What is Black joy?
It is pure, it is sustainable, it is profound. But in the face of ongoing adversity and societal strife — after the protests, after the storm — it is Black joy that gets many of us through the day and on to the next.
I began thinking about the concept of Black joy in the midst of the George Floyd protests in 2020. Many craved protest songs to describe the moment, and while that request made sense in the present, I felt it lacked the insight into what it actually means to survive and fight in a needlessly cruel world.
Living a rich, fulfilling life of triumph, full of exultation, is a form of protest, too. Thriving in spite of everything else (like racism, or sexism, or classism, or all three intersecting) is the protest. It is the statement of objection. It is a response to the way things always are and it is a fight for something better in the future.
In this playlist, we have compiled a collection of more than 40 tracks that span the last 50 years and encompass different interpretations of Black joy. Like all great Black art, it is multifaceted, spanning many of the genres Black people have created — from hip-hop to house to funk — and all with the express purpose of celebration or triumph or hope. It is our wish that you can turn to this playlist again and again, in the present and in the future, as acknowledgement and assurance of what can be, despite an increasingly complicated world.
In celebration of Black Music Month 2022, listen to GRAMMY.com's official Black joy and optimism playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and Pandora.