Being There Experience: Rap-tivists

There are multiple ways to bring attention to issues. Some might use a legal approach and go through courts to have something change. Others might lobby outside senators’ offices to have them pay attention to the problems that they are facing. There are others that will go out on the streets and protests, and others use music, poems, videos, performances, and art to express their struggle with the problem. They use all these different forms of arts to help express the problems that some members of society face. All these forms of art help open conversations about what is happening, it allows others that are not directly affected by the issue to have those conversations. More importantly, in the case of my topic racial profiling, it add voice to the multitudes of people that experience it every day.

The point being that the outcomes of racial profiling often ends in the person of color or minority getting hurt. The fact that there are songs, videos, poems and the sort points to the obvious fact that the issue of racial profiling exists in our society. If it didn’t exist and affect so many people, other wouldn’t have the need to speak out about it. It is all about discourse and in this case there are plenty of past and recent incidents that have inspired many to speak out.

In my previous post I provided a list of African American people that have been victims of police brutality. Aside from fueling protests and legal fights it has resulted in many artist to speak out about the inequality and profiling. They speak out about the danger of being Black when for some that equals criminal and dangerous. These songs express feeling of oppression, police brutality and racism I want to provide a different form in which these issues are brought to light.

This video in particular pays tribute to many of the individual mentioned in the previous post. As well as films that have been made to talk about African American experiences throughout history.

Rapper T.I in his song, “New National Anthem” begins the song stating that the radio will probably not air this [song] which is possibly because he is using the phrase, “home of the brave and the free” from the National Anthem. Even though he uses that phrase form a very patriotic song, he changes it the fit the reality of being black in America. He shows that the ideals that are expressed in that song do not fit the practices of the country. There is a clear understanding that the government does not care about the people of color that have grown up in poverty. He notes that they have limited chances and opportunities and it is not their fault they are “a product of the environment [they were placed in]”T.I acknowledges that the police will look at him and other Black people as the enemy and people that should be locked up and no justice will be brought to them. He highlights the reality that death and prison are always waiting for them. The following are the highlights of the song:

“Home of the brave and free (well damn officer what did I do?)

Free just to murder me (Naw hold up man don't shoot, I live over there)

Land of the beautiful (a man what you doin)

Cursed by the hate we throw (you trippin dawg)

Is this the new national anthem (how many times has that ever happened to you, what the fuck do you know about being a black man in America?)

Is this the new national anthem (And you wonder why we walk around with straps)”

“For the stars and the stripes prison bars and the pipe

Young nigga rolling weed in a cigar he can light

Bang red either blue selling hard and the white
Live by the gun, never run from a fight"

"Trayvon in a hoodie, walking through the neighborhood he

Didn't do shit to buddy, he didn't have to die did he?

I guess it's because his dad was a judge in the city

They didn't want him in the pen with the thugs that could get him"

A jury of his peers said all was forgiven

But touch one of mine, right or wrong, I'm a kill them

Fill them with the lead like they put in Martin Luther King's head

Like they killed Malcolm X, Edgar Hoover did that

You can catch me in the hood where they shooting niggas at

They don't know if Neighborhood or the Hoovers did that

Whether Piru or VL's or GDs with me we

Down to uprise from the OG's to peewees

“Let me ask you something. If the kids are the future, tell me why you can get more for being C.E.O., than you can for being a teacher. Tell me why it means more to the government to pay the people who got to watch over the prisoners, more than the people who got to keep the children from becoming prisoners. That make sense? Tell me why 9 ounces of crack will get you more time than a rape right now. Tell me why them crazy white boys can tote a gun but I can't right now. Yea I had felonies, I done did dirt in the streets, but I ain't ever gave it to anybody that didn't deserve it. You know what I mean? I ain't ever ran in no public place with no pistol shooting no innocent people. I ain't never ran in no school, killing no kids. Man this is the result of you refusing to deal with the issues at hand. We are a product of the environment you placed us in... we ain't do it... we just lived through it”

Another powerful song is one that was a collaboration of multiple artists. The following song, “Don’t Shoot” was created by Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Diddy, Fabolous, Wale, DJ Khaled, Swizz Beatz, Yo Gotti, Curren$y, Problem, King Pharaoh & TGT. In this song they bring up the issue with the media, “I heard he surrendered but we all saw how they did him Television broadcasts, a confused country” this calls out to the role that media plays when it comes to cases of racism and profiling African Americans. The media portrays one thing while the story states a different thing and people are left trying to figure out who is telling the truth. In a different verse they talk about the protests and it seems like they believe that is not getting anywhere. They state how they are being silenced and distracting the people with the “ASL” bucket challenge. People protested and were angered but only for a while, until the next big thing was broadcasted. They mention several individuals that have passed away including Emmitt Till that was lynched in Mississippi in 1945 for allegedly talking to a white girl. This highlights that this is not a new issue. It is an issue that has been occurring for years, and practiced by different people. I personally really liked how this song was composed it hits the bigger societal problem. Racial profiling goes beyond the fact of police brutality it is the racism that is so deeply entrenched in American society.

