BRAND X From Movement to Music!

Music is the Weapon of the Future - Fela

It's not hard to imagine how empowering the image of Malcolm X, armed at the ready was for African American's not so quick to totally embrace the non-violent philosophy promoted by Rev Martin Luther King in the early 1960's. It's clear too, that the image was designed to intimidate and enrage the likes of the FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover and others in power.

So, now four decades later the photo is ripe for grabing as inspiration for a music artist's promotional image. Impressed with the ability of the singer Bilal and the photographer at capturing much of the posture and gaze projected in the earlier Malcolm X image, it set me to wonder if any of the warrior prince's political spirit was captured in Bilal's music.