There are more than 7,100 known languages spoken in the world, and yet music may be one of the most universal mother tongues to impact Black culture. Music is language, protest, a peacemaker, sermon, and satire. It has guided our ancestors to freedom, served as the soundtrack to our favorite films or plays, and influenced generations. Music ushers in our favorite seasons and holds life’s greatest memories.
As part of the “Save the Culture” series, we were given the lofty assignment of curating a list of songs to put into a “time capsule” to preserve Black culture for all time. To complete this assignment, we enlisted the help of music buffs and industry experts — including Lady London (B.S. ‘16), Tracey Lee, Esq. (B.A. ’92), Jasmine “Jazz” Young (B.A. ’94), and Eric Roberson (BFA ’97) — to critique our choices and help us understand what makes a song worth preserving.
“As a singer, a song is worth persevering when the music, melody, and lyrics create a time machine that sends me back to where I was when I first heard it,” said Roberson.
Remember watching your favorite music video drop on “106 & Park?” Rapper and songwriter Lady London went on to explain how a culturally relevant song may not have made that countdown but is no less worthy of our capsule. “Creating a hit song and crafting a culturally impactful song are related but not the same,” said Lady London. One can exist without the other — a hit might chart without leaving a legacy, while a culturally impactful song might not top the charts but lives forever in people’s minds, playlists, and memes.
“I feel Black music is worth persevering, because it is the first true American music form,” continued Roberson. “It has been the soundtrack to so many important and impactful moments in our history. Black music creates portraits of where we’ve been, where we are, and where we hope to go.”
That’s the purpose of our Save the Culture series, and this installment of it: to, in the way only Black music can, draw us closer together to speak our shared language while paying homage to our culture. And while we recognize that innumerable songs won’t make this list, we hope to create conversation around the preservation of this music for future generations.
Without further ado and with the blessing of our musical subject matter experts, we’ve decided to “preserve the culture” with the following songs, in no particular order (and with a few honorable mentions!).
