Songs referencing police/state brutality

cozski · 16-08-2011 9:20pm #1

Hey, I'm planning to do a radio show slot focusing on songs that directly reference events related to police and state brutality. I was hoping to get a mixture of songs from any genre but I thought the punk/alt/rock/folk genres would be a richer vein to puncture. Has anybody got any suggestions... and a brief back story or link to somewhere I can read about it.... so it would be much more preferable if the song referenced real rather than imagined events.

Any contributions appreciated.... and thanks in advance.

bigpoppa · 16-08-2011 9:37pm

suicidal tendancies police truck
lard drug raid at 4am
ice cube tear this mother****er up
dre the day the niggaz took over

MoyVilla9 · 16-08-2011 10:03pm

Well an obvious reference would be Sean Bell. There has been a lot of songs recorded that talk about him (The Game - 911 Is a Joke, etc.). Early 90's is a hotspot too with the LA Riots and all. Violent by 2Pac is based on a fictional story but is a pretty good song about the subject of brutality.

Boom_Bap · 16-08-2011 11:38pm

Conspiracy to riot by sage Francis. There should be info on it on the strange famous website, or his knowmore.org site where he puts his political stuff. It's about riots and how the police reacted.

http://www.songmeanings.net/songs/view/3530822107858744700/ <- The comments explain what the song is about

His song makeshift patriot is all about 9/11, but that might be outside of what you are looking for.

Dead Prez have a pretty big catalogue, immortal technique does also.

Jimmy Iovine · 17-08-2011 1:25am

Chamillionaire gets at George Bush, Bill O'Reilly, FOX News, the LAPD's hunt for Pac and Biggie's killers, the war in Iraq, the rise of gas prices, the rising dropout rate in schools and the Bush Administration's response to the 9/11 bombings and Hurricane Katrina. Take your pick from any of those.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UruJKq5kaUM

Andy_rse · 17-08-2011 10:11am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHPeNgF4fc8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdX-CLdCzQ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHPXM7a8hMw

me-skywalker · 17-08-2011 2:58pm

MoyVilla9 wrote: »

Well an obvious reference would be Sean Bell. There has been a lot of songs recorded that talk about him (The Game - 911 Is a Joke, etc.). Early 90's is a hotspot too with the LA Riots and all. Violent by 2Pac is based on a fictional story but is a pretty good song about the subject of brutality.

911 Is Joke - Public Enemy........ The Game... pfft!

floggg · 19-08-2011 10:03am

Killer Mike - Pressure (re Sean Bell) and Burn (re Oscar Grant and police brutality).

Talib Kweli - The Proud (re 9/11 and police)

N.W.A. - **** the Police

Pharaoh Monch - Clap

Murs - last night (re LAPD CRASH taskforce)

cozski · 19-08-2011 12:50pm

Holy Sh*t! Thanks for all those suggestions! I knew there had to be a good few out there but there's definitely a few new ones on me. I really appreciate the suggetions... one of the things I've noticed though is that many of them are from a different era, so to speak. I was wondering if the improved communications opportunites has actually led to less songs of this nature being made... I doubt most people, even contemporaneously, would have been that familiar with the events surrounding the Liddel Towers song by the Upstarts, or Police Story by the Partisans... but in this era of Global protest and the ability to share information so rapidly you might expect this to provide bands/songwriters with a wealth of material. I know there's probably plenty of punk bands still highlighting all sorts of injusitces, state and police violence, but are these getting out to a wider audience than before because of the communication possibilites... makes me wonder. As a Chumbabwamba fan I can still take some comfort from the fact that they're still the standard bearers for political songs with a big 'P'. Going back to my early forays into Rap music, nearly all of what I was listening to then had a strong undercurrent of the pervasisve nature of law enforcement, the state, etc. Even fairly tame stuff like Hijacks Horns of Jericho referenced it... obviously things became mugch more pronounced with the NWA, Ice-T, etc... is there still a strong emphasis in Rap about these things? Thanks again for the posts.....

Osmosis Jones · 19-08-2011 1:10pm

Aesop Rock "None shall pass" and "Pigs"

MoyVilla9 · 19-08-2011 11:40pm

me-skywalker wrote: »

911 Is Joke - Public Enemy........ The Game... pfft!

I was talking about the Sean Bell incident which 911 Is A Joke by The Game references.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0vpWVRcPBo

I'm well aware of the Public Enemy song.

pragmatic1 · 21-08-2011 11:23pm

Most Ice Cube albums.

weemcd · 22-08-2011 12:50am

cozski wrote: »

Hey, I'm planning to do a radio show slot focusing on songs that directly reference events related to police and state brutality. I was hoping to get a mixture of songs from any genre but I thought the punk/alt/rock/folk genres would be a richer vein to puncture. Has anybody got any suggestions... and a brief back story or link to somewhere I can read about it.... so it would be much more preferable if the song referenced real rather than imagined events.

Any contributions appreciated.... and thanks in advance.

Not Rap, but if you are looking for punk, The Offspring - LAPD springs to mind for the subject, when you get the show post us up a link, I'd be interested to hear what you come up with.