Ten Black Faces: Jimi Hendrix, Tupac Shakur and more…

This morning, I noticed that there were ten black faces staring back at me from various places on my desk. The faces were all familiar – some on a personal level, and some from a distance. The two faces that caught my attention were of two musicians who died long before their time: and .

I don’t believe these two are often mentioned in the same sentence. I also doubt that they often share disk space in the same CD player.

It just seems to work out that way.

When I’m on the Brooklyn Bridge, it’s often Tupac or Nas (not one of the 10 faces today). Nas was face down (not face-out) and missed the whole episode. Maybe hip-hop really is dead. If so, his 2007 release is not the first notice. Arguably DelaSoul’s album The Grind Date asked for whom the bell tolls in 2004 – and revealed answers that the industry was not ready to reckon with. Not much has changed or could have in the past three years. Hendrix had a similar critique of rock n’ roll decades ago – and there have been episodic movements to deliver on the promise of the genre in rock and hip-hop. I suppose it depends on where you listen. If you listen closely, though, you can hear hip-hop getting up on the canvas – doing its part to resist premature autopsies. Perhaps Pharoahe Monche would be a good place to begin.

Jimi Hendrix gets serious run on the Manhattan Bridge…”Watchtower” at full blast. Don’t know why that is exactly, but it works. Boom, boom, boom; den, den, den, den, den, den!!!!

So what of those other faces? One is my own – and my grandfather and father – from my wedding day. Three generations in one shot – great stuff. Then there’s a picture of a young Nelson Mandela. He looks as if he were en route to a meeting of the African National Congress during the apartheid era.

(Not the picture on my desk)…

Then, there was the serious, soulful stare of Rakim – from the album cover to The 18th Letter: The Book of Life.

It’s a double album that was released back in 1997. The first CD contained new tracks (at the time) and the second CD contained those classics from his time with Eric B. (“My Melody”, “I Know You Got Soul”, “Microphone Fiend”, “Follow the Leader” and all that). When I listen to Rakim, two things are most striking: his vocal clarity and his phrasing. More pictures: the son of two of my best friends from graduate school – he looks just like his father and mother. Handsome, smart, kind, mannerly, gracious, and funny. I should be so lucky.

There’s a postage stamp of Malcolm X on my desk. It won’t ever be mailed.

And finally, there is another picture of my father – in his graduation attire after completing his master’s degree in social work. He’s led a difficult life and he’s battled back through a great deal of adversity to become new in many ways. Age may have mellowed him a bit, but he sees things for what they are and takes the types of actions one can respect and seek to replicate. It’s a great picture.

Ten black faces – every day.