[Intro: DJ Khaled]

Our Lord, grant us good in this world

And good in the life, to come keep us safe from the torment of the fire

As we keep our hands up high and scream for justice

Ferguson, rest in peace Mike Brown and all the young soldiers out there

God help us

[Verse 1: Game]

Seen the pictures, feel the pain, scandalous how they murder son

Tired of them killing us, I'm on my way to Ferguson

Talked to TIP, I talked to Diddy, them my brothers walking with me

Mothers crying stop the riots, we ain't got to chalk the city

I seen Cole out there, thought I should go out there

They left that boy for hours in the cold out there

They killin' teens, they killin' dreams (It's murder)

[Verse 2: Diddy]

Yo, come on we gotta stick together, we all we got

Police taking shots and I ain't talkin' bout Ciroc

I'm talking bout Emmett Till, I'm talking bout Ezell Ford

I'm talking bout Sean Bell, they never go to jail for

Trayvon over Skittles, Mike Brown Cigarillos

History keeps repeating itself, like a Biggie instrumental

America's a glass house and my revenge is mental

Rather use my brain than throw a cocktail through a window

[Verse 3: Rick Ross]

I got the keys to the city still we left in the cold

Hands in the sky, still was left in the road

Ribbon in the sky, Michael Brown, another soul

Stole by the system, black men we pay the toll

The price is your life, Uncle Sam want a slice

Black dress code now we looting in the night

Now we throwing Molotovs in this holocaust

And I know they hate to hear me screaming, 'I'm a Boss!'

[Verse 4: 2 Chainz]

Tired of the okie-dokie, lying you Pinocchio

Driving while black, tell me, where am I supposed to go?

Gun shots hit the car, now I got the holy ghost

If excessive force was a drug, then they overdosed

Got us tryna protest, it's a slow process

Heard it's a lot of rotten eggs in the crow's nest

People praying on they feet, police holding on they heat

Turned on the news and seen a tank rolling down the street

[Verse 5: Fabolous]

Yeah, I seen a lot of ice water tossed, and I know it's for a cause

My only question is, what we doing for the loss

Of Mike Brown? Cause right now, I challenge you to use your talents to

Speak up, and don't you ever let them silence you

Cause action speaks louder than words, that's what I heard

Shot down with his hands up, that's what occurred

Man that sound absurd

Matter fact to me that sound like murder

We want justice

[Verse 6: Yo Gotti]

Ay yo Game, I had a crib out there, I used to live out there

So I know how niggas feel out there

People stressing, protesting, unity is a blessing

So it's time we come together, use our voice as a weapon

I am Michael Brown, cause I stand for what he stand for

News say we're looting, paint pictures like we some animals

On my NWA CMG

Holl'in' "Rest in peace Eazy and fuck the police"

[Verse 7: Wale]

Heard another brother slain up in St. Louis

Sure the mother feel the pain, but what you famous doing?

I’m sure the general population trying to be more active

But when the light finally catches you, you ice challenge

Okay, and I support the ALS just like the rest of them

But you have yet to pay your debt, so you just flexing then

Cause everybody care for a minute, then stop

People only there for a minute, then stop

And what's the point of giving if you ain't giving your all?

We never getting ahead, might as well give up your heart

[Bridge: TGT, King Pharaoh (Swizz Beatz)]

Where does it end?

I got my hands up, what else am I supposed to do?

(Rest in peace to Mike Brown)

Where does it end?

(And all the other warring soldiers)

Tell me, where's the love for everything we're going through?

(That will not be on the news or televised, ah)

Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy me

Hope that God can save us

Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy me

(As we lead in peace)

[Verse 8: Swizz Beatz]

Martin Luther King had a dream!

But they ain't respecting Jesse up out here

And they don't really respect Obama out here

Lights out, go dark it's like a nightmare

How the fuck you play the game, but they ain't playing fair

It's going down, Armageddon right here

Right now, not on TV, but right here

Put your flags in the air if you don't really care (Wave it)

We need justice, yeah, we need justice here

[Verse 9: Curren$y]

I heard he surrendered but we all saw how they did him

Television broadcasts, a confused country

I'm a resident of a nation that don't want me

What's done is done, the town erupts in fury

And I'm already hearing bout this lopsided jury

Three faces like his, the rest another story

A lot of motherfuckers need to act more worried

[Verse 10: Problem]

The revolution has been televised

If I sit here and do don't do nothing, homie, that's genocide

Fuck that, we have arrived!

And who cares who ain't on our side cause we on our own

How do you preach peace to a family that just lost they own?

My brodie Game just banged my line like "We gotta do something"

All that marching and that peace ain't gonna fucking do nothing

Fuck it, my moms, sorry, I'm ready to rage

The police done let the animals out of the cage, oh lord it's

oh lord it's
[Hook: Game's daughter]
Time to take a stand and save our future
Like we all got shot, we all got shot
Throwing up our hands don't let them shoot us
Cause we all we got, we all we got
God ain't put us on the Earth to get murdered, it's murder
God ain't put us on the Earth to get murdered, it's murder
Don't point your weapons at me