isle" but to your point i guess that really could be said about all the styles of American music. Edit:spelling

[@Wrigley953]

I think an interesting topic could be Tyler the creator. His relationship with blackness has evolved over time into something less abrasive but still lacking nuance

[@gequitz]

Yeah, Tyler got big making angry music for suburban white kids (Yonkers). Plus early on he still had a lot of anger over his black dad abandoning him (like Doja). However, he was raised by black women, and has mostly had black friends. I guess the complicated part is that he's inspired by a lot of different music, but his approach is more Bruno than Doja (and always has been, at the very least since Wolf).

[@csagouki]

@@gequitz I agree and disagree. I believe that his music was easily adopted by a white audience hence its meteoric success. However I’m a first generation Igbo American and I distinctly remember talking to a goon from South East DC (Suitland) about Tyler The Creator. This was back when I was in high school. He had New Balances, Cargo pants, a Hugo boss vest (if you from DC you know) but yet he was very much into Tyler’s music. We even talked about Yonkers. So yes Tyler’s music was (and still is at times angry) but we must remember that the African American experience is a spectrum - and when it pertains to art, being sincere is the goal. I believe Tyler has done a good job at this.

[@dmndxdave]

SHOUT OUT THIS MIGHT GET LOUD, that opening shot on the farm deserves an Oscar every YEAR, that shit reinvigorates me EVERY time i see it

[@crimsonkate8241]

Yeah, the version of "I fought Piranha's" with the cigar & beaten up guitar goes hard. Also the doc is called "It Might Get Loud" sorry to be that person lol :)

[@dmndxdave]

@@crimsonkate8241 see this just lets me kno it's been too long since i watched it! i appreciate you settin me straight without being rude, you weren't "that person" at all

[@morningstar6713]

This video alone is now apart of the SOUL Culture.... I really enjoyed ur vid and the close out with the guitar was 🔥✊🏿

[@BrianCarrekerGuitar]

As a musician and music lover, I throughly enjoyed this video. Subscribed!

[@darianp9930]

But are we gonna talk about how we just gave dance, house, and techno to white people?

[@patmann9363]

I think that ship has sailed mate.

[@darianp9930]

@@patmann9363 lol. We just gave them that shit lol. But I think there's a chance to reclaim it because basically almost all hip hop, rap etc is dance music today. Everyone's rapping on a dance beat

[@cindytwo3260]

I got some good news for you and her name is Shygirl

[@patmann9363]

@@darianp9930 No one gave it too then!Most US House DJ'S ended up in Europe in the late 80's because we where 'on one😎👍🏾💊'.By the time it came back to the US of A you lot wanted to hear Fatboy Slim😞

[@OwnD1]

Being Green Velvet on. He’s a Chicago House legend. Maybe Carl Cox too

[@Uploader30001]

I’d like to mention early The Black Keys. A lot of their early songs are covers of black blues artists. Their biggest inspiration was Junior Kimbrough who they made an entire tribute album to when he passed on. Now I can’t say if they did it solely for money purposes but the emotion was still there to me and put me onto Kimbrough. And while I was listening to more of Kimbrough’s music I started to hear music that stole from it, while you have the Black Keys who outwardly express their love and appreciation for him, you have people like Hozier who basically stole from him Edit: need to add Big Mamma Thornton in here too Edit 2: Glad she was mentioned in here w/ Elvis

[@dimitrijoseph8706]

Fully agree 👏🏾 Black Keys also credit Isaac Hayes as inspiration to their music

[@raemmsunshine]

Your take on Jack Harlow being an untalented inauthentic drake is something I’ve always said and swear by

[@thebathrobebassist58]

Bruh.. from the bottom of my heart, thank you for this video, thank you for your whole channel, actually. Keep the content coming!

[@bugshavehearts]

3rd video i've watched at random and each has had future slander and im 100% here for it instant sub😭😭😭

[@fernandomorales9902]

Tbf I wouldn’t be shocked if bruno mars pulled off Caribbean rhythms like merengue because he’s of Puerto Rican ancestry 😅

[@DeadheadYates]

As a HUGE music lover for my whole life, this video is making my day

[@bobsbigboy_]

based YES

[@GothBatty]

I love live instruments. I play viola and want to start a ragtime band. I’m also a comic and adult actress. ❤

[@nervousallday]

You have a VERY interesting story to tell! Subscribing to see what you have to say.

[@faeriegraver]

I was saving this for an evening where I could put a video on normal speed and really listen. I was already subscribed, but only from this year. I'm only 51 minutes in now so I'm not even finished but I had to pause to comment because this video is brilliant. I knew it would be informative, I knew it would be entertaining and funny, I knew I was going to be nodding in agreement a lot while at the same time being enlightened. But really it's blown away my already high expectations. This is excellent, truly.

