A Seven Part Series from decARcerate
Hip Hop and Policing
Police Have Never Protected or Served Black Americans. Will They Ever?
Zoë Harris
The Bigger Picture
George Floyd was a father. He was a son. He was a provider. He was also a man who was arrested and pinned down to the ground with a knee to his neck for NINE MINUTES and TWENTY-NINE SECONDS. He was senselessly murdered at the hands of a white man with a badge. It was not only senseless, but it was callous, monstrous, and inhumane. What happened to George Floyd is a tragedy. His name will forever ring through the ears of America. But George Floyd’s name isn’t the first to make headlines as a result of police brutality, and unfortunately, it is unlikely to be the last.
In “The Bigger Picture,” Lil Baby recognizes the tragedy of George Floyd, and he also recognizes that police murder is a much greater problem, and the roots are much deeper than this one tragedy. While Lil Baby released “The Bigger Picture” shortly after the death of George Floyd, his message focuses more on recognizing that the harm stems from much deeper roots than just another black man killed at the hands of a white cop.
He stated in an interview with The Beat with Ari Melber that “in the time of uproar in the situation, I took it upon myself to speak upon the whole thing. I didn’t just . . . make a George Floyd song. I mentioned . . . what kinda happened in the song a lil’ bit, but it was like a whole thing. It wasn’t just like that incident because it is way bigger than that incident.”
Lil Baby grew up around this very thing since he was a kid. According to his interview, Lil Baby witnessed his first murder in middle school. One of his closest friends was shot in the back by the police. He was in middle school. He was a child. He was a child watching another child be shot and killed by the men who were supposed to be there to protect them. Instead, the men in blue preyed on the little black boys. Because of this, Lil Baby and other similarly situated little brown and black boys grew up resenting the men in blue and seeing them only as the modern-day oppressor. Lil Baby’s most intuitive message in this song is that there is a systematic injustice in policing that has developed over hundreds of years that must first be addressed in an effort to most effectively remedy it.
It’s bigger than black and white.
It’s a problem with the whole way of life
It can’t change overnight
But we gotta start somewhere
Might as well go ahead and start here
We done had a hell of a year
I’ma make it count while I’m here.
God is the only man I fear.
The greater harm, and perhaps the most sickening, is that Lil Baby is speaking on the same type of infectious harm N.W.A spat about over thirty years ago and Martin Luther King, Jr. preached about over 30 years before that. Instead of things getting better, police misconduct and brutality only becomes more normalized. It no longer is a surprise to see another black face headlining national news in relation to a police shooting. Instead, it is now expected. The reactions of those watching those same headlines have become in some corners callous and indifferent. This is because brutality has become the new norm. So much so that artists, like Lil Baby, use their voice and their platform in an attempt to de-normalize the conception that it is okay for an officer to abuse and misuse his discretion at the expense of another man’s life.
A fun fact about Lil Baby is that he does not write his songs prior to recording them. He stated in his interview “it just come from my head, from my soul for real. When I try to write something, I don’t get the same deliverance from when I just go into the studio and rap. I really just rap about everyday life and about what’s going on.” Every lyric and every verse, spat by Lil Baby in The Bigger Picture came directly from the heart and experience. It took no sweat for Lil Baby to write this double-platinum song because this double-platinum song is his life. In this song, Lil Baby is verbalizing a lifetime of firsthand knowledge of personal police misconduct and abuse he has not only witnessed but been the victim of.
I see blue lights, I get scared and start runnin'
That shit be crazy, they 'posed to protect us
Throw us in handcuffs and arrest us
While they go home at night, that shit messed up
Knowing we needed help, they neglect us
Wondering who gon' make them respect us
The world we live in now is not much different than it was a hundred years ago as it pertains to the systematically oppressive Injustice system. The only difference between now and then is the modern turning point in political acuteness. From the perspective of most men of color, just because they may no longer call the white man “master” does not change the oppressive way in which the system is predicated and has continued to function. The manner in which it is delivered is not as important as what is delivered. Said differently, men in blue are presented by our nation to protect and serve its people. It could be argued that under the uniform lies only false promises and false hope.
During the time of slave patrols, police would arrest a black man for whatever reason the white man gave. Not only were white mobs allowed to antagonize their black peers without any objection from police, but they also had the power to dictate when and why a black man may be arrested. Policing the racial norms of white supremacy began hundreds of years ago and still continues to this day. The color of a man’s skin was equated to criminalization 400 years ago and it still is today. In his book, Muhammad states that pointing out the problem is clearly not sufficient in fixing the system.
“The problem has been known for a century. The evidence has been presented for a century. The recommendation for change, for holding police officers accountable, for charging them with a criminal offense when they behave criminally. It is a century of the same story playing out over and over again.” Muhammad does not believe that any additional acknowledgment or recognition of the problem is necessary, but that instead, the focus should be on recognizing that “police officers and police agencies are incapable of fixing themselves.”
And because of this, Muhammad presents what seems to be a question that aligns with what Lil Baby addresses in “The Bigger Picture”: “Do white people in America still want the police to protect their interest over the rights and dignity and lives of black, brown, Asian and indigenous populations around this country?” Until that question is answered, there will, unfortunately, be many more faces in the headlines that look like George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and the countless other beautiful black souls egregiously taken from us at the hands of another white policeman. Until this Nation addresses “The Bigger Picture,” there is no hope.
I can't lie like I don't rap about killing and dope
But I'm telling my youngins to vote
I did what I did 'cause I didn't have no choice or no hope
I was forced to just jump in and go
This bullshit is all that we know, but it's time for a change
Got time to be serious, no time for no games
We ain't takin' no more, let us go from them chains
God bless they souls, every one of them names
KRS-One
N.W.A.
Anderson .Paak
Meek Mill
Kendrick Lamar
Killer Mike
