The ReMINDers are a dynamic husband and wife duo of Big Samir and Aja Black who live in Colorado. Though they live in Colorado, Aja Black is a Queens, New York native and Big Samir of Brussels, Belgium. Two non-African places but are featured in numerous African hip hop blogs and have songs featuring artists such as Les Nubians, K’Naan and KRS-One. In 2011 the group hosted the Annual Trinity Hip Hop Festival at Trinity College. At this event they filmed the video to their song “The Way It Is”.
The video began kind of iffy for me, it took almost 3 minutes for the part of the actual music video began. It was interesting to see the backstage of the show especially with my class preparing to attend this festival. The music video stars all of their friends that they meet at the festival as well as their son. It is a very simple video of them as a family sitting on some steps rapping or walking down the street, embracing their friends that they see. This shows how real these artists actually are. They exemplify that you don’t always need fancy, expensive videos to get your point across. It can be done in a simple and creative way.
In regards to the lyrics of the video, they’re simple but strong at the same time. Aja Black is heard singing right away. Her lyrics explain the situations everyone goes through in life. She’s explaining how in what we call life we will go through hell and back but you have to continue to fight and not give up. Big Samir begins rapping in English then switches up and attacks it with French. He also talks about the struggles we may go through but he wouldn’t change the past at all, it all has been worth it.
The song is very inspirational and inspiring. Advising people to not take life, their mistakes, and sacrifices for granted. Life may come at you in so many different ways but you will always be able to handle them. There will be bad days, good days, and days where you may feel like you cannot go on anymore but never give up. A very powerful song that should be spread a lot more. Applause to The ReMINDers.