Miles Marshall Lewis is the perfect writer to deliver Promise That You Will Sing About Me — a book that undoubtedly belongs in your library. A reservoir of hip-hop and love wrapped in a lens befitting Black culture, the book delves into the mind of a musical champion, intellectual and true survivor.
Lewis captures the essence of the Black intellectual, casually intertwining the musical familiarity of a dominant hip-hop artist with an iconic electric guitar player. He also demonstrates for the young and old why life in protest is a continuum in both song lyrics, lifestyles and awards ceremonies.
Given that his middle name Marshall, was given to him by his father because he loved the musical genius and the middle name of Jimmy Hendrix, it only gives harvest to the seeds that were planted in him by both his father and Morehouse College. Those seeds only continued to sprout when he chose to live abroad in Paris like the late great James Baldwin.
Lewis leads us into the world of Kendrick Lamar through his pen and his highway of knowledge that demonstrates as the curator, “I have a historic Pulitzer Prize-winning hip-hop artist from Compton who has indelibly embraced the Black power movement.” This all but stimulates the senses of another generation of Black thinkers, protesters, partiers and pragmatists.
It’s a common theme that we should adopt as teachers and leaders in and of the community. Promise That You Will Sing About Me at the dinner table with our children, as we read with them famous iconic hip-hop literature. Let us capture the essence of Black music, higher intellect and protest movements, as we all pull gems from the same book.
Cheers to those intellectual communities that will encourage their book clubs to invite DJs and musicians to create worthy events around Promise That You Will Sing About Me.
Not only is it worth the read; it is worth the movement and is a gift to Black generations young and old.
