So there's an artist from the West
Coast, someone you might heard of, Kendrick Lamar.
And then there's another artist who's
actually been making art, gosh, since the late '90s, Beyonce.
[LAUGHTER]
Right?
And following the uptick in media attention,
I guess in some ways, it was like media sweep season.
So during sweeps, they oftentimes
will play a lot of reruns.
So they started playing a lot more reruns
of like people of color getting shot by police officers.
I say "reruns" because it's always interesting
when there's a spike in that kind of attention,
there are people who think that means it hasn't been happening.
And your panel earlier--
was it during, I can't remember who was--
talked about how-- no, it's been, it's been.
But you got to get those ratings up,
right, your TV ratings, your neighborhood ratings.
I think it would be really useful if when a new community,
or I should say an old community is being nude up, as in nude,
N-U-D-E, like stripped, but also newed and renewed.
It would be super helpful if they just
had a car, one of those cars that shoot water on the side,
but replace it with bright green paint
because then the neighborhood would be totally ready
for green screening later so that when somebody
shot in that neighborhood, and caught on camera,
the special effects people would have a much easier time making
them shoot themselves by just doing some CG replacement.
So when we think about "greening" of a neighborhood
or, say, greenwashing a neighborhood, which is usually
about ecological sense, I think that we should greenwash
more literally, and it'll just help everybody feel better
on the inside.
Anyway, so Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce,
I was talking about them.
So they were making music, and they were making music
during this time.
And people, the same media, were like, oh my gosh--
[LAUGHTER]
--a return to conscious Black popular music.
Where has it been all this time if not
on albums, and CDs, and mp3s?
I haven't heard any.
So thinking about this, Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar
were anointed as torchbearers for this.
And I'm not taking anything away from them,
as long as they don't say, yeah, we brought that shit back,
right?
But-- so I started writing these pieces that
are ekphrastic recordings of me watching their music videos,
specifically "All Right" by Kendrick Lamar, "Formation--"
[WOMAN SNEEZES]
--Gesundheit.
Thank you.
You're very welcome.
Damn.
Now you're like a co-performer.
You're like Diddy, like--
[LAUGHTER]
--yeah, all the tracks.
[? Tisa Bryant ?] just-- Achoo bombing the sets.
[LAUGHTER]
Damn.
But I said, yes, madam director.
She's the program director of my job.
[LAUGHTER]
So-- so Kendrick Lamar's "All Right," Beyonce's "Formation,"
and their live performance at the BET Awards of "Freedom."
I'm going to do two of those tonight
with you, "All Right" right now.
And the piece is called "All Right, All Right, Huh?"
[LAUGHTER]
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) Daaa Daa Daa Daa Daa Like a bridge
over troubled water.
[INAUDIBLE] Daaa Daa Daa Daa Daa Oakland on site,
site as Black political capital, capital.
[SCREECHING NOISE] Blacks left on the asphalt. (SINGING)
Money, money, money, money.
[LAUGHTER]
You don't own nothing.
The world, a hotel room.
[SCREAMING]
The first two women he see, one, Brooke Struck, two,
[? Headwood. ?] Exhibit A, me?
[SCREAMING]
Urban state's pried over with a crowbar stays fit
with the inner acting out.
One time carries the top dogs, howling he bears, a paw bears.
[SHOUTING]
For the path out of the bullet throughout the whole video.
Hang time on that levitate, levitate, levitate, levitate,
oh.
Hashtag lactates [INAUDIBLE] milk.
The kids taking up room on the last BMW, a claim of turf.
Hang time on that levitate, levitate, levitate.
Can I kick above street level?
If it is a dare?
Check, he's angelic.
A guardian?
A super hero?
He did?
All of the above?
All my life I had to fight, nigga!
Now, what was it uncles, daddy, and brothers turned hard times?
The Color Purple, the color of bruises, kings.
But hey, Dr. Walker, he floats like a butterfly.
Or like bugs out a window.
(SINGING) Money, money, money, money.
But if god got busted, is god got busted.
What if god got busted.
But if god got busted.
But who are we going to be all right, nigga?
What you want?
Is we all going to be all right, nigga?
What you want?
If the highlight is pretty pussy and Benjamins,
who got to get low?
Who comes up short?
(SINGING) Levitate, levitate, levitate, levitate,
loving you is complicated.
Loving you is complicated.
Sorry's for the record.
Hashtag attack rims, level.
Hashtag attacks slims rebel.
[? Canines' ?] chest don't say scared.
They say T-squared.
[INAUDIBLE] get loose in front of courthouses.
It's complicated.
Fingers bent in and out of shape all up
in front of the wolf of wall, his eyes, his mouth.
You see something, say something on that terror made
in the US of A.
Duh, duh, duh, duh.
Split in half, he falls down.
He gets up with the song.
The big Black brother punched a lot to this crowd.
Temp 100, 400 plus later as the roof [INAUDIBLE]
On the black field, death is.
(SINGING) Duh, duh, duh, duh.
The street lamps under his boots, shoes not slung over.
A low riding sun hung over them, straight.
He balanced on that light like god got him by the collar,
till death dragged him by heart to the dirt.
Hashtag set back lit horrible.
But if god got busted, but if god got busted.
But if god got busted.
But are we going to to be-- this video is a say
something in black and white.
Serious sculpture of being in relief.
Bodies of the not dumping.
Bodies, a gallery of installed [? bees. ?] Objects, subjects.
But better to be dead and alive.
Because it god got us, then we're going to be all right.
But maybe not alive?
I say if I god got us, then we are going to be all right.
But maybe not alive?
(SINGING) Duh, duh, duh, duh.
Death points that.
Death points at.
[GUNSHOT SOUND]
Is he dead?
Is he head?
Is he?
Is he head?
Well, that's fine.
OK, dot, dot, dot.
It was complicated.