The following songs are some of my favorites with a strong message behind them. The titles include a link to the lyrics of each one which I highly recommend reading.
Dr. Dre featuring Anderson Paak
This song was written by Paak following the 2015 Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore as a way to comment on the unfair treatment of African-Americans by police. In it, Paak and Dre dispute the labeling of black protestors as “animals” first in the lyrics of the chorus.
“And please don't come around these parts
And tell me that we all a bunch of animals
The only time they wanna turn the cameras on
Is when we're fuckin' shit up, come on”
Paak’s words here call attention to the contrast in how black people are represented when they riot versus when they do good works or protest peacefully. He’s saying that they should garner the same level of attention no matter how they go about expressing their message, which never begins with violence. An obvious example of this idea can be found in Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling during the national anthems of NFL games. This protest grew and took on so many supporters that the NFL eventually made a rule that all players must stand during the anthem or be off the field completely, essentially catering to those who were against the protests instead of using their platform to promote the message the players were expressing. With everything going on currently, we should all keep in mind that peaceful protests were the first course of action until they were intentionally censored. These riots we see today were born out of a need for adaptation due to more peaceful messages being deemed not fit for broadcasting.
Dre goes on to deliver an impassioned verse about the generalization of black people.
“Some of us was imbalanced but some us used our talents, shit
Not all of us criminals but cops be yellin', "Stay back, n****!"
We need a little bit of payback (Payback!)
Don't treat me like an animal 'cause all this shit is flammable”
That last line captures Dre’s boiling rage perfectly. It seems to show that he and so many others are tired of being falsely labeled as something that they’re not, as a caricature of a race. It shows that these misconceptions of the black community have them at their tipping point, a place that they’ve been pushed too, not where they’ve chosen to be. Paak’s next few lines comment on this as well.
“And the old folks tell me it's been goin' on since back in the day
But that don't make it okay
And them white folks tell me all the lootin' and the shootin's insane
But you don't know our pain”
The last two lines here are especially poignant when you consider what’s happening today. It’s a simple but important message that says that white people don’t understand what the black community is going through and therefore aren’t equipped to judge how they react. Just like if someone was in pain from a disease that you yourself had never had, you wouldn’t dare criticize their reactions to the pain because you wouldn’t know what they’re going through. Paak’s words here forces listeners to consider how long these issues have been around, an idea that should make you uncomfortable. Meanwhile, the president (who epitomizes both the old folks and the white folks in this verse) has somehow managed to contradict the third line of this verse by endorsing the shooting.
Run The Jewels featuring BOOTS
One of my favorite music videos ever, the use of imagery (especially the walls closing in on both sides at the end) is incredible and still relevant 5 years later
Run The Jewels, made up of Atlanta rapper Killer Mike and Brooklyn producer/rapper El-P, have never shied away from commenting on police brutality and racial discrimination in America but this song was their first venture into narrative-based rap. Early opens with Killer Mike rapping from the perspective of a character in a fictional (but still realistic) story about police brutality. Mike weaves this narrative together so masterfully that I couldn’t pick just one excerpt to analyze. The whole opening is included below and I highly recommend listening to the song after reading through it first to gain a better appreciation not just for Mike’s obvious talent for rapping but also for his ability to somehow transcribe this story into an effective and powerful verse.
“It be feelin' like the life that I’m livin' man I don't control
Like every day I’m in a fight for my soul
Could it be that my medicine’s the evidence
For pigs to stop and frisk me when they rollin' round on patrol?
And ask “Why you’re here?”
I just tell 'em cause it is what it is
I live here and that’s what it is
He chimed “You got a dime?
