Today is February 23, 2021. It’s the 23rd day of Black History Month. And as I’ve mentioned throughout this series, I’ve been featuring Black artists across a wide and eclectic array of genres and styles — with the hopes that it’ll be a bit of a primer on the Black experience and on Black music.

Of course, I hope that these posts will serve as a reminder of these very important facts:

Black culture is American culture — and Black music is American music.
America’s greatest and beloved contributions to the world are Black music styles — the blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and hip-hop.
Black art matters.
Black lives matter — all of them, all of the time.

Besides being a pioneer of rock and one of the greatest and most influential guitarists to ever live, Chuck Berry’s work was included on the Voyager Golden Record, alongside Beethoven. So the man is a goddamn genius to boot.