This presentation argues that Black pop music containing overt political messages frequently uses a "tonic anticipation" as an important rhetorical device. Drawing from scholarship by Nicholas Stoia, I posit that a tonic anticipation occurs when a melody outlines a tonic mode over a pretonic harmony, increasing the harmonic tension and heightening the expectation for a tonic. It also heightens general tension, and surrounding musical context allows listeners to interpret the political message positively or negatively. By considering the tonic anticipation in Black pop, we can appreciate the role of music in some black American's self-definition during the post-civil rights era.