[@ShadowBlackBeats713]

Country is our blues. There would be no country western without the blues

[@dahlrjay63]

But Bruno Mars gives credit where credit is due... And he even works with black Ppl. I'm interested in seeing where the dialogue in regards to him.

[@anaknangfilipina5846]

The conversation about him is as confusing as his ethnicity. He seems to be in the middle.

[@dahlrjay63]

@@anaknangfilipina5846 How is it confusing? He's hispanic (and may or may not have some black heritage based on his hair texture).

[@6ix9inetechashy]

@@dahlrjay63 isn't he half black and half Philippines?

[@keviabernard5051]

He is black, Filipinos are heavily mixed with africans they are seen as the Asian (N word) but most of them would denied that part of there history

[@AngeBiampandou]

@@6ix9inetechashy No he is not. He is half Filipino, a quarter Ashkenazi jew and a quarter non black Puerto Rican. J-Lo is full Puerto Rican does that make her black ? Since when being latino makes someone black all of a sudden ? I guess when It's convenient. He is black adjacent not an actual black person. Fat Joe, Evelyn Rosado, Cardi B, Gina Rodriguez none of them are black. They are just culture vultures

[@salishanmusic]

I was gonna keep my triracial ass outta this one but I couldn’t stop thinking about all the times I said rock n roll was created by Black people some angry dude bro tried to argue with me to the point it almost got physical on the school bus. When explaining hoops earrings and other Black fashion staples I got less (but not no) push back. Like some people are so anti Black you can’t even site sources without someone getting big mad. It’s so weird, gross and sad.

[@kensmechanicalaffair]

Welcome to America.

[@churchtalkunlimited]

I have been practicing singing for sixty-seven years. I like Adele and Bruno Mars and their versions of Soul music, specifically soul-singing. I think they really take the R&B genre seriously. R&B takes more physical strength than most singing. They do it well. I pray that more of the Black Singers will be allowed to have their music played on radio stations alongside, Bruno Mars and Adele. There are some serious R&B singers throughout North America, (myself included) who are performing and producing original songs, but many, or most of us are not able to get our music played, and or distributed. Thank you.

[@jettdunkley]

Think i just found my new fav youtuber! great stuff man👌🏿

[@a.taylor8294]

YES! Taking it back to the Saturday afternoon home cleaning playlist! I'm grateful for growing up in the 80s and 90s when exposure to Black radio still gave youngins exposure to plenty of different eras of music!

[@sunrise2148]

I think we look at it in reverse. Culture creates music, music doesn't create culture. Hip hop is an African interpretation of an existence under a unique set of circumstances in America. The artist are the spokespeople. It's the uniqueness of culture that creates the acoustic aesthetic which leads to certain styles/forms of music...making them culturally exclusive. Black music is the rhythmic manifestation of the Black existence. Others, regardless of ingratiation, are just impersonating.

[@Doomer253]

We got similair background Lil' Bill (African American/Afro-Latino). My dad's mom immigrated to the U.S. and she only claim Black, because yeah....Latinos got some deep rooted anti-blackness to sort out. Hope you do a deep dive on this topic one day. My Gma was like "Let me rock it with the Haitians and American Soul brothas instead." lol

[@HueyBlounts]

As a Latino with a white Argentine dad and a black Dominican mom, I can definitely say that it’s something I’ve seen a lot of, to varying degrees, both in my family and other Latinos ive met

[@mateusmachadomartinsjunior4309]

Here in Brazil there is a weird mixture, most people don't even want to acknowledge racism exist, we didn't have formal segregation and the country is very mixed(in fact a majority of people are "pardo" or mixed) so it's a a very weird thing,

[@prod.jimmyhd]

As a Haitian, we are latino too. But to the difference of many we are VERY proud of our afro descent. I've seen a lot of afro brazilian feel similiar. I guess Haitian culture is so different because we got independent first and had a way worse relationship with France than hispanics have with Spain, so we reject every sign of European cultural ideology and imperialism.

[@RichardSmith-ot3zk]

The record companies segregated the music into "hillbilly music" and "race records" in the 1920s. Before then, black and white people listened to and played similar music. There were regional differences-- in Appalachia it would be more anglo-celtic folk music with some blues, and in the deep south it was more blues but with the European ballads and harmonic structures mixed in. Black musicians were influential in almost all genres of American music, but you could say the same about white musicians. Obviously, the white folks got paid a lot better.

[@basementapartmentstudio2360]

Grateful for the content and the voices that join you!

[@ITNoetic]

Dope video. Jin was in my rotation back in middle/high school. I still remember some of his lyrics, but I completely forgot about the man's existence til you brought him up.

