The category of rap music labeled as ‘socially conscious rap’ goes all the ways back to, and before, the days of Tupac Shakur. His joints like “The 7 Day Theory”, “All Eyez on Me”. “The Don Killuminati”, or “Me Against the World” paved the way for future rappers to turn away from the then stereotypical gangs and guns subject matter that permeated the genre way back then and explore with sensitivity other subjects more closely related to their hearts and minds. It challenged the political, economical and cultural mindset in order to offer commentary regarding those and other issues of the day. It went much deeper than just ‘da biotches’ and ‘da bling’ that served as content for the earlier rap music videos which rarely ever made their way into mainstream MTV programming.
Jonathan Burkett is a modern day rap and R&B artist who has accepted and carries the torch passed along to him and other current rappers by their MC forefathers in this field. “Changes” is a single he recently dropped and it comes equipped with a positive message. If we distill the song down to the most basic elements of what Jonathan Burkett is saying with “Changes” it’s that it all comes down to faith. And if you can keep your faith, then you can make the changes you’ll need to see your way through whatever you’re struggling with in your life. He also manages to accomplish this with a respectable level of competence behind the business end of a mic.
“Changes” (Upstormed Records) is as far from old school gangsta rap as the sun is from the moon. If JB is any kind of OG, he’s an OG of positivity. He maintains that the weight we often carry and that is sometimes heavier than ourselves may be lifted from our shoulders by the optimism with which we face the world. The message is also to replace your sense of shame with a sense of pride. This is an idea that is firmly rooted in work from several earlier artists, such as James Brown’s “Say It Loud (I’m Black and Proud)” and “The Message” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. For Jonathan Burkett it appears that his positive message has placed him alongside some pretty heavy hit makers within the world of socially conscious rappers.
