Music is revolution.
This statement isn’t hyperbolic, but plainspoken fact. This art form has played an integral role in sparking the embers of righteous imagination in the masses to action real political change. In a contemporary context, music has continued to be a compelling force in recruiting people to rally around candidates and the ideas they espouse.
Four artists from disparate creative paths—drummer Aaron Comess (of the Spin Doctors), alternative rock-soul vocalist Danielia Cotton, hip-hop emcee Mark “Mickey Factz” Williams Jr., and keyboardist Ben Stivers—have banded together to mobilize voters for the Democratic Party in the battleground state of Georgia in early 2021.
The quartet’s bold reinterpretation of “Georgia On My Mind”—written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell in 1930; it was later immortalized by Ray Charles in 1960—retains the fire of Charles’ iteration. What they have added with “Georgia State of Mind” are topical threads about systemic racism, voter suppression, and the seminal nature of the black vote regarding the Georgia Senate runoff elections happening this Tuesday, January 5th.
The woman inspiring this coalescence of talent is none other than political firebrand Stacey Abrams whose Fair Fight Initiative helped to spearhead President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ record-setting victory in Georgia this past November. It is hoped that with the dual triumph of Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock over David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler this week, a shift toward a “blue majority” in the United States Senate will help to advance Biden’s much needed course correction for the country at large.
Both Danielia Cotton and Mickey Factz spoke to me at length about the particulars of this ambitious project, the importance of civic responsibility and how music plays an essential role in today’s grassroots Democratic movement.
Congratulations on this awesome endeavor; can you describe what brought everyone together to make this happen?
Danielia Cotton: It’s New York City, so it’s not impossible to find an eclectic group (to work with) that can play across genre lines. We recorded in two places—because Mickey is in Georgia—and in New York at His House Studios, a studio co-owned by Aaron (Comess); Aaron also played on my last album (2017’s The Mystery of Me) that I did too—he’s amazing, he’s brilliant. Ben Stivers is currently playing and recording with me on part of my new album as well. Mickey was the first person I thought of (for “Georgia On My Mind”) because I thought of the whole “New York State of Mind” thing, but us doing this for Georgia instead with him being Jay-Z and me being Alicia Keys! [Laughs]
How did you all end up intersecting with Stacey Abrams and her Fair Fight Initiative?
DC: Hope Gamble is a friend of mine from Woodstock (New York)—I have a place up there—and Mickey and I were doing a video up there for “A Different War.” She has always been very active in politics with Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker—basically, she’s a Democrat, but this effort (“Georgia On My Mind”) was another extension of that. She came to me and said, “you need to do this, you need to do this right now.” And we just did it! When you come from the right place and the product is good, it speaks for itself and this was another way to get the message out (to vote), but also be entertaining and educate. To get people out, you know?
Music has often been used as a political tool—particularly on the left—to galvanize the voting bloc behind a candidate or policy. Do you feel that it’s still an effective vehicle for change?
Mickey Factz: Absolutely. I think music is one of the biggest ways to do it—besides television and radio. Music, just in general, if it sounds good, people will gravitate toward it because of the hypnotizing effect that music has on people, right—the drums that, you know, coincide with your heartbeat, the melodies that soothe the soul and the lyrics that empower your inner (self). So, I definitely feel that music has assisted a lot of different campaigns over the years to help people gather and follow toward whatever they’re trying to accomplish in the political field.
DC: I think he is absolutely right. I mean, if you go back to Marvin Gaye and a lot of those songs that inform people about what’s going on in the world. Yeah, music is the most powerful tool to get the (political) message across.
Talk to me about the legacy of Ray Charles’ “Georgia On My Mind” and what it means to each of you.
MF: It’s interesting being from a hip-hop background because the first time that I heard the song “Georgia On My Mind” was actually from a Field Mob featuring Ludacris sample from one of their records (“Georgia”). When I heard that, I was like “Man, this sample is amazing, who’s singing it? Oh! It’s Ray Charles singing it!” So, I went back and listened to the original record. There’s a special connection Ray Charles has with music in general, but the soulfulness of that original record is what pulled me into the song. Even though being from New York City—there’s an elitism when you say you’re from New York City—but the way that Ray Charles sang it made me feel like “Man, maybe this is a place I should live,” and now, years later, I’m living in Georgia. [Laughs]
DC: I think that the whole story, the backdrop of the song of Charles not performing there (in Georgia) because of the racial issues and then, basically, he ended up recording the song and he was asked back and it has become an anthem for the state—he was brave and made a huge statement. You think of Georgia now, you think of him singing that song and in the end, music made a difference.
The African American coalition has been behind the election of some of the most progressive candidates—from local to Presidential politics—in America. How essential is this coalition to the current Georgia Senate race?
DC: It’s not how, it is essential—that’s it.
MF: I have to agree, I have to agree that the black vote is very essential.
DC: You can’t even question it, that’s it; we (African Americans) are important as a voting body—women, LGBTQ—we’re all utterly essential. Stacy Abrams’ Fair Fight—she is going to go down in 2020 as someone with serious power that made a lot of shit happen (with the vote).