I said “Man, I’m tryin' to smoke and chill
Please don’t lock me up in front of my kids
And in front of my wife
Man, I ain’t got a gun or a knife
You do this and you ruin my life
And I apologize if it seems like I got out of line, sir
'cause I respect the badge and the gun
And I pray today ain't the day that you drag me away
Right in front of my beautiful son”
And he still put my hands in cuffs, put me in the truck
When my woman screamed, said “Shut up”
Witness with the camera phone on
Saw the copper pull a gun and
Put it on my gorgeous queen
As I peered out the window
I could see my other kinfolk
And hear my little boy as he screamed
As he ran toward the copper begged him not to hurt his momma
'cause he had her face down on the ground
And I’d be much too weak to ever speak what I seen
But my life changed with that sound”
Here’s a quick summary of this story if you need it. Mike’s character is stopped in front of his house by a cop who needles him with questions about his weed. Mike pleads with the cop not to ruin his life by arresting him in front of his family and even apologizes for possibly getting out of line (something that never happened in the story but likely comes from Mike’s understanding of how to deal with the police; his father was an Atlanta PD officer who warned him to never become a cop), but the cop still cuffs him. Mike’s wife screams in distress which leads to the cop pulling his gun on her as witnesses do nothing but record the incident. Mike says he’s too weak to tell us what happened next but it’s implied that she is shot dead.
BOOTS’ powerfully barebones hook plays immediately after this.
“Get out, get out, get out, get out
Feeling this, feeling this too early
Get out, get out, get out, get out
Feeling this way, feeling this way
Feeling this, feeling this too early
Feeling this, feeling this early
Early”
Just reading the lyrics without hearing them in the context of the song doesn’t do them justice. The beat switch (which is triggered by the sound of a cop siren, the same one that Mike says changed his life) is critical to this hook as it takes us from Mike’s retelling of his story to a more dystopian sound that I interpreted as his character’s immediate thoughts after the arrest. I understood the repetition of “get out” as Mike’s frantic thinking that he has to get out of the cops custody and back to his son who was also in danger because he was left with the police, though it could also be him realizing that he has to get out of America all together to escape these kinds of situations. “Feeling this too early” also seems to be his thoughts on how his son shouldn’t have had to witness his mother’s death so explicitly. He’s saying that the boy had his innocence taken too early as he was exposed to the harsh consequences of racism.
El-P’s following verse opens with the same two lines as Mike’s, possibly to show support for his friend. El-P is white but these repeated lines seem to say that he understands Mike’s struggle, that he understands how someone who is said to “protect and serve” can actually ruin his life at any given moment. He realizes this and is distrusting of the government as well, an idea that he expands upon in these lines where he acknowledges how others might perceive him as a conspiracy theorist but sticks to his beliefs.
“And yes there's a they, any time a man say there's not
Then you know that he lost the plot, what can I say?”
He then goes on to reveal that he’s rapping from the perspective of another character in Mike’s story as well, one who lived nearby and heard the gunshot.
“Street Lamps stare when you walk watch the birdie
They’ll watch you walk to the store they’re recording
But didn’t record cop when he shot, no warning
Heard it go pop, might have been two blocks
Heard a kid plus pops watched cop make girl bleed
Go to home, go to sleep, up again early”
That final line is delivered so coldly and devoid of emotion to highlight the problem that El-P is talking about through this whole verse: how white people aren’t doing enough to help the black community who are so oppressed by the police. El-P’s character obviously dislikes the police, that’s made apparent throughout the verse, but he still does nothing after the murder of Mike’s wife but go home and get to bed. To him, it’s just another day which is meant to show how institutionalized racism and police brutality have become. El-P’s character is used here as an example of what not to do in this situation. He understands the problem but as a white man, he’s in no danger himself, a luxury that Mike’s character didn’t have. This verse highlights the benefit of being white: knowing that you’ll go to bed and wake up to just have another day free of oppression, while also accentuating the idea that white people should do all they can to make sure they aren’t the only ones who can enjoy this.
Joey Bada$$
Joey focuses on the black community and it's children in this uplifting video
The concept of racism in America is explored incredibly well throughout Joey’s 2017 album ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ but the impact of Temptation is amplified through the inclusion of a speech delivered by Zianna Oliphant in the intro and outro. Oliphant was just nine years old when she gave this speech in Charlotte, NC following the killing of Keith Scott by local police. The intro begins with this excerpt.
