Maggie Rawlins

4th Listen-Social Critiques

The song “Don’t Shoot” by The Game which was focused around the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson Missouri, made several other hip hop artists want to hop on the track and put verses in about their thoughts on the issues. It attracted many legendary artists that wanted to be featured on the track such as Rick Ross, Diddy, and 2 Chainz.  The verses that each artist put down were so powerful, it strike emotion in anyone who hears the song. A direct integration of the influence of the Michael Brown shooting within the lyrics in a verse by Diddy:  

“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”

This verse is referencing how many people traveled down to Ferguson Missouri just to become one with the movement that protested the police and government due to this horrific murder. Hundreds of people flooded the streets of Ferguson Missouri with signs, banners, music, and candles all to pay a tribute to Michael Brown and take a stand against the government to make sure this terrible tragedy would not go unnoticed.  

Another artist on the album, Swizz Beatz laid down a verse that name dropped past and current leaders in our country:

“Martin Luther King had a dream

But they ain’t respecting Jesse up out here

And they don’t really respect Obama out here”

Swizz Beatz addresses the fact that Martin Luther King Jr, and Obama are both powerful, inspiring black men in our country’s history. People today have lots of respect for both these men, and they are African American, just like Michael Brown. This boy was so young when he was gunned down. What if Martin Luther King was gunned down in his teenage years? Our world would have never heard “I Had a Dream” and be forever changed for the better. What if the same thing happened to Barrack Obama? He would have never grown up to become President of the United States and change the world.