[singing] One day I’ll be a leader, believe that We The People.
Can’t you just hear people with like…
You know, protesting
or chanting in the streets,
just dancing around singing those words.
Hey I’m H.E.R.
and I’m gonna take you through my episode of We The People,
which is called Active Citizenship
and it features my song, Change.
[“Change” by H.E.R plays]
The bassline comes in.
Change–
OK, so, wait, before we get into this.
So all that background noise you hear our
is just me and my collaborators in the booth,
like, having the time of our lives.
We’re just like singing over the track
and we really wanted to feel like a party
or like a group of people that wanna create change,
so throughout the song you may hear a little bit of background noise,
a party,
a Marvin Gaye kinda vibe in the background.
That’s us in the booth having a great time.
That could be me, but she’d have to be wearing glasses for it to be me.
Wrote a letter to the mayor can you hear me out?
Want to talk on all the issues that I care about
Speak free, keep the peace, won’t we say it loud
Meeting all my people at the city council
Pay attention so I know my rights
Ok so I think the idea ...
here with the first verse is really about understanding that you have a voice, right?
We have the opportunity to bring people together
or use our own voice to create change and learn,
and then speak on some of the issues that we care about.
And speak on some of the things that you notice need changing.
Education is going to change the cycle
You know I think diversity is a big thing,
understanding no matter who you are,
where you come from,
you know, what you look like, that you have a voice and it matters,
no matter who you are.
I think the vibrancy of the video
and how bright it is and how colorful it is, is kind of representing diversity in a way.
It’s kinda celebrating everybody and it’s including talking about recycling
and talking about voting,
and talking about music, and fun,
and people in the streets just joining together.
It’s like, I don’t know, because it’s so vibrant it’s so inviting.
Information’s all around
Go out and vote cause I know it counts
When the guy had the vote grill and he smiled,
I thought that was really cool, I was like,
‘Wait a minute!’
Yeah, I thought that was really, really dope.
I liked that part.
Pound the pavement and act now
Make a statement and say about
From the streets to the hill, join a campaign
Don’t have to wait for some day just to have change
I really love this line, ‘Don’t have to wait for some day to have change’.
We’re always like, ‘Later! This can happen in the future!’
If we, you know,
‘One day, it’s not gonna happen now, but one day’.
We have to start believing in the now
and understanding that it’s an everyday process.
Being an active citizen is an everyday thing.
And so that’s kinda what we’re talking about there.
One day I’ll be a leader
Believe that we the people
It’s our choice, our voices matter
Make plans and taking action (I don’t even know how)
To change (We don’t even know how)
To change (I wanna know how)
To change
If I’m just one person, will my voice even stand out?
I loved all the elements of the animation, the first time I saw it I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is crazy!’
I love animation so to see it come to life and to see all the things that I sang, and that I said,
really be in like a scene and there was a group of people,
the boombox,
it just looked really fun.
It made the song better to me.
Seeing the visual of it just made it so much cooler.
We had so much fun creating this song.
It was like
daily things that we don’t really think make a difference,
but they make such a huge difference and it just feels so good, like, I don’t know…
When the music and the realness of the song comes together it just feels like, it feels like a big party!
Feels like,
man I wanna get up and do something!
I wanna create some change myself.
I wanna be an active citizen.
That was the idea.
Thank you for watching my episode of We The People with me.
Tune in to the rest of the series on Netflix now.