Music
new music: kenneth whalum & big krit release heart-wrenching collaboration lamenting police brutality
There is a heaviness that is ever-present amongst Black and Brown bodies these days. The air is thick with anger and fear and it’s fitting that the weather is starting turn slowly but surely into fall, that the warmth and carefree of summer is slipping away. However sad and discouraging it might be, it comes as no surprise when the news breaks that another person of color has died at the hands of law enforcement, this time in Tulsa and in Baltimore and everywhere in between. In Charlotte, the city of my birth and home of my family, a Black disabled man named Keith Lamont Scott was reading and waiting for his child at the bus stop, when police mistook the book for a gun. Four shots later and his life and story has been reduced to little more than a memory and a hashtag.
In the wake of the violence, many have lended their voices to the movement, expressing the hurt, confusion, and suffering many of us are facing. Joining forces to offer a different, more grim picture of the state sanctioned violence, Kenneth Whalum & Big KRIT lament their uncertainty that things will improve in “Might Not Be Okay.” Kenneth’s hollow, reverberating vocals offer a ghastly backdrop, while Big KRIT booming voice intensifies with every passing bar. It’s a breathtaking example of the art that can be birthed from such pain, but a grave reminder that tomorrow is not promised and that we, indeed, might not be okay.
By T. McLendon, AFROPUNK Contributor
Photo courtesy of Kenneth Whalum’s Instagram
Kenneth’s Website: kennethwhalum.net/
Big KRIT’s Website: bigkrit.com/
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