Hot New Joint: "Black" by The-Dream

When we last checked in with producer, singer, and songwriter The Dream, aside from his contribution to Pusha T’s My Name is My Name in the form of the very Dream-esq track “40 Acres,” he had released the incredibly tepid solo album, IV Play—a record that save for a few guffaw inducing lines about all the ways he was planning to have sex, it was a largely forgettable affair.

So imagine my surprise that The Dream released, seemingly out of nowhere, the kind of civil rights anthem that we need in 2014; but the real question is that are even deserving of a song of this caliber?

Seen by some as a response of sorts to the racially charged situation involving the owner of the Clippers at the start of this week, the song, simply titled “Black” takes on so much more than that, thank in part to the incredibly powerful video that accompanies—tackling classism, marriage equality, civil unrest, et. al. If it’s a cause that needs someone to rally behind it, The Dream is there with this song.

The verses, sung from a place of honesty, come from a life spent growing up in the shadows of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, but it’s the refrain that gets you every time—“Y’all got me feelin’ real black right now,” The Dream sings, accompanied by music that you couldn’t ask to be more triumphant sounding.

As if the message behind this song and video weren’t clear enough from the start, the video ends with this text—

"Black isn't just a color. Black isn't just a race anymore. It's a feeling and a place from which one feels isolated by the world of the governing elite. Classism is the new racism. This is what black feels like."

Aside from being probably the best song of 2014, “Black” is the kind of song that is audacious enough to hope for something better; to make you want to believe that we, as a world, can do better than what is happening right now. That’s no easy task: today I read that a Boston Bruins fans have a problem with a black player on the opposing team. What you and I may consider to be “basic human rights” are not available to everyone. Women still make less than men. Rich get richer. The poor get poorer. Sometimes it seems like the world is an awful place. But a song like this is a tiny sliver of hope.

But do we deserve it?

The Dream obviously thinks that we do—that this was the right time to share this with the world. And with “Black,” he’s created the kind of song that commands your attention, but are the right people listening?

This is what black feels like.