Common - Letter To The Free ft. Bilal

What this video is

Released December 2016 as the end-title song for Ava DuVernay's Netflix documentary 13th, 'Letter to the Free' directly engages the loophole in the 13th Amendment allowing involuntary servitude as criminal punishment — the legal foundation of mass incarceration. The video arrived during one of the most politically charged moments in recent American history: the post-2016 election period, the height of Black Lives…

Why it matters

A landmark entry in the lineage of politically activated hip-hop — from Gil Scott-Heron and The Last Poets through Public Enemy and Kendrick Lamar — 'Letter to the Free' bridges conscious rap with neo-soul and jazz traditions. Its music video, directed and shot by an Academy Award-nominated…

The director

Bradford Marcel Young, A.S.C. (born July 6, 1977) is an American cinematographer who studied film at Howard University. He won the Sundance Cinematography Award twice (2011, 2013) and became the first African-American cinematographer nominated for an Academy…