Amazingly, the month has managed to fly by: Today is February 13, the 13th day of Black History Month. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been proudly featuring Black artists across a wide and eclectic array of genres and styles with the hopes that these artists can guide you towards further understanding of the Black experience.

As the month goes on, I hope that you’ll be reminded of these urgently 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.

As a child of the 80s, I loved Public Enemy. Once of the first albums I bought was Apocalypse 91: The Enemy Strikes Black on cassette tape from a Nobody Beats the Wiz on Queens Blvd. in Rego Park. And I played that tape to death — and then some. Seeing those brothers be bold and defiantly black while speaking truth to power was — and always will be — something for me.