Blending music and politics on Margaret's Mixtape, a showcase of music by Black artists
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Margaret Beyere believes in the power of music.
The Happy Valley-Goose Bay teen is joining CBC Radio's Labrador Morning every Friday during Black History Month to share a song by a Black artist who inspires her.
For this week's segment, Beyere considered the relationship between music and politics, and how music can motivate people.
"Music can be a message, music can send a message," she said. "Something as simple as making a video or streaming a song are great ways to help people not only engage with what's around the world but be a source of hope for people who need it."
Beyere feels that's what Yana the Artist is doing through her music.
She first encountered Yana the Artist on TikTok.
"She is the founder of a non-profit called The Artist Media," said Beyere. "She creates songs and posts them on her platform, and she will put them in as sounds that people can use to make videos. And the proceeds from those videos will be donated to different causes and organizations."
Beyere learned about relief efforts for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a mineral rich country in central Africa embroiled in conflict, through Yana the Artist's work.
You can read more about Margaret's Mixtape and check out last week's song here.
To listen to Margaret's Mixtape, check out Labrador Morning on the CBC Listen app or tune in every Friday during Black History Month.
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Story continues below advertisement Sly's influence has endured for decades. The top funk artist of the 1970s, Parliament-Funkadelic creator George Clinton, was a Stone disciple. Prince, Rick James and the Black-Eyed Peas were among the many performers from the 1980s and after influenced by Sly, and countless rap and hip-hop artists have sampled his riffs, from the Beastie Boys to Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. A 2005 tribute record included Maroon 5, John Legend and the Roots. 'Sly did so many things so well that he turned my head all the way around,' Clinton once wrote. 'He could create polished R&B that sounded like it came from an act that had gigged at clubs for years, and then in the next breath he could be as psychedelic as the heaviest rock band.' A dream dies, a career burns away By the early '70s, Stone himself was beginning a descent from which he never recovered, driven by the pressures of fame and the added burden of Black fame. His record company was anxious for more hits, while the Black Panthers were pressing him to drop the white members from his group. After moving from the Bay Area to Los Angeles in 1970, he became increasingly hooked on cocaine and erratic in his behavior. A promised album, The Incredible and Unpredictable Sly and the Family Stone ('The most optimistic of all,' Rolling Stone reported) never appeared. He became notorious for being late to concerts or not showing up at all, often leaving 'other band members waiting backstage for hours wondering whether he was going to show up or not,' according to Stone biographer Joel Selvin. Story continues below advertisement Around the country, separatism and paranoia were setting in. As a turn of the calendar, and as a state of mind, the '60s were over. 'The possibility of possibility was leaking out,' Stone later explained in his memoir. On Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), Stone had warned: 'Dying young is hard to take/selling out is harder.' Late in 1971, he released There's a Riot Going On, one of the grimmest, most uncompromising records ever to top the album charts. The sound was dense and murky (Sly was among the first musicians to use drum machines), the mood reflective (Family Affair), fearful (Runnin' Away) and despairing: 'Time, they say, is the answer — but I don't believe it,' Sly sings on Time. The fast, funky pace of the original Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) was slowed, stretched and retitled Thank You For Talkin' to Me, Africa. The running time of the title track was 0:00. 'It is Muzak with its finger on the trigger,' critic Greil Marcus called the album. View image in full screen FILE – Musician Sly Stone of the psychedelic soul group 'Sly And The Family Stone' performs at the 1969 Woodstock Festival on August 17, 1969 in Bethel, New York. 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Along with an early mentor and champion, San Francisco deejay Tom 'Big Daddy' Donahue, he worked on rhythm and blues hits (Bobby Freeman's C'mon and Swim) and the Beau Brummels' Beatle-esque Laugh, Laugh. Meanwhile, he was putting together his own group, recruiting family members and local musicians and settling on the name Sly and the Family Stone. A Whole New Thing came out in 1967, soon followed by the single Dance to the Music, in which each member was granted a moment of introduction as the song rightly proclaimed a 'brand new beat.' In December 1968, the group appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and performed a medley that included Dance to the Music and Everyday People. Before the set began, Sly turned to the audience and recited a brief passage from his song Are You Ready: Story continues below advertisement 'Don't hate the Black, don't hate the white, if you get bitten, just hate the bite.'
