2. Da Letter El
D'Angelo and the Vanguard - The Charade
Color 4.7 / Song 3.6
Player's Argument:
I wanted to pick a song that was about Black struggles for rights and settled on this one. Soul is a traditionally Black musical style, but D’Angelo has been merging styles and influences forever (this song has a ton of Prince influence bleeding in) into this sort of neo-soul movement (although he hates the term). After not having released an album for 15 years, he drops this album in the wake of Ferguson, feeling like he wanted to make some political statements the best way he knew how: through music.
when I think about the charade, I just think of this veil keeping people blind to how the world is operating. The song goes into the silencing of Black voices, and whenever I hear the “lines in chalk” line I just visualize this black canvas being written over by a white line. The mention of this It’s bleak, it’s sad, until it’s mention that once this veil comes off it won’t take too long to work through these sorts of things but until then Black lives will continue to be lost and voices continued to be ignored. So whether you’re visualizing Black people, seeing nothing from this veil, or just this like bleak dark core and negativity that’s at this songs core, I think this song fits perfectly
My Thoughts:
Black power is very Black. Feels like a more fully realized D'Angelo song than the one I got in Red. Good stuff.