At the time, Marvin Gaye was witnessing too many acts of violence, hatred, and brutality to the point where he couldn’t take it anymore, and exploded with a masterpiece of a record. Berry Gordy, the founder of the Motown record label hesitated, and didn’t want this record to be released since he was against the idea that any of his musicians should get political. Luckily, other powers of the record label worked in secrecy to get this record released. Until January 1971, to the surprise of both Gaye, and Gordy, the 45 single of “What’s Going On,” hit record stores, and became an instant success. Thus motivating Gaye to compose even more songs with deep meaning, beautiful vocal harmonies, and melodies, where he ended up releasing  one of my top three favourite records of all time “What’s Going On.” Now, before I go even further within the record, I feel the need to directly point out how it perfectly parallels what we’re currently experiencing within today’s society. Everyone is out for themselves as opposed to helping each other out, and most of the time it’s due to greed or having an ego that are the root to violence, and hate. And I’m absolutely FED UP with it! It’s time we start becoming less greedy, and shove the ego aside, and  help each other out throughout caring for one another! This record needs to be resurfaced. IT’S A MUST, AND MANDATORY! I’m in love with it because Gaye points out that NO, we shouldn’t be living in a world full of violence, including abuse of power, and resources, but more of an understanding, caring and respectful society. Sure, I might be sounding like a hippie as you go along reading this paragraph, but can’t you agree as well!? I wanted to talk about this record within season 1, but I wanted to wait for the right moment. And now, it’s the perfect timing. Each song serves a purpose, has a powerful meaning that sort of slaps you in the face. It did for me, especially when I was listening to the Detroit Mix of the record this past weekend with my Grado SR80X headphones. And FYI, it sounded FREAKIN’ GREAT (Thanks Luke!) You’ve got gems like its title song, “What’s Going On,” where Gaye expresses the idea of peace on earth; “You see, war is not the answer. For only love can conquer hate.” And other songs like “Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology,) that exercise over the amount of mass pollution. But, what marked me the most was its last track, “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler,)” where Gaye expresses over at how society neglects the ghetto inner city of America.