“I Can't Believe We Made It”

“‘I Can’t Believe We Made It’: Romanticism and Afropresentism in Works of African American Women Hip Hop and R‘n’B Artists” evaluates Missy Elliott’s (1971–) 2005 video for “Lose Control,” Erykah Badu’s (1971–) 1997 debut single “On & On,” and Beyoncé’s (1981–) Lemonade series of videos as creative products engaging the Romantic themes of pastoralism, nostalgia, history, literary intertextuality, and pantheism. These works are also engaged for their affinity with Afropresentism. Bringing these two movements together highlights Romanticism’s own racism, especially in its notions of the noble savage or primitive, how Romanticism’s racism in part formed the basis of rock music, and points toward Afropresentism as a way to recuperate Romanticism by encouraging “dialogue and development around African American and non-white practices and aesthetics.”