Consuming Black Death: Police Brutality, A Pandemic and Trap Music

Describing 2020 as a difficult year would be an understatement. The deaths of over 210,000 Americans by a pandemic which is largely over in other countries, national protests in the wake of multiple state sanctioned murders of unarmed Black men and women, and an election which has only inspired melancholy in most has led many to art as a way of finding levity. I have been blasting 21 Savage’s Savage Mode II.  I acknowledge the initial cognitive dissonance in playing an album that is almost exclusively about Black death as an escape from the reality of Black death. But in my moments of despair brought on by the craziness that is 2020, the feeling elicited from 21 Savage imitating gun fire as an ad-lib has provided escapism.

In this internet age it is almost impossible to not consume Black death in some way. The double edged sword of social media has allowed us to spread word regarding the unjust killings of Black folks across the nation, but it has also inundated us with images of cops killing people who look like our mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins and most importantly ourselves. I have made a concerted effort to stay clear of these images, but inevitably videos make it to my timeline and I see death before being able to scroll away.  This year in particular, the video evidence of violence upon Black folks did not stop with the inciting videos of Black death, instead we also watched police brutalize protestors at protests regarding police brutality. This is all with the backdrop of a pandemic, in which Black people are more likely to die due to underlying symptoms. Symptoms which can be traced to systemic racism on a practical level with food deserts and a more historical level with epigenetic trauma.  With all of this imagery on my mind and heavy on my heart, my current favorite song is Many Men on which 21 Savage threatens every person in Atlanta.

Trap music is a multi-faceted genre with artists from across the world using storytelling as a medium for expressing themselves. It is important to acknowledge Trap’s basis in Blackness, Atlanta and what I call the Trap Trinity of T.I., Gucci Mane, and Jeezy. In discussing the incredible violence that can coincide with trap music, I do not mean to be reductive. I acknowledge and applaud trap artists who have expanded their storytelling to include uplifting messages: an easy example of this is Lil Baby’s The Bigger Picture in which he discusses police brutality and how protest can lead to something better. However, herein I am dealing with the juxtaposition of the sadness that comes with the reality of Black death in the news and the escapism that comes from the Black death in the storytelling of Trap artists. It is also important to mention herein that Blackness is not the reason for violence in these lyrics, but rather an example of crime trends. Crime tends to be committed within the communities that one lives, in the largely racially segregated cities of America that means that crime is often perpetrated within an almost racially homogenous community. As such, when Trap artists describe the crimes in their stories it is hard to disconnect it from the reality that this crime would likely be perpetrated against another Black person. Thus, 21 Savages hyper-violent threats are, in all likelihood, aimed at another Black person and are another form of consuming Black death.  

 However, in my listening experience, while I am conscious of the macabre imagery, I instead connect to the emotions that the artist is putting into the music. I refer to this as a meta approach to music in which a listener may focus less on the particularities of the song and instead focus on the emotion it elicits. For example, instead of focusing on the often morbid lyrics, a listener may focus on the pain that an artist is channeling into their music or the optimism and hope for a better tomorrow despite a grim today. Despite the darkness of the lyrics these meta emotions are very much present throughout the genre of Trap music.  This meta approach to music is not a completely foreign concept as it is often evoked in what many deem as high art. For example,  many art critics discuss Jean Michel Basquiat’s paintings in terms of emotionality rather than technical craft. Art critics connect to the trauma, frustration and anger that Basquiat placed into his art, often depicting Blackness as royalty in a world of ugliness. However, in examining simply what is on the canvas, someone may look at Basquiat paintings and reduce them to scribbles and crossed out words. As such, it is more than possible that trap music is more than the lyrics the artist puts on the page, but rather the emotion that is felt by the listener.  

 When I listen to trap I feel the darkness of the music, but I also feel confidence, hope, pain, empowerment and passion. It is in these emotions, rather than the particular lyrics, that I escape the reality of death in 2020. The dark themes of the music make these emotions sharper as it reflects the darkness of this year and reminds me that even in these times there is light.  Also, Morgan Freeman narrates Savage Mode II which should be enough to motivate any person to repeatedly listen.