![]() ![]() 6 This blackwashing is indicative of the double movement of containment and resistance of the popular about which Stuart Hall warns. I am also reminded that we are currently witnessing institutions, including Pepsi, co-opting the language of Black Lives Matter and further extracting Black labor as a means to mask-to paint it black/to paint it, Black-the logics of anti-blackness that structure their existence. Indeed, the Pepsi logo is featured in the commercial as the imagined Black world’s moon. first inhabits in the red world to instead create and curate an alternative world made possible by and as Black sociality.īut it would be a mistake to read this reconstruction outside of racial capitalism. 5 Elliott and H.E.R.’s lines about being “unapologetic” and desiring everything “all black,” within the space of an imagined Black world that centers Black women, refuses the liberal logics of assimilation that H.E.R. “flips the beat.” 4 The music’s shift to a stuttering drum – programmed sound marks what Daphne Brooks calls a “black sonic marronage” that facilitates H.E.R.’s escape, her fugitivity, her flight out of the red world and into a sono-geographic counterpublics of blackness-reconstructing the Stones’ original from a song about a man mourning the death of his lover to a site of Black worldmaking. and Elliott employ the black aesthetic practice of what Jason King calls “reconstruction,” a restructuring of “the original in ways that reorient both the melodic and lyric foundations…as well as its performative cultural and political effects.” 3 At the outset of the commercial, the guitar’s replaying of the “Paint it Black” motif and H.E.R.’s replication of the original’s opening line might suggest a cover, and given H.E.R.’s Afro-Filipina background, raises the trope of Filipinx and Filipinx American musicians as colonial imitators. and Elliott’s performance of “Paint it Black” belie facile readings that frame their version as a remake of the Stones’ original, wherein its structure and meaning is nominally altered and thus largely kept intact. close the commercial by drinking Pepsi Zero Sugar and singing “I see a red door and I want it painted black” and “No colors anymore, I want them to turn black,” respectively. During all of this, H.E.R., Elliott, and Black and Asian people dance in unison (to Sean Bankhead’s choreography). The music changes again into a more robust hip hop track with Elliott rapping lines like “I paint the red door black/ Dance floor black/ I’m in my own lane/ Unapologetic and I do my own thang ” and the beat during the rap comprises syncopated drum patterns, heavy bassline, and a sitar. is now in an all-black outfit and starts singing “Red ain’t it for me/ Black all black only.” Soon after, a lavender-haired Elliott and a group of other Black women-each in a different black outfit- approach and greet H.E.R., and while a sitar plays the motif, Elliott re-sings the “Paint it Black” opening line. The music shifts again to programmed drums, H.E.R. She runs past everyone, jumps through and shatters a red wall, and enters a black-colored new world. takes a sip of the new drink, and as the music resumes (this time a violin replaying the motif accompanied by programmed drums), H.E.R. who begins to sing the opening line, “I see a red door and I want it painted black,” and then watches her soda transform into a black matte Pepsi Zero Sugar can. But instead of guns, everyone holds red cans with the word “COLA” written across them (an obvious allusion to Pepsi’s rival Coca-Cola). 1 As a combination of acoustic and electric guitars play the Stones’ “Paint it Black” motif over the scene, viewers see columns of people wearing identical red latex and white suspender uniforms, donning identical frozen smiles, and marching in formations that recall a military-style parade. The commercial opens in a red-colored dystopian future society. They had teased the commercial a week prior, showing a clip wherein the artists perform a version (co-produced by Timbaland) of the Rolling Stones’ 1966 sitar-driven hit “Paint it Black.” And so, as a scholar of Black musicians’ (including Elliott’s) engagements with South Asian music(ians), I greatly anticipated seeing the full commercial when it aired during the Super Bowl. ![]() While some watched for the game, the commercials, and/or the halftime show, I tuned in specifically to catch the Pepsi Zero Sugar commercial featuring two Grammy Award winning Black female rappers/singers/songwriters: Missy Elliott and H.E.R. On February 2, 2020, I, like millions of people across North America, watched the NFL Super Bowl LIV. ![]()
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