D’Angelo and Black Panther Party Co-Founder Bobby Seale Talk Music, Activism, Current Events

Earlier this month, D’Angelo and activist Bobby Seale, who co-founded the Black Panther Party, met each other for the first time. They brought a reporter from The New York Times to chronicle the interaction; now, the Times has published an account of their meeting, which ended up being a joint conversation about music, politics, current events, and more. “This is a dream,” D’Angelo said. “It’s very rare you get to meet one of your heroes.”

D’Angelo began the conversation by referring to the previously reported Black Messiah “companion piece”, which he said he wants to release in the fall. He said the record will include a song called “Go and Tell Bro”, which includes the lines: “Every time I turn my head, it’s the same old thing again, ain’t much different now than it was back then.” 

“There’s so many parallels going on between now and your time,” he told Seale. “And it’s the same fight with the police.” Seale replied: “That’s true. You can’t get around it.”

D’Angelo also mused on his music’s political responsibility:

Now more than ever is the need to sing about it and to write songs about it. And no one’s doing it. There’s only a chosen couple of people. I think it just takes one little snowflake to start a snowball to go down the hill. My contribution and say, Kendrick Lamar’s and some chosen others’ start the snowball. That’s all I can hope for. I don’t know if I’m comfortable being quote-unquote a leader. But I do realize and understand that my role as a musician, and in the medium that I am, that people are listening to me. Kids are listening to me. We have power to influence minds and influence lives. So I respect that power. I really do. I’m not putting myself on a pedestal or anything like that. I think that’s dangerous. When you start playing with that, and you’re not careful, you can get yourself into trouble.

“Kendrick Lamar, he’s an example of someone who is young and actually trying to say something,” he added. “Who else? You got Young Jeezy and Young Thug. You know what I’m saying? It’s stupid. It’s ridiculous.”

Seale referred to the need for youth activism, while praising Baltimore state attorney Marilyn Mosby for her role in indicting the six police officers accused of being involved with the death of Freddie Gray. He also spoke about the importance of electing officials with progressive views. “You could change the whole spectrum,” he said. “You could change the city laws. This is what you do.”

D’Angelo added, “It needs a true agenda, a central committee, some type of leadership. Otherwise it does just end up being a hashtag, #Black Lives Matter. I do think it’s more than a statement. It’s a movement. I’m scared, though, that it’s in danger of not going anywhere. It’s just going to fizzle.”

Read the whole interview here. 

Watch D’Angelo and the Vanguard do “Really Love” on “SNL”:

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