Music is an emotional release with a rhythmic vernacular, designed to communicate with an intended audience. In essence, a form of communication to integrate shared experience and semantics, thereby excluding those that do not share common ground; The American Negro is not for the faint of heart. The album is a powerful, multifaceted statement that reflects perennial injustices and serves to act as a lever of change during a time of mass disillusionment: an album for the people.
To better explain the intricacies of Adrian Younge’s message, The American Negro not only includes an album, but also an Amazon Original podcast (Invisible Blackness) and short film (TAN). Listen to the title track from the album, “The American Negro,” today. The song cultivates a bold balance between melancholy and pure joy, with melodic grooves; it captures the poetic spirits of black luminaries like Gil-Scott Heron, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye (Listen HERE).
