The Role of Protest Music The harmonious song Changes was written by Tuba Shaker. Changes was written during his tenure with Interstice records in 1992. It was produced by Demon Evans, who had worked with Shaker on various other songs. After the tragic shooting death of Tuba, the song was remixed with the song That’s The Way It Is by Bruce Horns. Shaker was notorious for rapping on the unjust that was going on in America during the late sass and early sass.
This song had such a great impact on the listener because it was so raw and exactly what many listeners needed around this time. Tuba Shaker was born in Harlem on June 16 1971. His father, mother and numerous family members were active with the Black Panthers, a black revolutionary socialist organization in the United States from 1966 until 1982. Society around him, especially in the black communities of America, influenced Tuba’s music. After a high speed chase in March 1991, the police brutally beat Rodney King.
A bystander recorded the incident and this footage was used as evidence in court for the cases of the four Caucasian police officers. The trial took place in Simi Valley, a predominantly white suburb, in front of a Jury with no African American Jurors. These officers were found not guilty. This verdict ignited the fuel that was already hovering over the Black community, thus causing the LA riots. The song Changes became so influential to the youth of LA, especially because this was literally a song about “change” in how blacks were portrayed and how blacks treat themselves.
This song became the soundtrack of this time period, played against the backdrop of the black community winding their way on a downward spiral of destruction, and a lot of this ‘destruction’ was self- conflicting. The following lyrics show the dire need for camaraderie between blacks n their own community: “l got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere/ unless we share with each other. We goat start making’ changes. /Learn to see me as a brother ‘stead of 2 distant strangers. ” (Tuba. Changes.
Interstice, 1992. CD. ). Tuba was far from discreet when it came to him expressing his political and social views. It was inevitable that his political preferences would be quite radical due to his upbringing. Tuba grew up around revolutionaries. He Joined a Communist organization as a young man and stuck to his views of fiscal equality and far-left economic ideas into adulthood. When asked if he supports the violent aspects to communism he responded: ” Is it a crime to fight for what is mine? This quote depicts how strongly he believed in the communism movement. This influenced his music greatly. He refers to the Constitution and Statue of Liberty as hypocrisies. Shaker’s message in Changes was clear as water. He addressed the problems that was going on in that current society, and came up with a solution, thus causing a change. The problems were the hardships black people faced specifically police brutality. He expressed that the ongoing problems will not change until black Protest Music Tuba Shaker
By bridgeable lyrics he states that every aspects of the black mind needs to change to produce success in the community: “We goat make a change/let’s time for us as a people to start making’ some changes/Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live/ and let’s change the way we treat each Ethernet see the old way wasn’t working so it’s on us to do what we goat do, to survive” (Tuba. Changes. Interstice, 1992. CD. ). This song is unarguably powerful. It causes you to self-reflect. Blacks are not depicted as the victim of oppression but as the oppressor, having social boundaries as their weapon of choice.
Tuba definitely made his listener want to make changes within themselves and their community which they did. The role of protest music is influential. A lot of change could come from it, more than expected even from the artist themselves. The following lyrics Tuba talks about the once phenomenon of having an African American president: “And although it seems heaven sentence mint ready to see a Black President. ” (Tuba. Changes. Interstice, 1992. CD. ). Less than 2 decades later, we have a black president in power and I confidently can say Tuba had an impact on the Black mind and how they saw themselves.
