It's our last Frame episode of 2016! From Beyonce's "Lemonade" to Chance The Rapper's "Coloring Book," we look back at the year in music with MTV Executive Editor Alex Pappademas; Also, we revisit one of our favorite musician interviews of the year, soul singer/songwriter Aloe Blacc, who describes himself as an "artivist," someone who blends art with activism.
Beyonce, Chance The Rapper and other musical standouts of 2016
From Beyonce’s "Lemonade" to Bon Iver’s "22, A Million," 2016 has been a year of stunning music output from some very prolific people.
It’s also been a year when we sadly lost a lot of musical voices that will be greatly missed. We’ll be hearing recordings from a few of those who’ve gone on to the big stage in the sky on today’s show. People like Sharon Jones, the lead singer of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings:
We also said goodbye to George Michael, Leonard Cohen, Prince and so many others. I sat down with Alex Pappademas, executive editor of MTV News, to talk about the year in music.
Aloe Blacc blends artistry and activism in his musical career
Singer-songwriter Aloe Blacc calls himself an "artivist." That’s an artist who is also an activist. Immigration reform is just one issue that he’s concerned with. And as he told host John Horn when he came to The Frame studios, it’s a personal one. Blacc partnered with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network and director Alex Rivera on a short film of his song titled “Wake Me Up.”
The L.A.-based musician is part of a collective called Artivist Entertainment. He founded it with his wife, singer Maya Jupiter, musician Quetzal Flores, and others.
Interview Highlights:
I wanted to talk about your video, "Wake Me Up," and what it means to you in terms of what you can say to a bigger audience through a song that might be interpreted in any number of ways.
My goal as an artist and as a public figure is to create positive social transformation. Positive, I guess, is subjective. But in my opinion, what would be positive is immigration reform in the U.S. And I want to use my platform to share my messages in a partnership with the National Day Laborers Organizing Network. We were able to work with director Alex Rivera to create a story that would humanize the plight of immigrants in the U.S. and also push forward an agenda of offering compassion to people who are just looking for a better life for their family — in the same way that the first settlers from Europe were looking for a better life for their families when they came to the Americas. The way that my parents were looking for a better life when they came from Panama. So the story isn't foreign to me. No pun intended. It's partially my story.
But you're also talking about a way of using music that involves people like Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger, that you can write music that is beautiful and lyrical but it also means something. Is that how you were raised, seeing music and politics or conversations about issues as inextricably linked?
That's not necessarily how I was raised. The music I listened to at home was just fun music that was popular at the time — it was either pop radio or soul songs that my parents had on vinyl, or the salsa music that they listened to from back home. What was, I think, part of my education in becoming an artivist was my engagement in hip-hop music. There used to be a phrase — people would say that hip hop is the CNN of the streets. So reporting on what's happening in neighborhoods that are underreported on in the news media. I used that method, that style of hip-hop, as my way of speaking truth to power or engaging topics about social ills and political misconduct. I think that education, that practice, I brought that into my life as a vocalist and as a singer.
Do you think people are starting to really understand this concept of the artivist, artists who are activists? Do artists recognize that they have a power, a gift or an opportunity that they have that they shouldn't miss?
I'd say most artists engage their platform and their art with a political or social agenda. Unfortunately, the very visible artists are not part of that rung. So my goal is to stand as an artist that actually can engage in the pop music world as an example. I look up to folks like Bruce Springsteen who has been pretty much consistent in his career in doing that. I look up to producers and actors who are doing the same, like Don Cheadle or George Clooney. They don't make a big stink about it all the time. But their money is going to good places and doing really positive things.
But what you're also talking about is missed opportunities, that there are people who could have a voice...
There are also people who are actually creating more problems in society than they create good.
I'd love to know who's on your list, but you're probably not going to tell me.
Well, I would say one of the biggest songs that was on the radio at the time that Lamar Odom was in a coma from a drug overdose was a song [by The Weeknd] called "I Can't Feel My Face." When you think about what we're pushing in commercial media to all ages — because if that's on pop radio, 3-year-olds are listening to that song and singing along to the lyrics — then you have a very public figure who literally can't feel his face. Is that really what you want? I don't think so.
What's more important to you, people coming up to you and saying, I love this song or I loved its message, or are they always the same?
I think I conflate both. The song is the message, and even if they don't get the message when they hear the song, eventually it'll sink in. And if it doesn't eventually sink in, hopefully their love for it will transfer to someone else that it does sink into. Michael Jackson had a song called "Another Part of Me." I never understood what that song was about. I never paid attention. The music and the groove were so infectious that I just loved it anyway. And as I sang it, the message was sinking in, even if I didn't fully consciously understand it. Now that I've read the lyrics I realize that he was talking about global unity. He was talking about the other person across the border [being] just another part of you. I think that's beautiful, and to be able to do that as the biggest pop artist of all time. It's amazing.
Samuel Goldwyn said, "If you want to send a message, use Western Union." One of the mistakes that filmmakers or musicians might make is being didactic and heavy handed. When you're writing a song and you feel that there's an issue or idea that you want to communicate, how do you solve that problem creatively so that it doesn't sound like you're on a soapbox?
