SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
We are continuing to celebrate Black History Month by looking back a decade at the year that brought so many big moments in Black and American culture, 2016. Today, we want to focus on the music that came in 2016, specifically how it shaped Black culture. There was the release of Rihanna’s last studio album, “Anti.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WORK”)
RIHANNA: (Singing) Just get ready fi work, work, work, work, work, work. He said me haffi work, work, work, work, work, work. He see me…
DETROW: We got “Blonde” from Frank Ocean.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PINK + WHITE”)
FRANK OCEAN: (Singing) That’s the way every day goes. Every time we’ve no control. If the sky is pink and white, if the ground is black and yellow.
DETROW: “The Life Of Pablo” from Kanye West.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ULTRALIGHT BEAM”)
KANYE WEST: (Singing) We on an ultralight beam, this is a God dream. This is a God dream. This is everything.
DETROW: And, of course, you cannot talk about 2016 without Beyonce’s groundbreaking musical and visual album “Lemonade.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FORMATION”)
BEYONCE: (Singing) My daddy Alabama, mama Louisiana. You mix that Negro with that Creole, make a Texas bama.
DETROW: That is just to name a few. Here to talk about Black music in 2016 and its impact is NPR Music’s Rodney Carmichael. Hey, Rodney.
RODNEY CARMICHAEL, BYLINE: Hey, what’s going on, Scott?
DETROW: I’m doing well, and I feel like we cannot not start this conversation without Beyonce and Rihanna. Let’s just start there. Two enormous albums – like, how do you even start talking about their wider impact?
CARMICHAEL: I mean, I think the best word for both of them is unapologetic. I mean, that became the adjective that you started to hear a whole lot, especially attached to Black artists in the Obama era. You know, Beyonce – she made the most defiant, personal, unapologetically Black album up to that point in her career.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “FREEDOM”)
BEYONCE: (Singing) I break chains all by myself, won’t let my freedom rot in hell. Hey, I’mma keep running ’cause a winner don’t quit on themselves.
CARMICHAEL: And then you have Rihanna. She made the most unconventional, rebellious anti-album album of her career.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “LOVE ON THE BRAIN”)
RIHANNA: (Singing) And I’ll run for miles just to get a taste. Must be love on the brain.
CARMICHAEL: I mean, both of them were through with following the industry’s rules or placating the pop. And “Lemonade” changed the game on so many levels. I mean, Beyonce’s second surprise release, her second visual album – she really set aside her quest for perfection to reveal, like, the deepest flaws in her personal life. And Rihanna’s “Anti” is still on the Billboard 200 albums chart, 500-plus weeks later. So they, like, rewrote the standard for all artists, really.
DETROW: That is a good run. Then you also have “The Life Of Pablo” from Kanye, which many would consider kind of the last album from the, quote, “old Kanye.”
CARMICHAEL: Yeah. It’s funny because his sound had already taken such a huge turn with the previous album, “Yeezus.” Now, at the time, the “Pablo” album kind of got mixed reception, too, even from Kanye.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “I LOVE KANYE”)
WEST: (Rapping) I miss the old Kanye, straight from the ‘Go Kanye. Chop up the soul Kanye, set on his goals Kanye. I hate the new Kanye.
CARMICHAEL: But his bigger transformation into slavery-was-a-choice Ye, into red-MAGA-hat-wearing Ye, into antisemitic Ye – that really didn’t start until after he threw his support behind President-elect Trump later that same year. And, of course, he’s recently apologized for a lot of his most offensive statements that he made since then.
DETROW: I guess it’s always dangerous to ask, was the entire premise of this conversation right or wrong? But, like, to you, was 2016 really that standout year when it comes to music?
CARMICHAEL: I mean, it was definitely an interesting time. You know, 2016 is the final year of Barack Obama’s presidency. Blackness – in some ways, it’s never been so exalted in America, right? But it also coincides with this onslaught of high-profile deaths of Black people at the hands of police – Eric Garner and Michael Brown in 2014. You got Sandra Bland in 2015, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling in 2016. So you know, by 2016, we’re starting to hear artists trying to reconcile these two extremes in the music. I mean, think about the imagery of Kendrick Lamar performing “The Blacker The Berry” at the 2016 Grammys dressed like a prisoner shackled in chains.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KENDRICK LAMAR: (Rapping) Came from the bottom of mankind. My hair is nappy. You know that it’s big. My nose is round and wide. You hate me, don’t you? You hate my people. Your plan is to terminate my culture. You know you’re evil.
CARMICHAEL: Then we start to get these albums that are also centered around celebrating the interior lives of Black folk while also grappling with how to claim space in a world that still treats us like outsiders to a degree. You know, Solange’s album “A Seat At The Table” becomes, like, the perfect representation of that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “CRANES IN THE SKY”)
SOLANGE: (Singing) Well, it’s like cranes in the sky. Sometimes, I don’t want to feel those metal clouds.
DETROW: I’ve had a hard time accepting that 2016 was 10 years ago. Like, so much time has passed. So much has changed, especially in the music industry. Like, from your point of view as a music reporter, what feels most different to you now from then?
CARMICHAEL: I mean, honestly, I think the major difference between then and now is we had these major Black stars – like Beyonce, like Rihanna – who were benefiting from years of industry investment at that point.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “KISS IT BETTER”)
RIHANNA: (Singing) Kiss it, kiss it better, baby. Been waiting on that sunshine. Boy, I think I need that back.
CARMICHAEL: And when you look at the pop landscape now, the industry’s disinvestment, especially away from hip-hop, away from R&B in the last few years – it’s pretty evident. I mean, from the most consumed genre in the country to a stark decline in Black artists showing up at the top of the Billboard albums or Hot 100 singles charts.
DETROW: That is NPR’s Rodney Carmichael. Thank you so much.
CARMICHAEL: Thanks a lot, Scott.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “WE THE PEOPLE…”)
A TRIBE CALLED QUEST: We don’t believe you ’cause we the people are still here in… Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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