racism, poverty & violence are on blast in this brooklyn hip-hop artist’s new musical film

In these times of political despair, the right will try to convince you that the role of the artist is useless but as Toni Morrison put it after Bush was elected, “This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.” Dylan Golden found himself in the same predicament as Morrison, asking himself in his new album ‘Revolution of the Heart’, “Why am I still rapping?”

Golden uses the album and the accompanying short music film ‘Half Dead’ (produced by GSM Creative) as a vehicle for asking such questions as well as calling out social injustice in the world and specifically his Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush. “Half Dead will take you through the journey of a young man of color who is exasperated with the onslaught of current social injustices we are facing in America and around the world,” adds Golden. Flatbush is a community that has suffered the monumental effects of racism, poverty and violence and the album and film are a way for Golden and GSM to share stories of the marginalized people within this community and others.

The short film is a journey of imagery lamenting the trials of marginalized bodies that begins by highlighting their vulnerability through the depiction of naked backs moving and convulsing to the rhythm. The film then shifts to a street in Flatbush where dancers with tape on their mouths dance with frantic energy that matches Golden’s flow. The conclusion of the film is situated in the woods, tying up all the preceding imagery of brutal police force and violence with imagery of the fallen victims of that violence.

The album and music film work in concert to call out everyone from the recording labels to the president, displaying the stream of consciousness of a rapper working his way through his view of the world using his art. ‘Half Dead’ is a dark and powerful slice of our current time and ‘Revolution of the Heart’ is the soundtrack to match.