[@shannond1511]

Remember when Justin Timberlake thought he was black? Whenever the conversation of vultures of black cultures comes up I think of him and iggy azalea, even drake actually(although that’s a lot more complicated and nuanced). Makes me feel similar to when I see ppl at Coachella wearing headdresses (I’m native)

[@puffitale]

I'm Australian, like descended from convicts Australian. There was an ad down here for his first album that was “reinventing R&B.” I was a youngling that had only really been exposed to Aussie rock, Disney soundtracks and teeny bopper shit. Even that pissed me off. That and the comments by Pharrell Williams in the Rolling Stone that Justin sings like he was raised in the black church - he was on flipping Star Search in a ten gallon hat and rhinestones before he earned his mouse ears. The only church he sounds like he grew up in is the Satantic goat one from Goat Simulator

[@sliccthedestroyer1881]

31:12 omg bro why is that there. I mean I understand why but jesus💀💀💀

[@lilbilliam]

I plead the fif

[@roecocoa]

Surprising no one, country music is Black, too. The banjo derives from African plucked lutes with drone strings and evolved into its modern form in the Caribbean. Without Deford Bailey, the Grand Ole Opry would not exist.

[@rondmc44]

Today, a Funk Fest is nothing but hip hop, a Jazz Fest is nothing but Old School R&B, now I don't know what they call a Jazz concert.. So sad...

[@Sarah-re7cg]

As soon as I saw FD signifier, SUBSCRIBED! So excited this channel came across my feed.

[@SpectrumPulse]

There's a few fascinating points I'd like to highlight here, because I think this video is really damn good in the conversation between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange. It's always going to be ambiguous in how it's classified and broken down, but my general standby is that you can have cultural exchange by a.) being really damn good at what you do; b.) knowing your history and background from whence you're pulling, and c.) actively involving and paying forward to the community in the execution and process. The last one I think is critical because you have cases where a sound can be commodified and made a trend in white culture before getting discarded by both the entertainer, the industry, and the audience (one that leaps to mind for me is how after Paul Simon's 'Graceland' in 1986, so many white rock and pop acts on the softer side tried to pull in African percussion without actually involving any African musicians the way Paul Simon tried to do, and even then he got blowback for not really providing a runway for success for those acts post-album & tour). Then there's Doja Cat. What's annoying here is that it's difficult to divorce Doja's impressively mid genre-blending in execution from label interference from Kemosabe (which is the boutique label run by Dr. Luke, under the umbrella of RCA). I bring up this because Dr. Luke has a notorious impression of taking the Black artists on his roster and making them perform caricatures of what he thinks the culture is (and also sexually abuse any women who consistently works near him ie. Kesha and reportedly Doja herself). Where this gets messy is the murky industry talk in how deeply Dr. Luke is involved on those records - especially in recent years, he's got a reputation of just signing his name and collecting the paycheque - but on some level, how much that does that even matter when that genre-chameleon approach is taken with regards to sounds? And on the topic of genre: you got to a lot of points about this that I really appreciate, especially John Mayer's sanitized version of blues and your points on the inherent politicization of Black music, but I'm a little surprised you didn't go back to the roots of blues / country - namely that for the most part, they came from much of the same cloth, music made explicitly by and for folks in an underclass (rural white and Black folks, where the folk leanings of country with the fiddles you can attribute to Catholic Irish folk (who at the origin point of country in the United States weren't considered white comparing to the WASPs with money) and with the incorporation of pedal steel native Hawaiians). And this is where a group of predominantly racist white record execs in the American south worked to split country and blues, not just so that they can sell the former to white audiences exclusively and reinforce white hegemony in that space, but also to divide an artistic scene where the underclass had more in common with each other than racial boundaries. And that extends into how between hardcore punk sets in the 70s there would be billing for reggae and dub acts (which later led to acts like Bad Brains and Living Color), or how nu-metal would embrace turntables and hip-hop sounds for their mutated focus on groove over shredding - what predominantly winds up splitting these scenes from more culturally diverse roots and exchange in community is consumption under capitalism and white supremacy. And I think it's the one reason I've been so impressed with the band Algiers since around 2015 - not only are they pulling from a strident pool of blues, gospel, and soul (and on the most recent album hip-hop), but slamming it directly into genres that were stereotypically coded as white like punk, post-punk, and noise (overlooking the fact that those genres have their roots in rock and electronic music which can be traced back to the blues, and the fact that the band knows that's the point and infuses their politics on record is a huge factor of their appeal). Check out 'The Underside of Power' and 'Shook', I think you'd dig them ;)

[@nervousallday]

Algiers is dope! This band reminds me of Kings X in a sense. A lot to dig here. I think the first point you made can be seen in Timbaland's progression starting in the 90s to the early aughts. Checking you out because I need a new music vlog.

[@brixan...]

On the Doja Cat point: are you saying there's no problem with her, just the label executive? I was reading that section and I didn't see anything that Doja Cat did wrong... I'm trying to see why these particular people are called out and I can't really find anything

[@atrainradio929]

so glad my dad raised me on motown records. the best music in the world.

[@MichaelTurner856]

It's great stuff W take