Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death

Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death
Original Logo
Music	Melvin Van Peebles
Lyrics	Melvin Van Peebles
Book	Melvin Van Peebles
Basis	Van Peebles' earlier albums
Productions	1971 Broadway
Awards	Drama Desk Award for Most Promising Book

Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death (Tunes from Blackness) is a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Melvin Van Peebles. The musical contains some material also on three of Van Peebles' albums, Brer Soul, Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death and As Serious as a Heart-Attack,^[1] some of which were yet to come out.

The musical is a series of 19 politically outspoken, darkly comic, and sexually charged musical monologues that explore the negative aspects of African-American street life and the ghetto experience. Each character has a painful story to tell in funk, soul, jazz and blues-inflected songs. The innovative piece, presented in a confrontational, "in your face" style, is a precursor to choreopoem, spoken word, and rap music. It "contributed to the growing black presence on Broadway."^[2]

In 1970, Van Peebles decided to transform some of the albums he had recorded between 1968 and 1970 into a musical. According to Van Peebles, "The songs were mirroring the incidents that were happening in the streets."^[1] Van Peebles marketed the musical to black audiences in churches "all up and down the fucking East Coast. Ministers have congregations, and the congregations would come with busloads of people."^[1]