Soundcheck: Hip Hop Speaks Out On Trayvon Martin Murder

posted in: FeaturesUrban

In the five weeks since the tragic killing of seventeen-year-old Florida teen Trayvon Martin, the hip hop community is stepping up to call for justice and action.

Tons of hip hop heavyweights”including David Banner, E-40, Frank Ocean, Big Boi, Diddy and countless others”have spoken out on the tragedy.  Many of them have created viral videos in which they don hoodies to support the slain adolescent, who was killed at the hands of a neighborhood watch volunteer that said the teen, looked suspicious.

On February 26, George Zimmerman (a twenty-eight-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer) called the police after he noticed Trayvon entering a market (to buy Skittles and Iced Tea for his younger brother). After ignoring police instructions to remain in his vehicle, Zimmerman allegedly accosted the unarmed teenager and shot him to death. When police arrived on the scene, Zimmerman claimed he acted in self- defense, and has therefore avoided an arrest since the incident.

The shooting and lack of arrest sparked national outrage after viral videos and social media campaigns spread the word across the Internet. Everyone from President Obama to Oprah Winfrey to Donald Trump have weighed in on the issue, and public figures aren’t the only ones.  Thousands of students across the country have held rallies, vigils and marches both in honor of Trayvon and as a sign of solidarity with his family, who are aggressively pursuing the case.  While many are hoping to keep the incident from becoming a racial issue, others find it hard to ignore what seems like a new example of an old complaint; racial profiling, and hatred in America.

Young Jeezy weighed in on the matter during a recent interview with MTV.  I feel very deeply as a community leader and as a product of my culture¦ I feel like we all got to get together and stop this, ˜cause I have a son his age and I just feel like that could’ve been either of our children,¨¨ he said. I feel the racial lines and the tension of it. I get it, but we’re gonna stand strong on the black and the brown side on this one. We’re gonna stand together.

“You never want to hear that kind of news,” Nas said in an interview with Angie Martinez. “When it happens, you remember how many Trayvon incidents happen everyday all over the world. …It doesn’t seem like the race problem will ever get solved. I like to be optimistic, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll ever get solved. That’s a sickness that needs healing, that this guy Zimmerman is dealing with, and all the Zimmermans around the world. They’re dealing with a self-hatred, ignorant, sickness. They’re living in fear. So I’m rocking a hoodie for my man,” he said, adorned in a black hoodie like the one that allegedly made Trayvon a threat.

Game weighed in on the tragedy in a recent interview with MTV.  In it, he said,  I think that from the beginning of mankind, we as a people have always been targeted.  For some reason, people don’t think that they need any excuse to kill us, beat us, hit us, run us over, disrespect us or anything like that…I’m far from racist, he said. I’m very educated and intellectual and I understand how life works and how people of all colors exist under the sun, but it just seems like more than not black people are, I don’t know, there’s always some negative occurrence that goes on in our existence. This is just another reminder that stupidity still exists.”

Atlanta-based Big K.R.I.T. noted the irony in Zimmerman’s accusation that Trayvon was “suspicious” for wearing a hoodie; something that people in all communities wear regularly. You would like to think that it’s 2012 and people will understand that a hoodie doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a criminal; your skin doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a criminal. It’s sad that that kind of situation is still happening right now. He also noted the activism the incident has sparked, in hip-hop communities and on college campuses across the nation.  You never want to use violence against violence, but you have to own up to what you do.  He wasn’t doing anything to anybody; you can’t just, immediately, think that somebody’s up to no good. I read about a woman who’s gonna do some time for whooping her child, but we don’t even know if [Zimmerman] is gonna do some time for gunning somebody down in the street. I’m glad that people are speaking out about this, this type of stuff happens all the time. In the South, yes it happens, but it happens all over the world. People have to really start praying.

While some are speaking out via viral videos, leading marches or doing interviews, others have taken their rage to the booth, and releases rap singles in support of Trayvon’s family.  Below, a shortlist of new hip hop honoring the fallen teen:

Mistah F.A.B.: God Don’t Love Me (R.I.P. Trayvon)

Plies: We Are Trayvon Martin

Tahir Jahi : Date of My Death (Trayvon Martin)

Reef The Lost Cauze: The Prey Trayvon

Jasiri X : Trayvon