The-Dream treated us to plenty of sexually explicit visuals on his last album, IV Play, but in the new video for “Black,” he has a much deeper message to share. He first revealed the lyric video in the midst of uproar over Donald Sterling’s racist comments, and the full clip coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, capturing the spirit of that pivotal era.
Set in South Africa’s Langa Township, the video finds The-Dream surrounded by protesters in a march, carrying signs that represent a number of different causes, ranging from Occupy Wall Street to calls for a free Ukraine.
People of all shapes, colors, genders and sexual orientations are represented in the video, and we’re sure that Kanye West would be especially proud of the banner that reads, “classism is the new racism.”
“I needed to take a step in a direction away from my comfort zone and do and say and sing something worthwhile,” The-Dream said in a statement about his video.
“I think this way all the time, and I spend most of my day in the battle of being Black and being a minority. Money has not changed my status in the department of racism and or classism. I take a step in this direction in order to no longer ignore the real part of life that exists after I walk out of a studio, after I take an award at a show, and after I drop my kids off to school. America is still broken. I only wish to help bring these broken ways to light so we can fix our hearts, and make this dream a reality and not a segregated dream filled with false hope.”
Nadeska Alexis
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