Esperanza Spalding - Black Gold (OFFICIAL)

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From the beginning of her life to her current success as a creative musician, Esperanza Spalding has charted her own course. The young bassist/vocalist/composer was one of the biggest breakout stars of 2011—not just in jazz, but in all genres of music. Her receipt of the 2011 GRAMMY® for Best New Artist was unprecedented—the first time a jazz musician had won the award— but Spalding continues to make the unprecedented the norm.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Spalding grew up in a single-parent home and learned early lessons in the meaning of perseverance and moral character from the role model whom she holds in the highest regard to this day -- her mother.

But even with a rock-solid role model, school did not come easy to Spalding, although not for any lack of intellectual acumen. She was both blessed and cursed with a highly intuitive learning style that often put her at odds with the traditional education system. On top of that, she was shut in by a lengthy illness as a child, and as a result, was home-schooled for a significant portion of her elementary school years.

However, the one pursuit that made sense to Spalding from a very early age was music. At age four, after watching classical cellist Yo Yo Ma perform on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, the roadmap was suddenly very clear. "That was when I realized that I wanted to do something musical," she says. "It was definitely the thing that hipped me to the whole idea of music as a creative pursuit."

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[TheGodlymc]

Damn this was beautiful. Never been one to read too much into my color but damn if I ain't proud to be black right now. Unfortunately for every 1 Esperanza building us up we got 100 rappers tearing it down.

[Jason Yun]

This is honestly my first time ever hearing an Esperanza Spalding song, and all I can say is that this is amazing. Her and the rest of the band are very talented!

[Lakethen Mason]

Oh my God! This song and video is so elevating my soul right now! And yes, this is the first time I have heard this.....

[1980starjustice]

Never knew this song existed!....I'm a yr and 4months late!!!! WTF...I thought this just came out after seeing the video on VH1 soul. LOVE THIS!

[FfejTball]

Right? Just like Rock N Roll ruined the lives of countless white people.

[Brianna Salter]

I love being Black

[KagendaK]

Rappers ruining the lives of Black People since the creation.

[51tomtomtom]

Besides this great musician (s), great piece, isn't sad, that we still need this kind of statements ? Arn't we all gold till we throw as in the trash ? Interesting the point of her in school ....have the very same problems with my kids ! And they're white and they're in Italy ......were all is "beautiful" ?! No, I'm not italian .....and I had the same problems

[Hok Cheong Au]

yea, Amazing!

[FfejTball]

If you think all rappers are horrible public figures maybe you should take a peek at the priesthood of the Catholic church, not to mention the figureheads of various other religions. Or what about our politicians? What about actors and actresses (Lindsay Lohan? I mean, come on), and musicians that *aren't* rappers? It seems pretty foolish to single out rappers like they're the only ones "ruining lives". Especially because you're ignoring rappers like the Blue Scholars, Mos Def, Big K.R.I.T, etc.

[Elijah Pate]

I agree and disagree with this comment. Rappers are "doing something" with their lives I suppose but at what expense. We would be naive to believe that their are not lives ruined by popular influence. We could then apply the argument that "Rappers" should not be the paramount example and that parents should be....but a lot of parents are not. Public figures HAVE to take some responsibility for the message that they request people subscribe to no matter if its true or not.

[FfejTball]

Nah, rappers are at least doing something with their lives. It's the true degenerates of any color that bring down people in general. The color of ones skin doesn't mean anything. But ones actions, or lack thereof? Those make a person.