Music Video: Common - Letter to the Free

Music Video: Common - Letter to the Free

Our first Music Video CSP is Common - Letter to the Free.

This is a stunning music video and protest song that documents black American culture and the legacy of slavery.

Notes from the lesson

Common: a pioneering artist

Common is a Black American cultural icon who has maintained a political and social concern in his music. At one of the most charged periods in American history, the video Letter to the Free is presented as his contribution to the divisive political and social issues of contemporary America, a sense that he is attempting to draw attention to initiating a new wave of ‘protest music’.

Michael Eric Dyson on Common

Dyson on black stereotypes and Common: “Many critics don’t account for the complex ways that some artists in hip hop play with stereotypes to either subvert or reverse them. Amid the pimp mythologies and metaphors that gut contemporary hip hop, rappers like Common… seize on pimpology’s prominence to poke fun at its pervasiveness. 

“Hip hop is still fundamentally an art form that traffics in hyperbole, parody, kitsch, dramatic license, double entendres, signification, and other literary and artistic conventions to get its point across.”

Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean (2007)

Common - Selma soundtrack

Common and John Legend wrote Glory as the soundtrack for Selma, a 2014 film portraying the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, a key moment in the Civil Rights Movement.

The marches were a non-violent protest to demonstrate the desire of black Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote.

Common returned to the theme of protest with Letter to the Free – highlighting the mass incarceration of black Americans. 

Common: Letter to the Free

Letter to the Free was directed by Bradford Young (the cinematographer on Selma). The video has the camera moving at a slow, aching pace through an empty prison where Common, singers Andra Day and Bilal, and other musicians perform the song in different spaces in the prison rooms. 

A black square hovering in the air appears throughout the clip, which, in a final shot, is framed as empty space in a field.

Amendment 13: ‘Black Codes’

The song was written for Ava DuVernay’s Netflix documentary 13th focusing on the historic legacy of the 13th amendment to the US Constitution. Theoretically written to outlaw slavery, the 13th Amendment had the effect of paving the way for local and State law reforms that created loopholes that effectively enabled the continued enslavement of Black Americans through mass imprisonment. The so-called Black Codes, introduced at state level in the southern states, provided for forced labour as punishment for petty crimes that in reality only applied to the newly emancipated black slaves.

Common - Letter to the Free blog tasks

Work through the following tasks to create a comprehensive case study for Common's Letter to the Free.

Social and cultural context

Read this Billboard interview where Common talks about Letter to the Free, political hip hop and contemporary American society. Use the article and the notes we have made in lessons (also available above) to answer the following questions on the social, cultural and genre contexts for Letter to the Free.

1) What other projects has Common been involved in over recent years?

An album called Black America Again. He has also worked with John Legend to produce the soundtrack for Selma.

2) What is the 13th Amendment of the American Constitution?

The 13th amendment in the USA constitution was written to outlaw slavery as it paved the way for the local and state law reform that created a loophole that effectively enabled the continued enslavement... it was specifically "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction".

3) What were the Black Codes?

Black Codes, introduced at state level in the southern states, provided for forced labour as punishment for petty crimes that in reality only applied to the newly emancipated black slaves.

4) Why do people suggest that the legacy of slavery is still a crucial aspect to American culture 150 years after it was abolished by the 13th Amendment?

Due to slavery and by extension the 13th Amendment being the foundation for the continued racism, brutality and imprisonment against black people to this day.

5) Why was Ava DuVernay inspired to make the Netflix documentary 13th?

''I was always disturbed and fascinated by and furious with what we were not talking about the fact that, you know multi-billion dollar companies were profiting off of black bodies and people from my community, in prison,”

6) Focusing on genre, what was the most significant time period for the rise in political hip hop?

80s and 90s

7) Common talks about other current artists that have a political or protest element to their music. Who are they? Are there any other hip hop artists that you are aware of that have a strong political element to their work?

"Big Daddy Kane, Mo D, N.W.A had stuff that was saying something too. I don't feel like we have that as a whole in hip-hop, I don't think hip-hop is the place we go to to listen for that voice of a revolution or to say 'this is how we're changing things.' But there are artists that do it, like Kendrick Lamar. I also think that Chance [the Rapper], though he may not speak in black consciousness, he has a consciousness about him, self-awareness and a spirituality."

8) What album is Letter to the Free taken from? What was the critical reception for this album? You'll need to research this - the Wikipedia entry for the album is a good place to start.

The album Black America Again. The album received widespread acclaim from critics, debuting at number 25 on the US Billboard 200.

Close-textual analysis and representation

Re-watch the music video several times to complete the following tasks in specific detail:

1) How does the Letter to the Free music video use cinematography to create meanings for the audience? (Camera shots and movement) + 2) What is the significance of the constantly moving camera?

The camera is constantly moving at a slow pace to mirror the pace and tone of the music. It circles around an empty prison, as long shots of the actors and environments create a sense of disconnect between the viewer and the actors, sort of as if we're circling around them and observing them as outsiders. This may reflect that society hasn't changed as we watch injustice and don't do anything to stop it.

3) Why is the video in black and white?

Perhaps to allude to the history of slavery and the 13th amendment and how they're still extremely relevant today to the discrimination of black people. It also creates a stronger focus and aesthetic for the video where it's easy to grasp the message that common attempts to depict.

4) How is mise-en-scene used to construct meaning for the audience - prison setting, costume, props, lighting, actor placement? 

The prison setting combined with the actor placement may create a sense of entrapment, sort of lamenting that black people are still not truly free. The rooms are mostly empty, with there being a lot of free space in shots, allowing the music and message to basically fill the room. The lighting is very low key - enhanced by the black and white filter - creating a very solemn tone for the audience.

5) Focusing on the track, what are the key lyrics that suggest the political message of the song?

"Institution ain't just a building", "search and arrest our souls Police and policies patrol philosophies of control", "Black bodies being lost in the american dream", "Shot me with your Reagan And now you want to Trump me", "Black bodies being lost in the American dream"

6) What is the significance of the floating black square motif? Discuss your own interpretations alongside Common's explanation of it in the Billboard feature linked above.

Perhaps it could represent how there is still discrimination and racism in society that needs to be abolished.

Common states the meaning of the floating black box as something that "represents the infinite thing about blackness and blackness can't be defined in time or space".

7) How does the video reference racism, slavery and the oppression of black culture? Make reference to specific shots, scenes or moments in the video.

The shots of empty prison cells show how slavery is never forgotten and still leaves it's legacy through the current prison system; it's built on the 13th amendment and thus inherently oppresses black people. At 3:10 it says "no excessive noise" to imply the attempts to silence black voices in America and the UK.

8) How can Gilroy's idea of black diasporic identity be applied to Common's Letter to the Free?

Gilroy's thoughts on black music articulating diasporic experiences unique to black people against white capitalist culture can be applied - The slave trade has a huge cultural influence on modern America and has a legacy that uniquely effects black people. This diasporic identity is very clearly perpetuated in this music video.

9) What other theories of race and ethnicity can be applied to this video? E.g. Hall, Rose or Dyson.

Rose's black noise theories can be applied to this video, as music is being used to give black youth a voice on the legacy of slavery and insight into the racism still rampant in america.

10) What current events in America and worldwide are referenced in the song and video?

Black lives matter, Trump and Ronald Reagan, Police Brutality, Mass incarceration, 13th Amendment