Did you notice that the BET awards that aired just a
few nights ago was a study of the regionalism of Black American music-cultures?
(And perhaps even a lack thereof...does all of Black America have a distinctive
music-culture not informed by mass marketed popular songs? DC - yes, New Orleans - yes, the Mississippi Delta - yes, etc.)
I start with the representation of Washington DC, my
hometown. A music-culture that has been caught in the cross-hairs of the most
rapid and displacing gentrification project in the country. Caught to the point
that Go-Go, DC's native Black music, has been deemed "Black noise"
and criminalized by the gentrifying newcomers to the city. (At the corner of
Florida and Georgia Avenues, it is now a misdemeanor to play “bucket drums” on
the sidewalk.) Hence, the #Don'tMuteDC sign displayed prominently above the
stage. But moving on with my point.
Was not the Go-Go
performance featuring EU, and DC natives Regina Hall and Taraji Henson a study
of Black American kinetic orality (Gaunt 2006)...and/or...Black Girl
Magic...and the Africanity of Black America? And about the song "Da
Butt." To the young folks, or to those unfamiliar, it might have sounded
crass. However, the song, which is written and performed by a group of Black
men (the band EU) about Black women, speaks to a point made by
ethnomusicologist Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo in a 2016 lecture that he gave in Ghana:
"In Africa, a woman's 'bottom' is a beauty ideal." And of course, the
most beautiful are a specific shape and size...well you all know what he meant.
(Dr. Sylvia Boone also reports this in her book Radiance from the Waters:
Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Mende Art, 1990.)
And if this is true in many African cultures, then it
is certainly true in African - America as evidenced in songs like..."Da
Butt." (Of course the sexual objectification also implicated by the song
is another discussion) Then, another layer of Black American Africanity that
was presented in the BET Awards performance is the actual dance “da butt” when
it is performed by a couple. I noticed during my field work in Southern Africa
that in traditional dance in Botswana and South Africa, the same kind of
simulated "coupling" between male and female dancers takes place.
Hence, "Da Butt" as a song and dance, and DC's Go-Go music culture,
from the instrumentation, to Taraji Henson's DC girl "attitude" that
she displayed so well, tells us that we are All Africa. Thank you to the 2019
BET awards for illustrating this point so well. What do you think?
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