Artists across the globe have been responding to the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, who were shot this week during confrontations with police where video evidence seems to suggest there was no provocation.
Early on Friday, Jay Z released "spiritual," calling out police brutality and focusing on the long-lasting pain that stems from incidents like these. In a statement on the Tidal homepage, where you can hear the track for free (whether you subscribe to the service or not), he says that he began work on the track after Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Mo. in 2014. Jay Z ends his statement with a quote from Fredrick Douglass that illustrates how violence breeds violence in an endless cycle: "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
Nashville MC Young Buck, who rose to prominence through an on-again, off-again relationship with 50 Cent and G-Unit, released a track that takes that sentiment several steps further. At 9:30 p.m. Thursday night, as the incident unfolded in which a sniper killed five police officers and wounded seven others at a protest in Dallas, Tex., "Riot" debuted via XXL. Buck tweeted the link 12 minutes later.
NOW LETS SHOOT BACK AT THESE CROOKED ASS POLICE🎤🔫🔫‼️ https://t.co/CRNqGLMK1e— The Real Young Buck (@youngbuck) July 8, 2016
The song is a direct call to action. It begins with a clip in which Tupac Shakur says “I would rather tell a young black male to educate his mind, arm yourself and defend yourself than just sit there and turn the other cheek.” Then Buck gets on the mic and tells listeners to pick up a gun and fight back: "I'm military minded / I could kill a cop with this Glock if I'm blinded / You ain't got no heart, motherfucker, better find it / Look at how they just killed Alton, then rewind it."
Hear the track below.
