{"id":808074,"date":"2020-06-04T07:57:50","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T13:57:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=1009917"},"modified":"2020-06-04T07:57:50","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T13:57:50","slug":"mayor-ras-baraka-drops-timely-spoken-word-video-what-we-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/mayor-ras-baraka-drops-timely-spoken-word-video-what-we-want\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Ras Baraka Drops Timely Spoken Word Video, \u2018What We Want\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Mayor-Ras-Baraka.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p>Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey, released a passionate, timely new video for \u201cWhat We Want,\u201d the title track to his 2019 EP produced by Jerry \u201cWonda\u201d Duplessis.<\/p>\n<p>Directed by Ayana Staffer and produced by Udi Aloni, the clip features Baraka onstage at Newark Symphony Hall, accompanied by a bongo drummer. He sends his powerful message through the microphone: \u201cWe want to praise our own God\/And we want to see his reflection in our children\u2019s eyes,\u201d he declares. \u201cWe want to draw him blue\/Like jazz\/With long dreads\/And thick lips.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dancers with white face paint and berets fill the stage, representing internal struggle and oppression. \u201cFree housing,\u201d \u201cquality education,\u201d \u201cequal pay\u201d and more written are written across their cheeks. \u201cWe need freedom,\u201d Baraka says. \u201cNot just the bill of rights\/But rights to build our own lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat We Want\u201d was inspired by the slogans used by organizations during the civil rights movements of the Sixties. \u201cIt is from the perspective of how I was feeling,\u201d Baraka said. \u201cWhat would I want if I was in a position to make demands and what would those demands be? Is it freedom, justice, equality?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe message is more relevant now with the unrest in the black community and the protest around equality and justice,\u201d he tells <em>Rolling Stone.<\/em> \u201cWe need more than justice in the moment \u2014 we need an overhaul of our systems. This is our opportunity as a people and world citizens to address the root of the larger issues that affect all our communities and the injustices that we deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"pmc-contextual-player\">\n<h3>Popular on Rolling Stone<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/mayor-ras-baraka-what-we-want-video-1009917\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey, released a passionate, timely new video for \u201cWhat We Want,\u201d the title track to his 2019 EP produced by Jerry \u201cWonda\u201d Duplessis. Directed by Ayana Staffer and produced by Udi Aloni, the clip features Baraka onstage at Newark Symphony Hall, accompanied by a bongo drummer. He sends his [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-808074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-08 07:26:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}