Music Activism With H.E.R; 3 Times H.E.R Has Evoked & Provoked Through Her Music
23 June 2020
by Kabura Ng'ang'a
H.E.R shot to the limelight because of her soulful sound and music. She has gone on to sort of shape her own RnB/soulful sound that is only signature to her. It is also important to note that she is not one to stay quiet on social injustices, at least not on song.
In 2019, there was the deportation of Mexicans separating children from their parents, a lot of gun violence going on in the US against the black community and just before the BET Awards show night, there were protests against gun violence. H.E.R took to stage to perform her provocative and emotive single, ‘The Lord Is Coming’ featuring YBN Cordae. She took time to highlight what was happening and the need for black people to seek justice because no one else will help them.
Fast forward to 2020, gun violence and police brutality are still a problem for the black community. H.E.R released the video for her single ‘I’m Not Okay’. The video depicts black men going through police brutality and the dent that this leaves for the women in the black community.
On Juneteenth, H.E.R went on to show her support for the Black Lives Matter Movement with her new single ‘I Can’t Breathe’. She pens together words expressing the killings of sons, fathers, brothers in the black community and the struggle of being a black person in the US constantly begging for your right to live, as a citizen of the USA.
We can’t always have artists as part of the protests but them using their voice in song to give continuity to the struggle is as important and impactful and H.E.R continues to demonstrate this.
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