Protest. Meditation. Liberation.

May 31, 2020

You can listen to the full playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal

In 1973, Bob Marley and the Wailers released their sixth album, Burnin’. Thematically, the album pushed forward messages of liberation through revolution and spiritual awakening. Musically, at the time of its release, white journalists didn’t quite know where to place the album, as it veered away from their previous releases. Nonetheless, the album would produce two of the groups most popular songs: Get Up, Stand Up and I Shot the Sheriff, songs that have lived well beyond their release, being covered by artists of varying genres. But, a lesser known, but highly relevant, moment from that album is a song called Burnin’ and Lootin’ . In the song Bob Marley sings:

We gonna be burnin' and a-lootin' tonight
(To survive, yeah!)
Burnin' and a-lootin' tonight
(Save your babies' lives)
Burning all pollution tonight
(Pollution ...)
Burning all illusion tonight
(Lord-a, Lord-a, Lord-a, Lord!)

Bob Marley’s words are instructive and liberating: looting for survival, looting for generations unborn, and looting to rid the [present] world of its illusionary reality. 47 years later, as state violence runs rampant, and a reaction to such violence takes place, the words of Bob Marley are both enduring and prophetic.

From America, to Nigeria, to Jamaica, and other places around the world, Black artists have been making music in the tradition of liberation for years. Black artists, like no other group, reflect the times, and project the future and world-building necessary. From funk, to rock, to reggae, I’ve included some of my favorite songs that critique the current world and imagine a new one. I hope you enjoy it, and the playlist does for you what it’s done for me.