I take the example of Stevie Wonder, James Brown and Bob Marley. You've got to place just as much importance on the groove and the melody and the feel as you do on the lyrics. My wife and I are both artivists and we both like to use our voices and lyrics in ways that can really touch, move and inspire. We argue about this a lot — she's not necessarily inclined to engage in a pop music fashion. My argument is always, Well, you're missing a huge audience with this message if you don't engage this way. I guess she will be the stick-to-your-guns, staunch, true artivist where she's not going to pander. I pander just enough to get the message across. (laughs)
I want to talk a little bit about your musical styles. Do you find yourself constantly looking for new ways in which to write songs? To go from folk to R&B to soul, do they even matter? Do you think about one as different from the other?
I think about them as different from the other, but I never tailor my creativity to one in particular. I just write and create whatever I feel like. When it's done, I can make a reggae version or a salsa version or a hip-hop version out of the same song. It doesn't matter as long as the message is strong and it makes the statement that I want to make.
Back in 2010 you released the song, "I Need A Dollar" which was a breakthrough moment in your career. Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration behind the lyrics to that song?
That song was inspired by losing my job as a business consultant. I was a strategy consultant when I graduated from USC. I worked for Ernst and Young. Usually I was in the health sector, [working with] hospitals or sometimes insurance companies. A couple years into the job I was laid off. It gave me pause. I had to regroup and think whether I was going to go back to school and maybe get a PhD or maybe get another consulting gig. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I fell back on music as just a hobby in the interim and I never had to look back.
So in many ways, that was maybe the best job you ever got fired from?
Yeah, that was probably the best thing that ever happened to me was losing my job. It gave me a chance to really engage my passion — what I love doing. For all the good that I was able to do at children's hospitals — helping improve the radiology departments or helping collect cash from insurance companies — I feel like I'm doing much more good as a singer.
I want to talk about Artivist Entertainment. What is it up to and what do you hope it can accomplish?
It is an organization where Maya Jupiter, Quetzal Flores and I and a couple of other members have come together to embrace and support artivists — people who are actors or painters, dancers or musicians who want to use their artistic voice to discuss social or political issues and create positive transformation. Artivist Entertainment really strives to be a home and a place for the activist-minded artist to feel like they can get support.
We're living in an incredibly polarizing time. We're talking right after the people in the U.K. have decided to leave the European Union. We have a very polarizing presidential campaign right now. Has the need for artivists ever been greater than it is now in this day and age?
Wow ... I'd say it has been greater. During the Civil Rights era and during WWII. I think there are plenty of examples where we can find that it has been greater. But I do feel that we have to recognize, there may not be a utopia at the end of the struggle. I was in Nairobi a couple of months ago, speaking to the son of an activist. I asked, What's the hope for [eliminating] corruption in Kenyan's government? He said, It's just eternal vigilance. That's all it is. We have to be eternally vigilant because there's always a weed coming up in the garden. And there is no real way around weeds in the garden. You just have to keep weeding.
10 moments women slayed TV in 2016
Hillary Clinton may have lost the presidency and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission may be investigating gender bias in the hiring of directors in Hollywood, but in 2016 women slayed the small screen.
We've compiled the 10 moments from women on "television" that captivated us. (Yes, we know many of you watch TV on computers, but for the sake of this post we're using that catch-all term.)
1. "Lemonade"
Was it a short film? A visual album? An HBO special? Beyoncé's "Lemonade" was so much more. And we're not talking about the Jay Z of it all. As Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, culture editor at Jezebel, told The Frame when the film/album dropped, "a lot of people thought it was about drama, cheating and Jay Z. Perhaps it was about that, but her whole goal was to uplift black women." From the cinematography to the casting, to the use of poetry by Warsan Shire, the film showed us an empowered world of African American sisterhood in the South never before seen like this on television. The mysterious release (HBO only had it available for 24 hours) added to the mystical, lyrical quality of this entrancing piece of visual entertainment. Don't even get us started on the music. Beyoncé slayed 2016.
2. "Fleabag"
Created by and starring the British actress and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge, "Fleabag" was a nearly perfect six episodes of television. From how she broke the fourth wall to how she candidly talked about sex without actually showing nudity, "Fleabag" woke us up to something fresh that drew us in and slayed us. Of her character, Waller-Bridge told The Frame, "She has a sexual appetite that she's not embarrassed by. And that to me is just like me and most of my friends. That didn't seem so surprising or shocking and I think that's probably why so many women have responded to that."
3. "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee"
To have a feminist slant on the late night platter of socio-political entertainment was a pure delight — and frankly, a necessity — in 2016. There's too much to highlight from this show. From the Werner Herzog-inspired documentary about Jeb Bush in the first episode to the #NastyWoman T-shirt to the Lizzo performance (see another highlight on this list), "Full Frontal" was the place where fans of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" found a familiar voice, but with a decidedly woman's perspective. Jo Miller was a writer on that show when Bee asked her to be the showrunner of "Full Frontal." Miller told The Frame, "We are kind of unfiltered. Sam goes out there and has a very short time to lay out what's in her heart and what's eating at her gut this week. And not to sugarcoat it or pull back or over-explain it." Our one complaint? This show needs to be on the air more than once a week!
