Fire in Little Africa music video “Descendants” demands justice

Fire in Little Africa music video “Descendants” demands justice

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Fire In Little Africa has released their 5th music video entitled “Descendants” from their  self-entitled album which came out last year on Motown Records.

The “Descendants” music video is cinematically brilliant. The song is well balanced. There is no doubt the descendants of Black Wall Street are on a mission to take back what was stolen from them over 100 years ago in the Tulsa Race Massacre. 

“They got Dicky Ro, they got Dicky Ro, and we can’t take this sh*t no more. Yeah, the jig up” community leader and former Tulsa mayoral candidate Greg Robinson II says at the beginning of the video.

The symbolism of the reality was heavily displayed throughout the video: lynched bodies, burning crosses, Ku Klux Klan members laid in a pool of blood, emotionally depicting the events from the Tulsa Race Massacre while illustrating the vengeance of the ancestors manifested through their seeds.  

Bringing Art to Life

The animated images matched Earl Hazard and Thomas Who?’s lyrics nearly word for word, bringing them to life. 

An infant transformed into an adult male while still in the womb as Earl Hazard opened his verse saying, “Before the due date/ I could feel the hate outside my mama’s womb,” symbolizing the prejudice placed on a Black person’s life before it even begins.

Before getting a chance to breathe, a child is looked at as an adult, and inferior. The superiority complex possessed by members of the klan and those alike is what led to the burning of Black Wall Street; and the “Descendants” music video represents the fervor of seeking justice, taking back what belongs to them and restoring the greatness of Black Wall Street.

The video is gloomy, but with intention: The ancestors’ souls are on display, and the recurring theme of vengeance is clear throughout the lyrics and video.

Notable lyrics in the first verse:

“Had been curse since my conceiving but my ancestors move through/ This vessel that’s temporary/ you would think I knew Voodoo.”

“This is how revengeful seeds react.”

“Look at every senseless death you caused coming back to haunt through/ Revolution won’t be televised/ it will be brought upon you/ this the voice of a descendant of a martyr/ From a lineage of warriors who came for what is ours.”

We Want All The (Smoke)

On the second verse, the ancestors appeared to snatch the soul of Thomas Who? and began speaking through him.

Look,” He proclaimed, as he received the baton from Earl Hazard and continued the verbal assassination of those who afflicted the violence that decimated over 200 Greenwood businesses and over 1,200 homes.

Thomas Who?’s lyrics in the second verse were a more vivid description of the pain intended to be returned: “I’m headhunting every single hooded-crooked officer/ en route to offing ya.”

“Headed to Greenwood/ prepared for a dog fight/ Could care less about Bradys on Black Wall Street/ So long as the outline of the chalk white.”  

“You can get it/ when I’m clicking/ listen on-sight/ grand wizard left dead from a strong right/ They thought the revolution all hype/ reciting all that crooked history/ you know they tell the tall kind.”

The last few lines of the song, along with the imagery in the video, can be seen as a culmination of Thomas Who?’s verse and perhaps the whole song.

The video is thought-provoking and displays a noteworthy level of artistic creativity.  Fire in Little Africa (FILA) artists are creatively telling the story of the Tulsa Race Massacre, all while making it relevant to today. More importantly, they’re proclaiming “We gon make sure that the history won’t repeat twice… We are descendants!

Link to Black Wall Street Times>

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