There’s a rich history of socially conscious music videos.
Lady Gaga shines a light on campus sexual assault with 2015’s “’Til It Happens to You.” Hip-hop duo Run the Jewels’ “Close Your Eyes (and Count to F–k)” tackles police brutality in the wake of such tragic killings as those of Freddie Gray and Trayvon Martin.
Macklemore’s “Same Love” featured an adolescent gay male couple growing up together and eventually getting married and growing old together. The video was way ahead of the curve on marriage equality, debuting long before the landmark Supreme Court decision of June 2015 made same-sex marriage legal across the United States. Gay normalization also took center stage as far back as 2002, when Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” featured a male couple kissing — taboo for its time.
And Pearl Jam’s classic video for “Jeremy” took on the issue of bullying and school shootings.
Now comes a new socially significant video from Maryland rapper Logic. The name of the song is “1-800-273-8255” — the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. The song is enjoying serious radio play and is currently No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 (watch the video below). It’s also reached the top spot on the Billboard Hip-Hop and R&B charts.
The new Logic video features intense scenes of a depressed black teenager fidgeting with an unloaded gun and ruminating over whether or not to commit suicide.
The lyrics toward the beginning are: “I don’t wanna be alive. I just wanna die today.” As time goes on, those lyrics change to “I want you to be alive, you don’t gotta die today,” as he couples up with a male high school sweetheart, whom he eventually marries.
The video features cameos by Don Cheadle and Luis Guzman. And in just seven minutes, it explores some of the themes of last year’s Academy Award Best Picture-winner, Moonlight. The inspirational production offers hope to those suffering from suicidal ideation while treading the age-old trope that, even though high school sucks, if you keep on keepin’ on, you can survive the hallways of horror and move on to a new — more beautiful — life.
