mf tide: an anthology of black angst and utter frustration.

I just completed a course entitled 'mass media in the black community' which I must say, is definitely in my top five most rewarding and entertaining classes I've ever taken. but anyway, in this class, my professor made the conscious decision to chalk the final exam and instead told us to make a mixtape then upload it to soundcloud.

yes, you read that right.

for our final, we had to make a mixtape then upload it to soundcloud (or youtube, spotify, or any other site that floats your boat).

the birth of our mixtape project came from the required text for the course, a book entitled 'I mix what I like!: a mixtape manifesto' by jared ball. ball views mixtapes as anthologies; they're comprised of a plethora of tracks joint together to narrate a story or share a significant message. and because of that, our mixtape had to be an anthology about absolutely anything of our choice (as long as it had to do with black people, of course).

my mixtape is mf tide: an anthology of black angst and utter frustration.

click the bold title above to listen to my mixtape!

along with submitting a link to our mixtapes, the class was also instructed to write a 4+ page paper that elaborates more on our concepts, why we chose the songs we did, how we personally connect with the mixtape, and lastly we had to analyze a select few tracks from it. since my mixtape was more lyrically-based rather than a visual album, I deciphered lyrics.

if you want to read the concept behind mf tide and understand why I got an A+ on this assignment (lol), I'll post my paper below. enjoy. xoxo

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The ‘mf tide’ in the title of my mixtape “mf tide: an anthology of angst and utter frustration.” is an abbreviation of mother freaking tired. The title is in all lowercase letters as a way to depict the artists’ emotional drainage and distress. I feel that my people -- black people -- are humans and should be able treated as such. Black people feel innately and deeply, and in an age where the only radio airplay black artists receive are with songs filled with shallow and meaningless content, these are a collection of songs with meaning. My mixtape includes these tracks: ‘Black America Again’ by Common ft. Stevie Wonder, ‘Immigrant’ by Sade, ‘What’s Going On’ by Marvin Gaye, ‘Heartbeat’ by Nneka, ‘War’ by Bob Marley, ‘Blue Lights’ by Jorja Smith, ‘Murder to Excellence’ by The Throne (Jay Z & Kanye West), ‘Rock N Roll’ by Mos Def, ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ by Michael Jackson, ‘We the People’ by A Tribe Called Quest, ‘Chains’ by Usher ft. Bibi Bourelly & Nas, ‘The Blacker the Berry’ by Kendrick Lamar, ‘Answer’ by Tyler, the Creator, ‘Cranes in the Sky’ by Solange, ‘Mama Says’ by Ibeyi, ‘Confused!’ by Kid Cudi, ‘Everything I Wasn’t’ by Kur, ‘Sometimes’ by Bilal, ‘Yeah You’ by N*E*R*D, and last but not least, ‘Caught Out There’ by Kelis.

I decided to keep it very broad in that by making a mixtape about angst and utter frustration doesn’t just have to be those feelings towards one thing. Some topics in my mixtape are distrust in the artist’s home country’s government, cultural appropriation, frustration in romantic relationship(s), inner struggles/demons in the closet, police brutality, racism, and more. Also, I was broad in the sense that I didn’t stick to just one genre or focus on black people in the United States. Black people are remotely everywhere, so to get a good representation of black people everywhere I included artists from all over the world. While most of the artists are from the United States, Nneka is from Nigeria, Bob Marley is from Jamaica, Sade and Jorja Smith are from the United Kingdom, Bibi Bourelly is from Germany, and Ibeyi are from France. The genres I used were hip hop, neo-soul, R&B, alternative rock, reggae, and pop.

When it came to the composition of the mixtape, I thought it would be smartest to put songs with similar subject matter close to one another. The first chunk (12 songs) are songs regarding political grievance and race relations. For the remainder of the mixtape (the last eight songs), the tracks relate to inner demons and depression, unhealthy relationships, and loss. All of these songs are songs that I truly adore, and two of them involve my personal inspirations/favorite people in the entire world: Pharrell and Kid Cudi.

As for examples of how the songs fit into mf tide, my first example is a few bars from ‘Black America Again’ by Common ft. Stevie Wonder:

I wish the hating will stop (war)

And the battle with us

I know that black lives matter and they matter to us

These are the things we gotta discuss

The new plantation, mass incarceration

Instead of educate, they'd rather convict the kids

As dirty as the water in Flint, the system is

Is it a felony or a misdemeanor

Maria Sharapova making more than Serena

Firstly, I must say that Common did an outstanding job at painting a picture of the parallels between black America versus white America. As for these lyrics, it’s no different here. Common is flabbergasted at the fact that white Americans always want to pick fights at black Americans and cause distress but never want to acknowledge that there is a racial inequality problem or the simple fact that it’s evident that black lives generally do not matter to white people. The government (who is supposed to be leaders for the country and be there for us all) came up with multiple policies that cleared the road to prison for black people and other minorities. Beginning with slavery, then transitioning into convict leasing, and now mass incarceration, slavery is still alive and well in the United States of America. WIth a slogan of being the ‘land of the free,’ this country doesn’t seem to practice what they preach. Moving onto the Serena Williams line, Common is referring to the fact that Serena Williams, a black woman, is ranked the number two female tennis player in the world and is currently no way in trouble with the WTA. However, her net worth is $145 million. Maria Sharapova, a white woman, is ranked 93rd and is currently on a two-year suspension from the WTA because she tested positive for drugs, which is prohibited from the WTA. Ironically (not really), Maria’s net worth is $195 million. Any rational and unbiased person could see how wrong that is.

Another example of heavy lyrics in mf tide is from Kid Cudi’s ‘Confused!’:

I always end up back in a cycle of shame Looking in the mirror is hard Some days I hurt myself to distract me from distraction That's madness fixing sadness Going on adventures to find that the answers aren't plain But there's comfort in tears

This song in its entirety is truly heartbreaking and I’m sure took a lot of raw energy to create. The first two lines explain the fact that Kid Cudi has extremely low self-esteem and can’t bear to look at himself because he doesn’t love himself. Hurting himself becomes a way of “madness fixing sadness” because the act of cutting oneself is pretty violent and harsh to say the least, and it is a tool for people to distract themselves from the true emotional pain going on. Another way of Kid Cudi trying to distract himself from the pain is by going on adventures or using drugs, only to realize that it’s not that simple but merely crying can help him feel better.

mf tide is an emotional wreck of a mixtape but is very necessary in my opinion. I love when people are vulnerable and not afraid to be themselves unapologetically through their music. I think that all of these artists and songs fit that as well as deliver a message that should be heard.

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