"This is a person who should have had a fourth album. This is a person who is sort of thinking through what it means to possibly die, but also knowing in the most existential cradle-to-grave sort of way that he's going to die eventually. And what would it mean if it happened tomorrow? What if this is the thing that stands as the last thing I do?"
"The backread that we do when somebody has died is like, now we're hearing this, like, is this here? Or are we just because now, I'm like, Oh yeah, of course. Like it's, sort of, A: It's called Black Messiah. It's like, a Messiah has died. Like, that's sort of that's what happens. Like you go you know, it's or you're not really the Messiah until you're killed on some level."
Black Messiah operates as a decisive, last-statement record that confronts mortality and legacy. The album frames an artist imagining what it means to die tomorrow and whether a single work could stand as a final testament. The title invokes messianic imagery and the idea that a true Messiah is often only recognized through persecution or death. Historical paranoia about a "Black Messiah," exemplified by J. Edgar Hoover's targeting of figures like Fred Hampton, informs the album's political register. The record blends personal existential reckoning with broader commentary on martyrdom, social struggle, and cultural memory.
Read at www.nytimes.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]