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[music]
Darius Lovehall: Say, you mind if I play you a little something real quick?
Nina Mosley: I don't know. The last time you went out on an impulse, you embarrassed the [beep] out of me.
Darius Lovehall: Look, this'll be easy. I promise. Watch.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Okay. If you're a Black woman of a certain age, then you already know that was Larenz Tate as Darius Lovehall, kicking it to Nia Long's character Nina Mosley in 1997's Love Jones. Now, a lot of us have been revisiting Love Jones in recent weeks thanks to its release on Netflix this month. Now, the film was an artistic intervention in the 1990s, a hard departure from the Boyz n the Hood, New Jack City version of Black urban life. It offered us a holy artistic rendering of African-American life and love in Chicago, complete with stepper set, spoken word, and philosophical debates at house parties. But the most important part of Love Jones, the music.
Darius Lovehall: Who am I? It's not important, but they call me brother to the night. Right now, I'm the blues in your left thigh trying to become the funk in your right.
Melissa: From Charlie Parker to Dionne Farris, Lauryn Hill to the Lincoln Center Orchestra, woo, child, it is the music that tells this story. Storytelling is what Black music does. It so happens that June is Black Music Month, an opportunity to read those stories laid down in the tracks of Black artists both past and present.
President Jimmy Carter: How many of you know what month this is? Somebody said June, right on. This is Black Music Month.
Melissa: Yes, right on, Mr. President. That's President Jimmy Carter in 1979, declaring June as Black Music Month. For decades, Black musicians, producers, songwriters, and others have shaped the musical landscape of this country and the globe. From maps to the underground railroad, hidden in the lyrics of freedom songs.
[singing]
Melissa: The pain [unintelligible 00:02:28] into the blues.
[singing]
Melissa: The necessity of improvisation and collaboration written by jazz.
[music]
Melissa: The struggle of the streets narrated by hip hop.
Public Enemy: [singing] Fight the power. We've got to fight the...