Letter to the Free

Question 1

Who wrote LTTF

Answer 1

Common

Question 2

Common is signed to what company?

Answer 2

ARTium/Defjam

Question 3

what is ARTium/Defjam

Answer 3

media industry run by black entrepreneurs that allow artists to have control over how they’re represented in music

Question 4

Lyrics by Billie Holiday ‘Strange Fruit’

Answer 4

‘Southern leaves, southern trees’

Question 5

Who was Billie Holiday

Answer 5

Influential black jazz singer who sung about lynching of black people in America

Question 6

Lyrics that show support for Black Lives Matter campaign people

Answer 6

‘For America to rise, its a matter of black lives’

Question 7

What is BLM campaign

Answer 7

Black Lives Matter 2013

activist movement against police brutality and racism

Question 8

Lyrics that criticise previous presidents

Answer 8

‘Shot me with your ray-gun, And now you want to trump me’

Question 9

What did Reagan do?

Answer 9

1981-89

used ‘war on drugs’ to start process of mass incarceration of ethnic minorities

Question 10

Lyrics used to describe the outdoors

Answer 10

‘a pastoral scene’

Question 11

How does LTTF offer an alternative to mainstream version of black racial identity

Answer 11

• reveals complex history
• identifies structural inequalities as cause for criminality and violent stereotypes
• Common is a positive representation of a black man =counterpart to negativity (politically and historically aware, inteligent)

Question 12

Hybrid Genre

Answer 12

black + white and slow movements more conventional for Jazz and Blues (black history)

song conforms to hip-hop and rap

bricolage of styles

Question 13

what was the 13th amendment?

Answer 13

document- abolition of slavery

Question 14

mass incarceration

Answer 14

disproportionately large numbers of African Americans in US prison system

Question 15

How does LTTF depict African Americans?

Answer 15

from the POV of an AA, song uses elements of traditional music from AA culture

Question 16

When was LTTF published

Answer 16

2016, when America saw a rise in racial violence

Question 17

How do the lyrics conform to Gilroy’s theory of post colonialist

Answer 17

marginalises/dehumanises ethnic minorities

lyrics show AA are still treated as outsiders by dominant ethnicity

‘they stop, search and arrest our souls’

Question 18

Double consciousness- Gilroy post colonialist

Answer 18

more than one identity

African Diasphora and American

Question 19

no excessive noise

Answer 19

ironic juxtaposition when drummer plays loudly

challenges its ability to constraint behaviour

Question 20

black and white aesthetic

Answer 20

History: connotes early photographs and media footage

Realism: symbolism of facts as connotes style of traditional newspapers

Question 21

Low key lighting

Answer 21

Darkness reflects heavy topic of mass incarceration

Lightness reflects narrative of hope, but is fleeting and doesn’t fully illuminate performers to show they don’t have a solution

Question 22

performer’s profile

Answer 22

subverts conventions by obscuring features so they can’t be identified as heroes

long shot makes them to small to be distinguishable
mid shot uses lighting to obsucre

they communicate the problem but do not provide an answer

Question 23

coherent visual style

Answer 23

each shot is clearly part of the music video and creates meaning

Question 24

black square

Answer 24

shields viewer from reality and hides the truth

intense black symbolises a lack of knowledge and understanding about US prison systems

Question 25

final shot outside

Answer 25

wide open sky and grassland = shocking change to claustrophobic confines of prison

depiction of freedom or
symbolises American Dream and how it is built upon systemic racism