Picture Music No More

It's Friday December 25, 2015 at 10am and I can feel the ice on the windows. It's so cold no one's car is starting up. I've been in bed for three days. I can still hear the government's issued warning on music blaring on CNN. It's stating that it's prohibited to listen or to own music of any kind.

Footage of record labels' corporate buildings being demolished plays on the television. I catch a glimpse as I turn over. I close my eyes and I "Reminisce" on the love I had for music. Thinking of how "Alone" I feel without my music. I still can't believe it is "Gone." As I go in and out of sleep I go "Back and Forth" on how it used to be. "I'll do anything" to have my music back. "What did I do?" to deserve this. Maybe I should call my best friend "Charlene" to see if we can do something. All I know is "It hurts like hell." "Whatever It Takes" I have to get my music back. Like "Thieves in the Temple," The Pentagon sent a virus to all home computers and corrupted every music file.

It has affected everyone to the point where no one in the world can listen to music, a free world no more. What we thought was freedom of expression and art is now vilified as the cause of violence and a lack of interest in school. Music is now labeled as a terrorist threat to the American fabric and social institution. Could it really be that music is taking the blame for all the ills of the world. In every part of the world, governments have issued this ban on all music, especially hip-hop. Politicians have labeled it fight music and because of R&B's close association, the politicians have chosen to lump us all together. "Sometimes I Wonder Why" and how did it get to this point? Obviously the politicians didn't do their homework on the history of R&B music or else they would have known that R&B music's foundation is based on love.

Anita Baker's "Good Love" taught us what "Good Love" feels like. When people lose their jobs and their homes and can't find a "Reason" to live. It was Frankie Beverly and Maze that gave us one. When politicians refused to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday it was Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday" that opened the door. As I try to roll out of bed while trying to fight off the effects of the sleeping pills that I took, I fall and bump my head. When I regained consciousness I could hear Jennifer Hudson's "Spotlight" playing on the radio and it was then that I realized it was all a dream. Thank God.

THE CAST

• "Reminisce"- Mary J. Blige
• "Alone"- Jodeci
• "Gone"- N'Sync
• "Back and Forth"- Aaliyah
• "I'll do Anything" "What did I do?"- Aaron Hall
• "Charlene"- Anthony Hamilton
• "It Hurts Like Hell"- Aretha Franklin
• "Good Love" "Sometimes I Wonder why"- Anita Baker
• "Reason"- Frankie Beverly&Maze
• "Thieves in the Temple"- Prince
• "Happy Birthday"- Stevie Wonder
• "Spotlight" – Jennifer Hudson