2016 has been the year of realized blackness. Sit ins are rampant at sports games all across the country. As much as people don’t like Black Lives Matter, they have made sure that we “matter” on some level. More and more people are becoming “awakened” to the world around us. It is time to take note of how the tide has turned. Black people are realizing that it will take our own efforts to change our own reality.
And then September 30th, 2016 happened.
This date just may go down in history as one of THE blackest days of the year. And we have two people to thank: Luke Cage and Solange Knowles.
Luke Cage Pours Black Coffee All Over Netflix
If the Black Panther was the black hero people wanted then Luke Cage is the hero black people needed.
You see, Luke Cage is the man that many males desire to be. He is heavily flawed but works hard to do/be better. His aura unintentionally oozes sex appeal that women want to drink coffee with him (follow me, now). He wears a hoodie to represent the black struggle against all violence thrust upon black bodies while being bullet proof like the black souls that many try to feast on. In short, Luke Cage is the motherfuckin’ man.
In fact, he is so much of the motherfuckin’ man that Netflix had server problems during the Saturday following the unofficial Black Friday that his show ushered in.
Yes, you read that right: Luke Cage crashed the server.
And he should have. With the help of Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Isaac Hayes III, the music remained highly lush, instrumental, and funky. Intellectually, the show makes references to black authorship and hints at short stories (Lather and Nothing Else). Even further, the characters are dynamic enough to relinquish ourselves of the black tropes that Hollywood always seeks to shove into black cinema. It seems to be that Luke Cage won because blackness refused to lose.
Solange is Black And Will Snatch her Seat
Solange has typically been the antithesis of her sister Beyoncé. Rather than follow the steps into pop success, she always veered off the beaten path. This has led her into making collaborations that were much respected but not as commercially viable (if you will). Still, Solange has always did whatever made her happy and never held her tongue (or in Jay-Z’s case, her fists) back for anyone. Therefore, it came as no surprise that Solange would come with an album that would spark black pride with extreme bluntness in the message.
Yet, A Seat At The Table isn’t some simple album of pro-black proportions. Rather, it is the epitome of the complexity given to the existence of melanated people. When tracks like “Crane In The Sky”, “Weary”, and “Don’t Touch My Hair” plays through the speakers, any person with an ounce of soul can connect to her words and emotions. This isn’t some album to pique the shallow interests of people to make them dance. This album was created for the healing of the greater being. This album is both protest song and healing cry wrapped up in beautiful production.
And all of this works because Solange, inherently, doesn’t give a fuck. She doesn’t give a fuck about popularity. She damn sure doesn’t give a fuck about offending anyone. The woman had Master P all over her interludes. Obviously, she isn’t giving a fuck about trends and other useless shit if Master P is all over her album talking. This is where Beyoncé can’t drift into. Solange can become that major artist that goes against the grain with a middle finger in the sky; she always had it held up high in the first place.
Luke Cage and Solange Won Black Friday
With Solange being number one on iTunes and white people being salty about the “lack of diversity” in Luke Cage, I must say that blackness won. These are the moments that black people live for. These are the times in which we feel that we are just one more step closer to liberation. We realize that, through entertainment, we have the goods. Now, we just need to follow the leads of Luke Cage and Solange by acting out our master plans. The power of blackness cannot be denied. And if they say so, then you know they lied.