He’s a legendary pioneer of the Rap/Hip-Hop genre who’s never been at a loss for words when it comes to speaking up about injustices in interviews and through his music.
And now, as protests wage on across the US against police brutality and the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, LL Cool J. dropped a rapid-fire rap about some of the high-profile cases of police abuse and what it’s like being black in America.
‘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,’ the Queens, New York native rapped in the opening verses without any backing music or beats.
Using his voice: LL Cool J, 52, shared a rap about the George Floyd killing at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer and on Instagram on Sunday
After another line about the oppression of minorities, the 52-year-old rapper (born James Todd Smith), then made a reference to the stimulus check passed by Congress and signed into law by President Donald Trump as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES).
‘Revenge is a dish that’s served on platelets / Transfusion, a confusion, abusing our intellect / I can’t be bought with a $1200 check even though $1200 can make a meal stretch,’ he delivered with heartfelt emotion before adding: ‘My mama wasn’t rich but she earned my respect / She made a little bit a money for a lot of blood, tears and sweat.’
The Grammy Award-winning artist then directed some of his lyrics to Derek Chauvin, the now ex-Minneapolis Police Department officer charged with murdering Floyd by kneeling on his neck for a total of eight minutes and 46 seconds, as three other police officers looked on.
Taking a stand: The legendary rapper, 52, also mentions other high-profile cases of people killed at the hands of police in recent years across the US
Hard-hitting: ‘He cried for his mama as the murder unfold / If it wasn’t for the phone Chauvin would be at home,’ the New York native rapped
‘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*** / Tased, pepper spray and a gaze with the kid,’ he rapped.
The Mama Said Knock You Out star also pointed out comparisons of between black and white protestors.
‘They ran up in the state with them AKs quick / But let a n***** try to do that white boy s*** / Won’t be no rubber bullets ricocheting off ribs / But the white supremacist go in the faces of cops and spit / Try to BBQ, Becky called the cops on the kid / hoping and praying there would be some Emmett Till s***.’
Later in the roughly 2:30 minute song, the storyline again shifted to the Floyd case.
‘He cried for his mama as the murder unfold / If it wasn’t for the phone Chauvin would be at home.’
RIP: Derek Chauvin is charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd died on May 25 in Minneapolis
As the rap wound down, he also talked about Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor, two other people who were killed at the hands of police in recent years.
‘The new Malcom, Marin and Marcus’s are now grown / America’s a graveyard full of black mens bones / And I ain’t got to tell you Briana Taylor got slain in her own home / Had they’d lived someone could have rocked bells, Eric could have gone at attention / Beyond the t-shirts and obituaries mentions / I still could have been still been counting grants / To me it could have gone to rice / They owed them cops nothing but all of them paid the price / So yea you right we should protect our Second Amendment rights / Cause in a second a dirty cop could kick the door in at night.’
In the closing lines, LL rapped: ‘Being black in America is like rolling a pair of dice / But the stakes are way higher you gambling with my life. Black Lives Matter; forever.
LL Cool J has released 13 studio albums over his stories career in music.
The Grammy Award-winner’s hit songs include Going Back To Cali, I’m Bad, Rock The bells, The Boomin’ System, Mama Said Knock You Out, as well as R&B-inspired tunes like I Need Love, Doin’ It, All I Have, Around The Way Girl and Hey Lover.
VH1 placed him on their “100 Greatest Artists Of All Time” list in 2010.
In 2017, he became the first rapper to receive the Kennedy Center Honors.
Hip-hop icon: VH1 placed LL Cool J on their “100 Greatest Artists Of All Time” list in 2010; the rapper is pictured in New York in 2005