I spend a lot of time at Starbucks and while I’m waiting for them to get my coffee or finish taking my order I often peruse the CDs for sale. In the days before my budget, I would often give into the impulse to buy any CD I remotely wanted. This has proven a fruitful practice as I’ve ended up with a great Tony Bennett compilation and the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack among others. Last week as I waited for my venti iced coffee I saw the album Wake Up! by John Legend and The Roots. My impulse told me to buy it but Dave Ramsey’s voice in the back of my head told me no.
Luckily I got an iTunes gift card for my birthday and was able to pick up the album over the weekend. I’m a big fan of John Legend and I recognize the quality of The Roots, which led to my excitement over the album. Wake Up! is an album composed mainly of covers from the 60s and 70s; covers of songs that address social injustice, the harsh realities of war and the need for peace. I think it’s a great album musically but it’s the message that I really appreciate.
From what I hear on XM radio, a lot of hip hop and R&B music doesn’t carry much of a message these days. Well, I suppose it carries a message, but it mainly has to do with dancing in the club and being rich. Wake Up! harkens back to a different time when R&B music carried a deeper message about the ills of this world and the hope to repair them. John Legend and The Roots do an outstanding job of channeling artists of the past, like Marvin Gaye, to share a message that is needed today as much as it was 40 years ago. The music provides the perfect backdrop for the message; infectious beats and harmonies allow the lyrics fill your mind long after the track has ended. This staying power, then, keeps the message ruminating through your thoughts, allowing it to filter down to your soul. And a message about peace, love and justice can’t do the soul anything but good.
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