This Book is Already so Good!!

So there is a scene in A Brief History of Seven Killings when a white man shows up while Bob Marley and his band are rehearsing for the Peace concert and he begins to question why Marley doesn’t do anymore of his happier songs instead of revolutionary ones. He compares the newer material to “angry n***** music” and uses the phrase “I personally got nothing against black people” and mentions Jimi Hendrix as some sort of validation for his already very racist speech. However, he caps it off by discussing the state of rock and roll in America saying that America do want need a “rabblerouser setting off the wrong element,” definitely hinting at how the music would make black people want to riot against the establishment which sheds light on current conversations about this “anti-police rhetoric” being used by protestors. Lastly he states that rock is for real Americans and that Marley should stick to the coasts instead of trying to go mainstream. What this character, and I am sure many people who like classic rock and roll, does not realize is that rock and roll first started with African Americans and was stolen and repurposed for mainstream white audiences (ex: Big Mama Thornton was the original singer for “Hound Dog” not Elvis). I am not even a quarter way through with this book and it is so good I could definitely teach a lesson on this one day.