LL Cool J has a lot to say about the situation currently unfolding across America, and a single tweet won’t do it.
The two-time Grammy winner unleashed an incendiary rap which traces centuries of racism, division and the all-too-frequent killing of unarmed black men and women by law enforcement officials.
Looking straight down the camera, the hip-hop veteran raps: “For 400 years you had your knees on our necks / A garden of evil with no seeds of respect / In America’s mirror all she sees is regret / Instead of letting blood live they begging for blood let.”
There’s no beat, no musical soundbed. Just fury.
“Revenge is a dish that’s served on platelets / Transfusion, a confusion, abusing our intellect / I can’t be bought with a $1,200 check even though $1,200 can make a meal stretch/ mama wasn’t rich but she earned my respect / She made a little bit a money for a lot of blood, tears and sweat,” he continues.
The New York artist and actor’s fiery rap comes as protests ignite across the country. Scores of cities were under curfew on the weekend as thousands took to the streets to express their outrage at the death of George Floyd, whose tragic final moments under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer were caught on camera and have been seen by millions around the globe.
“Jumping up and down on police cars and vex / After Chauvin killed George Floyd we got next / Molotov cocktails anarchy on the set / The rich took the loot so now we loot s— / Feeling like a caged tiger that’s whipped to do tricks / That’s why I started fires and yelled and threw bricks / They tried to run me over and arrest me and s— / Tazed, pepper spray and a gaze with the kid,” LL blasts.
Being black in America, he says, “is like rolling a pair of dice. But the stakes are way higher, you’re gambling with my life.”
LL Cool J ends on a measured note: “Black lives matter, forever.”
Watch below.