As black social life has become less and less about impressing or appeasing forces outside of it, the treatment of sin in our music has gone from strict condemnation and moralizing in spirituals, to reveling in blues, jazz, r&b, and hip hop, as if vice and depravity might allow us to rebel socially even while we remain oppressed politically and economically. Sin and decadence have become portals for the black sonic imagination and the idea of being evil has turned from dangerous to liberating as our music has evolved. Sin songs soothe us. Sin is the currency of private freedom and we spend and exchange it together, since everything we do is criminalized already, we make praise songs about lurid dilemmas like loving too many people at the same time, hating our enemies, punishing our haters, killing, stealing, running away, exacting bitter revenge, never being repentant. After internalizing the idea that your skin, your body, the way you move, the way you speak, the way you think and conceive of the world, is vulgar and threatening, guilt and the desire to change to appease critics shifts to giving them something to feel threatened about, fulfilling the prophecy—why not be black as sin and glad in it.
Moodymann's Sinnerman
Moodymann's Sinnerman
Moodymann's Sinnerman
As black social life has become less and less about impressing or appeasing forces outside of it, the treatment of sin in our music has gone from strict condemnation and moralizing in spirituals, to reveling in blues, jazz, r&b, and hip hop, as if vice and depravity might allow us to rebel socially even while we remain oppressed politically and economically. Sin and decadence have become portals for the black sonic imagination and the idea of being evil has turned from dangerous to liberating as our music has evolved. Sin songs soothe us. Sin is the currency of private freedom and we spend and exchange it together, since everything we do is criminalized already, we make praise songs about lurid dilemmas like loving too many people at the same time, hating our enemies, punishing our haters, killing, stealing, running away, exacting bitter revenge, never being repentant. After internalizing the idea that your skin, your body, the way you move, the way you speak, the way you think and conceive of the world, is vulgar and threatening, guilt and the desire to change to appease critics shifts to giving them something to feel threatened about, fulfilling the prophecy—why not be black as sin and glad in it.