It's been building up for a couple years, but we are now in the thick of it. We are entering a new era of powerful hip hop the likes of which haven't been seen since the early '90s. In 2015, K. Dot gave us a masterpiece in light of the well-documented acts of police brutality, and in the years since then we've seen a complete resurgence of intelligent music with legends like A Tribe Called Quest and T.I. providing us with comfort food to help cope with these trying times. Now in the current political climate we're facing, the flood gates are wide open in 2017. Our last post showed Joey Bada$$ penning his take on things to help kick the year off, and now we have D.C.'s own RDGLDGRN tooled up and ready for war with their single "Opera" off their forthcoming crowd-funded album.
On the surface, this track is an ode to 'illegal aliens,' as depicted by Green throughout most of the video. As you dig deeper though, you see that the song tackles the rampant injustices against the marginalized as a whole. Green spazzes on the first verse with bars like "Since the government seems to mark us, I try to stay hidden in a green apartment" which addresses the fear instilled in the Black community that doesn't even feel safe setting foot outside. "Fact is that I won't be voting til the poverty gap has slim proportions / foolish just like the notion of marching for peace when they making corpses" is a line that takes a shot at the flawed election process in this country as well as the protests that follow it, highlighting just how divided we are as a people.
The co-sign from Method Man is a huge grab for the band as well, as the feature will surely give RDGLDGRN a much-needed boost beyond their core fanbase. Be sure to support these brothers on their Pledge Music page, where you can find merch as well as vinyl copies of the upcoming album.
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