The Republican Party has attempted to either outright suppress or poach the African American vote with disinformation in a bid to undercut its power. How do you both energize and inform the black voting base, so they aren’t vulnerable to either practice?
MF: Being an African American man...it’s definitely difficult to sift through disinformation—especially moving down here (to Atlanta). When I first got down here, I went to a barbershop and all I saw were political commercials on the television screens. I’m like, “what is going on?” I didn’t know what was happening. It was so difficult to sift through what the Republicans were saying and what the Democrats were saying.
I didn’t know what to believe until I started to do my own research. We live in an era right now when memes and propaganda have spread so far and so wide on social media, you can get real lost with disinformation. So, once Danielia—I think it was just fate—reached out to me to do this record, it was like, this is perfect because I can trust someone who knows what’s going on—that’s one—and two, I’m going to utilize the knowledge that I have gained from being down here just a short amount of time. I just moved down here in October, but we all have to do our part to initiate and enable the people to realize what’s going on.
DC: I live in New York City—it’s a Democratic tilt here, but I do absolutely believe there is a lot of disinformation (out here too)—it has been really frightening in the last four years. It is going to take an immense amount of time for people to understand what is happening. It is more important than ever for there to be objective news outlets; it is so tilted right now that you kind of watch what you want to watch. If you’re a certain type of person, you watch FOX (News), if you’re a certain type of person, you watch MSNBC. That’s just where we are now.
But there is a need for just facts, purely objective, informative facts that people can find, but it ain’t happening now—which, once again, is why it is important to get the vote out and vote blue in the state of Georgia. There’s just a lot of people who are not educated, we are not an educated country in the way that we need to be with politics. There is a lot of the country that does not want to think for itself and that is something that we have to face. I hope that this new administration can get back to the truth and how to find it and where to find it.
How do you plan to ensure that the black voting base remains empowered and informed regardless of the outcome of this Georgia senate race?
MF: Well, for me, for the past fourteen years, I’ve always made sure to be politically involved with anything pertaining to America—whether it be at the presidential level or locally with the mayors, assemblymen and different things like that. Moving out to Georgia, I kind of got a realization of what’s going on at the local level and how people are suppressing votes and things of that nature. I want to make sure—and I am going to make sure—that when I do my projects—and specific instances dealing with freestyles and things like that—that I will incorporate this type of knowledge within them.
Again, it goes back to the black man and hip-hop, I can speak to that very clearly. When you give them something that is lyrically enticing, there is a sort of a driving force that makes them want to be a part of it and engage in it. I did a freestyle about credit because I wanted to inspire and empower people to take care of their credit—and I feel like if I can do that with credit, I can do that with voting on the local level.
It is extremely imperative—it is necessary—for our people to understand that our voice matters. There is a plan that is put in place to have us not vote because they want us to think that our votes don’t matter or don’t count. And because of that propaganda, it disenfranchises so many of our brothers and sisters. But if I have the power to do what I can with my voice...I will do everything I can.
DC: You can inspire people to search out the truth for themselves, which I think people are really going to have to do—and there are people out there that want to find the truth for themselves. The whole reason I did this project is that it is something entertaining and informative, I think that is important.
What are some of your favorite political anthems or “fight songs” that get you pumped to vote?
MF: “Fight The Power” (by Public Enemy). You can’t get better than that.
DC: “Fight The Power” is great, but “Mercy, Mercy Me” by Marvin Gaye, it just has something that wakes people up, it inspires you; you have to do something, you have to find a way to fight, but you gotta do it through love and out of love. That would be my choice.
Mickey, congratulations on the release of Warped Collages last month! Are you happy with how listeners have responded to the album so far?
MF: Yeah! I’m shocked more so than anything! This year has been tough for everybody. I didn’t expect it to chart, I didn’t expect people to review it, I didn’t expect anything. You know, I’ve just been putting music out. It was like, “Oh wow!”
Danielia, you released the EP A Different War earlier this year, but nearly three years have passed since your most recent full-length album (The Mystery of Me, 2017). Is a new album or other new projects on the horizon for you?
DC: Well, I do EPs in between things—like with my album Small White Town (2005), an EP was first and then part of the EP can become a part of the album. So, with A Different War, the other half (of it) is A Good Day (the album); it’s all happy, powerful, good...it swings up! You’re coming out of A Different War into A Good Day—I’m excited to do that.
You know, it is always great to do new things like meeting up with Mickey; we have another project on the horizon which will reveal itself—a musical, which is the whole reason we met. The more I work with him, I learn what a talented, extraordinary individual he is—he is also on A Different War and A Good Day!
I’ve always been eclectic in my sound which has been difficult. As an artist, you sort of get pegged from record labels who don’t know where to put you already as a biracial black person not doing R&B; they don’t even know what to do with you. But I don’t really care. At some point, you have to redefine success and sort of why you are doing it and how are you doing it.
And when I put my head down on the pillow, am I happy with my progression? Yes. And has my definition of success evolved and changed over time? Absolutely. So, it became more about my art and the music that comes out of me comes from a much different place and I hope my audience gets it.
LEARN MORE about the Georgia State of Mind Project here
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