“I come here today to talk about how I feel
And I feel like that we are treated differently than other people
And I don't like how we’re treated
Just because of our color doesn't mean anything to me”
I love the use of this quote as the opener because it immediately exemplifies the message of the song while still allowing Joey to expand on the idea of Oliphant’s speech. It’s a very natural transition between she and him as both get their message across in the song but neither outshine the other. Instead, the two voices come together as a compliment to one another on this track. Joey opens by acknowledging that he feels the same way as Oliphant.
“This just the way I feel
Mind's been racing so long, yeah
It’s just no way to deal
With these problems alone
And I really can't take it no more
I've been fighting temptations, my Lord
I'm young and I'm restless
(And I really can't help it)
I never felt selfish before
I've been living so reckless, I know
Tell me Lord, can you help me?
(I said Lord, can you help me?)
Here we see Joey at his most vulnerable as he utilizes a prayer to God as the chorus of the song. He details his anger and his fear that he’s going to lose control throughout the prayer before ending it by repeatedly asking God for help. He also says that there’s no way to deal with these problems alone, which I interpreted as him calling for those outside of the black community to help them through their fight. The next verse explores the struggles that Joey and many others have continued to face as well as the idea of change and how difficult it will be to achieve it, while the second verse uses some powerful imagery to highlight what it’ll take to bring about that change.
“Now everybody got vices, yeah
But wouldn't know what good advice is
Until they leave 'em lifeless
Another mama cryin', it's another crisis”
To me, the first two lines are saying that black people have found ways to cope with racism but haven’t found out how to actually end it while the final two stress a sense of urgency to find that end. These four lines are saying that coping isn’t good enough while people are dying, an idea that should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds right now. It’s a very “now or never” type of message that Joey delivers here, especially through the use of the word “another” in the last line there which implies that if nothing is done soon then this bleak reality could be the norm forever. It’s a powerful thought that is, again, punctuated by the repetition of Joey’s prayer in the chorus two more times, with the final reprise shifting to a more somber tone as if he’s growing tired of praying for the same things (which is likely his way to cope).
This outro plays just after Joey’s final call to God.
“Do not stop
We are black people and we shouldn't have to feel like this
We shouldn't have to protest because you are treating us wrong
We do this because we need to and we have rights”
The raw emotion of Oliphant’s tearfully delivered speech serves as the perfect ending to Temptation, which is a very emotional piece of speech itself. I believe these last three lines perfectly summarize why these protests today are justified and the fact that such a young girl understands this concept better than so many Americans just further highlights the disconnect between communities that leads to the violence and hate that we see day in and day out. As she says, black people shouldn’t have to feel so oppressed and they don’t want to have to protest. Naturally, everyone wants peace, but when the right to live peacefully is taken from any group of people and replaced with prejudice and the lingering threat of death, the social constructs that innately restrict us from lashing out lose their significance. So I understand Oliphant when she says that black people NEED to protest because I empathize with her, just as every human being should. And I don’t just do that because she is a crying child, but because she represents the next generation. A generation who will either be free to live in a better world where kids don’t have to deliver speeches on racism through choked sobs and wet eyes just to hopefully get people to listen or one that will continue to face these very same issues because we couldn’t get something done today. It’s never easy to make change but the reward of setting up a better future for young people like Zianna would be well worth the work.
For more racially charged music I recommend checking out To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar, ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ by Joey Bada$$, FDT by YG and Nipsey Hussle, Shut Em Down by Public Enemy, and the entirety of Run The Jewels (including RTJ 4 which was just released today) and Rage Against The Machine’s discography. You can also check out the newly added “In Solidarity” section of Spotify which includes this Black Lives Matter playlist.
Please also take the time to consider supporting the following organizations. The next step after education is action and if you had the time to read the last 2636 words then you definitely have the time to sign a petition.