Viola Davis and the cast of 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' on the exploitation and appropriation of Black musicians
Viola Davis and the cast and director of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom discuss the exploitation and appropriation of Black musicians and music.
Video Transcript
- These records are going to be hits.
- They don't care nothing about me. All they want is my voice.
- About them songs I give you.
- They're not the right songs. Let them take them off your hands for you.
KEVIN POLOWY: The story follows Ma Rainey's Blues Group as they record for a couple of white producers in 1927 Chicago. There's a sense they're being nickel and dimed at every turn and just generally exploited. What do you think the film says about the history of exploitation and also appropriation of Black music?
VIOLA DAVIS: It was used. It was abused. Our, our, our power was was taken away. Our rights were taken away. For what it layers on top of that, especially through the role of Ma Rainey, is that we didn't always kowtow. There's a sense that because our power was taken, then it therefore ensues that we were very meek around that power structure. And that's not always the case.
When white people are not in charge of our images, when you are in the company of just Black families, Black people, we are much different than what you see on screen. That's one thing that I'm so happy that August showed. That Ma Rainey was a person. And when she walked into a room, she, she knew what her worth was. She knew what her power was.
And that's in stark contrast to what she wasn't allowed to be given. That dichotomy, that complexity is what I want people to get because I think people sort of feel that now too with Hollywood. That because people talk about, oh, Black actors don't get paid as much. That we sort of walk into the room, and we don't ask for it. We're asking for it. We're fighting for it, you know. But this is what it is.
COLMAN DOMINGO: There's a rich history in America for appropriation of our music. And for taking everything and giving little. So, and that extends into now. That's why I think a film like this is so important. And it's an important examination of someone who was a pioneer like Ma Rainey, who was really bucking the system in every single way as a woman, as a gay woman in this male dominated industry.
She was, she was fighting system upon system upon system. And yet still, the thing that she was, that rang true to herself was that she was self-possessed. And she knew of her talent. And so she led with that. And she, but she was part of the demands.
I feel like there's a lineage. We can look at a lineage between her and Beyonce now. Who had to take the knocks for you? You know, that we owe it to these people, who demanded, I just demanded my 2 Coca-Colas, that's it. Now, now you can make demands on what you need for your concert, who will pick you up, your driver, all that stuff. But that had to stop with people like Ma Rainey. And I think it's a great way for us to-- we did look back in history so we know who we are. We really appreciate the nonsense somebody else took for us.
GEORGE C. WOLFE: As Ma, at one point states very specifically, you know, she's singing what is coming out of her heart. And then a little bit later in the exact same scene, she wants, she wants, they want to, they want to take my voice and capture it in all them little boxes and dials they have up there.
It's a very complicated dynamic when a price tag is placed on a culture. You see breakdancing exploding in the South Bronx. And two seconds later, it's in a McDonald's commercial. And how does something that is springing forth from the people, from the culture, how can it survive that, that the machine that can instantly ingest it in one large gulp?
And I think that that's what Ma, I think that's what Ma is fighting about. She's fighting to protect the sound of a voice. She's also, I think, her fight is also informed by the fact that she's toward the end of a career. And what she has created is already being, her popularity is being usurped by Bessie Smith. So it's just this really complicated story about popular culture eats anything in its sight.
And then when you attach people to it, then it takes on another kind of resonance. There is this always this ongoing equation between talent and the machine. And then when you put it in a certain time period. And you add the equation of racial politics, then it becomes even more magnified. I mean, it's complicated because Ma Rainey actually performed with Paramount, but was there an equation of exploitation going on? Without question. But we also have these recordings of this great artist called Ma Rainey.
- This would be an empty world without Blues.
[HUMMING]
