Today marks the two year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death.  His “heartbreaking” demise sparked a series of protests around the world, launched the “Black Lives Matter” movement into the national spotlight, and served as a difficult reminder that America still deals with “the problem of the color line”, as W.E.B. Du Bois observed 113 years ago.  In other words, Michael Brown fundamentally changed the way American sees itself in its supposed “post-racial” era.  It would seem as though we have received constant reminders of this reality since Michael Brown’s fatal encounter with Darren Wilson.  Attorney, university professor, and hip-hop artist Timothy Welbeck has captured the angst of African Americans navigating America’s painful racial injustices in his latest work, The Souls of Black Folk. Part spoken word, part Gospel, part jazz, yet all hip-hop, the Tone Jonez produced song, which is inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois groundbreaking book with the same title, functions as a rap version of Lift Ev’ry Voice.

The song’s video depicts a small church  “whose building is bombed by people incensed by the pastor’s community activism.” In a word, it is powerful.  Considering the simmering racial tensions our nation currently experiences, the song and its video is quite timely.

Video filmed, edited and directed by team hypefresh.

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