Episode #58: The Sound of Da Police: Hearing Police Brutality in Hip Hop Music

Today on the podcast, Alex Gomez and new producer Elena Maris bring you a powerful, unique story. Using the DJ set as a form of narrative, Alex and Elena ask, why have we ignored decades of testimonials about police brutality in hip hop music? In order to demonstrate that the state has executed violence upon poor communities, courts now accept video footage from new technologies like the body camera or the cell phone. And yet, hip hop music has been responding to state violence for years. Throughout the episode, we’re asked to take the form seriously as an informational medium. Take a listen!

Song list:

0:39 – Interview with rapper J. Cole in Fergeson, MO via Complex Magazine

1:16 – “Be Free” by J. Cole

4:10 – Dashcam footage of South Carolina Highway Patrol officer and a black man in Columbia, SC on September 4, 2014

4:50 – “Murder to Excellence” (loop) by Jay Z and Kanye West

5:02 – Fuck the Police by Styles P

8:15 – Protect and Serve (loop) by UGK

9:11 – Cell Therapy (loop) by Goodie MOB

9:25 – The Beast by Fugees

11:28 – Sound of Da Police by KRS-One

11:46 – Officer by The Pharcyde

12:19 – Footage of black man tased by Hammond, Indiana police on September 24, 2014