Lauri Ramey Slave Song

Slavery is thought by some to have started in 1619 when African Americans were brought to North America for this injustice. In Slave Songs and the Birth of African American Poetry, throughout this book Lauri Ramey talks about how slavery songs and well as poems started evolving as how it was used as an aid and support to slaves. In the book Ramey says how “no one at the time seemed to be entirely sure of what they were [slave songs], where they came from, and most of all, how to evaluate them” (Ramey). This means how the songs only had a deep meaning to only the slave community because only they could feel that pain and what each word of that song meant personally since they were the ones going through all of these events. The songs slaves

This being said in the text we can see how slaves would use this form of art in order to connect and communicate with their community. Music brought them close together, lets each other know that they feel their pain, and how to support each other with pieces of lyrics. The lyrics made by the slaves would help empower their community, this community being viewed as though they are a family.
Meanwhile nothing much has changed throughout the years, just the rhythm and more cypher throughout the songs that have a bigger meaning that what the first impression of the song is giving.
Meanwhile, Beyonce caused a controversy due to the song she released, ‘Formation’ before her performance at the Super Bowl. The disagreement was that people, mostly Caucasian, thought they were being attacked through her lyrics and especially with her super bowl outfit. Beyonce and her backup dancers were wearing outfits that looked very similar to the black panthers party, which was a group that was against the government and all for self defence. Along with her song came a music video, this video has so much symbolism, for an example standing on top of a New Orleans cop car in the