Black LP Los Angeles: American Skin

The Black Legacy Project is a musical celebration of Black history to advance racial solidarity, equity, and belonging.
The Black LP is a national project produced by Music in Common - a nonprofit organization that strengthens, empowers, and connects communities through the universal language - in partnership with community stakeholders at the local level. Developed in the summer of 2020 and launched in September 2021, the Black Legacy Project travels the U.S. bringing together Black and White artists and artists of ALL backgrounds to record present day interpretations of songs central to the Black American experience and compose originals relevant to the pressing calls for change of our time. Community roundtable discussions help inform how these songs are interpreted and written.


The Black Legacy Project traveled to Los Angeles in December 2022, exploring the history of race-relations in this world-renown diverse, artistic hub. The theme for the Black LP LOS ANGELES was American Skin. In the roundtable discussions and musical interpretations, Black and White community members explored the question of how the color of your skin can impact how you are treated, the opportunities available to you, and how you see yourself in America. To explore this question, and more importantly how to build a world in which racial bias no longer exists, the project will examined and reinterpreted the songs “American Skin (41 Shots)” by Bruce Springsteen (covered by Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar) and “Sweeter” by Leon Bridges (featuring Terrace Martin). Upon completion, local Black and White artists worked together to write and record a song, titled “Better,” that offers actionable steps for ending racial bias and co-creating a world in which everyone belongs.