Blues MusicCultural AlgorithmsKendrick LamarRyan CooglerSinners8 min readApr 21, 2025--Press enter or click to view image in full sizeLate scholar James A. SneadAn algorithm is a plan for solving a problem represented as a simple step-by-step description. Many people put algorithms within the boundaries of computer science but there are algorithmic patterns in M.C. Escher’s artworks or in patchwork quilts from Gee’s Bend, Alabama, which contain elements of West African textile patterns. Code is the implementation of an algorithm in a specific language or vernacular. Secret or hidden codes, such as the symbols that were sewn into quilts along the Underground Railroad, are used to protect important information by converting it into a disguised form that only members could decipher. This includes Ring Shout and the Cypher in hip hop culture. Ring Shout is the earliest form of resistance that Black Americans embraced. It is a dance and ritual that was developed away from the continent of Africa, but created by the descendants of African people, with significant African influences.I’ll return to this topic later…Press enter or click to view image in full sizePress enter or click to view image in full sizeLeft: M.C. Escher’s “Circle Limit with Butterflies”; Right: Structural inference in African Kuba cloth via Dudek et al. 2008.The song’s pattern is A-B-A-B-A... — James SneadThe first time I saw black music written as an algorithm was in an essay written by late Yale scholar and professor James Arthur Snead (see above). Though he only lived until the age of 35, he left behind several published works. After his death, Cornel West called him “among the most impor­tant Amer­i­can intel­lec­tu­als in the late 20th cen­tury.” A little over a decade ago I read Snead’s “Repetition as a figure of black culture” that examines how cultures grapple with algorithmic patterns in the form of repetition. You can hear repetition in the blues, as well as in rap music. It’s foundational to