4. Judith Light sings Alanis Morissette’s "Hand In My Pocket" on "Transparent"
Shelly, the mother character in "Transparent" played by Judith Light, is annoying and narcissistic in a way that's more off-putting than any other character in the Pfefferman family. And in the show, she's often the object of eye-rolling from the rest of them. As a viewer, it's easy to find yourself rolling your eyes too, which made it all the more entrancing when she took the stage for a one-woman show in the finale of season 3 and slayed it. Her rendition of Alanis Morissette's "Hand in My Pocket" was, dare we say, truly transcendent.
5. Lizzo on "Full Frontal"
The singer Lizzo brought by far the most joyous and optimistic moment of television in all of 2016. On the Nov. 9 episode of "Full Frontal" — the day after the election — she performed the poem/song "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (often referred to as the "Black American National Anthem") and her song "Good as Hell." Lizzo danced in a sparkly leotard, proud of her body and voice equally. (After all, on
she ID's herself as a "Big Fine Bitch. Fat Feminist.") She was accompanied by DJ Sophia Eris, two backup dancers in unitards and three horn players in androgynous suits — all women, all offering optimism, strength and a sense of communal togetherness at a pivotal moment in America.
6. Pamela Adlon’s period speech in "Better Things"
In 2016, FX premiered "Better Things," created by and starring Pamela Adlon. She plays an actress raising her three daughters as a single mom whose own mom lives nearby. It's drawn directly from Adlon's real life. One of the best moments during the first season was when Adlon's character was invited to talk about women's empowerment at her daughters' school. Once on stage, she quickly realizes that she's boring the audience of women and girls with the usual platitudes. So, she turns to the subject of periods. It's one of the best TV monologues of 2016. She addresses the embarrassed girls in the room who are just getting their periods, the older women who no longer have them and suggests everyone throw away the shame. And when she turns her attention to the younger girls who haven't yet started menstruating, she says, "When you do, we have your back." At that moment, you can't help but smile through tears.
7. Sarah Paulson in "The People v. O.J. Simpson"
While Hillary Clinton was getting scrutinized for her looks, her voice and her way of being in the world, it was striking to revisit Marcia Clark — the prosecutor who suffered similar scrutiny in 1994 and 1995. As the lead prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson double murder trial, America saw Clark at work. In 2016, Sarah Paulson played Clark in the FX miniseries "The People v. O.J. Simpson," and in so doing gave everyone a chance to reconsider how we judged the real Clark. Paulson told The Frame this year, "What really matters to me is to remember that Marcia Clark is a thinking, feeling person. It was as if she was a robot. We decided collectively that that wasn't a real person, and we could just use her as a punching bag. That is something I think we should be embarrassed about." Paulson won the Emmy, but Marcia Clark may have won the more lasting prize in the end through Paulson — a new narrative.
8. The best friendship in "Insecure"
We know the friendship in "Insecure" is real from the moment Issa Rae's character arrives at Molly's house with a bag of hot Cheetos and ranch dip. Granted, that's after she raps about Molly's "broken p----" at an open mic and humiliates her in front of a prospective date... but that's what these two are best at: calling each other out and stewing in their anger, until they realize they can't live without each other. Molly is a high-powered lawyer who can rock a white pantsuit, while Issa works for a non-profit that helps kids from the "hood." Both women have to navigate being black at work, but not too black, while being independent but not alone. Yes, they spend significant screen time talking about the men in their lives, but what they're really asking is: are these men good enough for us? That's true black girl magic and a welcome addition to TV in 2016.
9. Vanessa in "Atlanta"
The new FX show, "Atlanta" was so surprising, funny, surreal (invisible car) and yet really real (money woes). A whole lot of the realness came from storylines with the Vanessa (aka Van) character played by Zazie Beetz. She's the only woman lead in a show that has more episodes with the three men characters, but she's equally as valuable. And she plays a role that, in other hands, could come off as a nag or the cliched ball-and-chain-type girlfriend, but she is neither. She's empowered, wise, and she's good mom. And in episode 6, which is entirely about her, she slays the screen with a panicked montage of her trying to outwit a drug test by using urine she squeezed from her daughter's diapers. It's cringe-making and priceless.
10. Kate McKinnon playing piano and singing "Hallelujah" on "SNL"
All year long, Kate McKinnon played Hillary Clinton on "Saturday Night Live." She even played Hillary Clinton opposite Hillary Clinton. McKinnon told The Frame this year, "I can't do an impression of someone I don't like." And it's a good thing she liked Clinton, because she played her a lot. Every Saturday after a debate, McKinnon confronted a version of Bernie or Trump. And when the real Clinton lost the election, there was a question of how "SNL" would handle it. But then singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen died — and in that sorrow was opportunity. McKinnon took to the grand piano in full Hillary pantsuit and hairdo to sing Cohen's "Hallelujah." It wasn't clear at first if she was playing the Hillary character, but then she gave a wink to the audience and you knew it was her. She ended with "I'm not giving up and neither should you. Live from New York, it's Saturday night."