Ahyash Allen

Whenever I hear the word “musical,” my eyes tend to roll a little. As a self-professed filmbro, a Letterboxd frequenter whose viewing taste at any one time is usually steered by a piece of media’s Rotten Tomatoes score, musicals for so long seemed to me an arduous exercise in storytelling. I have always been an impatient watcher — I want the story, and I want it plainly.

Pop music is ever-changing. Tastes shift so swiftly and completely that it can be hard to keep up. I love pop music and its many iterations. From grunge pop to hyperpop, bubblegum pop to indie pop, I listen to it all. So when I stumbled across a song titled “On The Ground,” featured in one of the many Spotify playlists I follow, I found myself surprised and a little dumbstruck. I couldn’t place it neatly into any of these pop categories. It was something new and something wonderful.

The Black Lives Matter Movement’s focus has always been to advocate for Black people killed at the hands of police. However, a common question raised by the opposers of the Black Lives Matter movement is why the movement isn’t as vocal when a Black person is killed by another Black person.The argument being used here is that until Black activists address Black-On-Black crime, they have no right to be outraged over police violence.