Black music has been around for centuries and it has taken over many different forms and genres. From present-day rap to slave time gospel music, black people have been active in expressing themselves through music. Starting in the time of slavery, enslaved people would have to express themselves through music amongst each other and had to make sure that slave owners would not hear them. In “Every Tone was a Testimony: Black Music, Literature, and Law”, the author, Christopher Michael Brown, mentions Frederick Douglass and his earliest recollections of hearing enslaved people sing “sorrow songs”. Douglass states “they told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.” The slaves were singing about their struggles of being black in America especially during slavery, but this is only the beginning of black people expressing themselves through music in America. With time, black people and their cultures started to become accepted by American society and the world as a whole. Rap being one of the most widely accepted forms of black culture, it has been a platform for black problems to be heard. Jay-Z’s 2004 hit, “99 Problems” is one of many songs where a black artist expresses the challenges he or she faces. In Jay-Z’s case, he talks about a routine traffic stop as a black man. Jay-Z raps about knowing his rights and how the officer is trying to give him a hard time but he can’t break. African Americans have been the subjects of subjugation for a very long time. For years, there have been attempts to silence to achievements and problems of black people in America and in the world. But in recent times, society has started to make an effort to shine a light on the problems that African Americans face, make note of their achievements, and accept them into society. Whether it’s having a more diverse workplace or putting African Americans in positions of power, there is no denying the fact that music was one of the main platforms, if not the most important platform, for black voices to be heard. In such a digital society, it is easy for almost anyone who has access to a phone or computer, to listen to a song, especially by black artists. Whether the song is about struggle or success, the importance of the song being heard is crucial in spreading the message about the journey of being black in today’s world.