"When Run The Jewels sent me this track, I knew we had the
opportunity to create a film that means something. I felt a sense of
responsibility to do just that. We had to exploit the lyrics and
aggression and emotion of the track, and translate that into a film
that would ignite a valuable and productive conversation about racially
motivated violence in this country. It's provocative, and we all
knew this, so we were tasked with making something that expressed the
intensity of senseless violence without eclipsing our humanity. For me,
it was important to write a story that didn’t paint a simplistic
portrait of the characters of the Cop and Kid. They're not stereotypes. They're people - complex, real people
and, as such, the power had to shift between them at certain points
throughout the story. The film begins and it feels like they have been
fighting for days, they’re exhausted, not a single punch is thrown,
their violence is communicated through clumsy, raw emotion. They've
already fought their ways past their judgements and learned hatred
toward one another. Our goal was to highlight the futility of the violence, not celebrate it.
I am really proud of where we ended up, and I am very thankful that our actors Shea Whigham and Keith Stanfield
committed to these characters 100%. They breathed complex life into two
people who are usually portrayed in simplistic ways - as archetypes. I
can tell you it was an emotional shoot day. It is tough to re-create
moments that are so fresh and prevalent in our world today. It affected
all of us in deep ways. But I believe that it is important that the way
we feel when we see these events in real life has an effect on us. That
we resonate with what we know to be right and we don't numb ourselves
out so those feelings can simply be swept away, we must confront them
and take some action, however small, or we’ll be stuck in the same cycle
of violence and hate."
"Kahnawake has a history of militant self-defense. It was one of the
prime loci of resistance in the Oka uprising of 1990. Above, in blue and
white, is the flag of the Six Nations Confederacy. The Six Nations
include the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga, and Tuscarora.
This is the symbol of the Iroquois Confederacy, also known as the League
of Peace and Power, and the People of the Longhouse."
"Graffiti is a pretentious subcultural backbeat that is replicated
everywhere in much the same style, the same chunky lettering and coded
messages. It is boring and expresses a generalised contempt for
community, kindness, and the weak. How can leftists like this stuff?
After all it is so blatantly hypermasculine, aggressive and destructive
of people’s desire for a decent environment. It is in fact proof that
men are still in charge of the world. There is far more creativity and
craft in, say, crochet but because that is traditionally seen as a
“feminine” activity no one bends over backwards to praise it as art. But
graffiti, associated as it is with alienated young men, is treated with
absurd reverence by people who should know better."
Muslims make up about 7 percent of the population in France. The
majority of them live in the outer suburbs of Paris. Many French Muslims
struggle with how to define themselves - by nationality, by religion?
They say the strict separation of church and state there, known as
laicite, doesn't help. Commentator Hisham Aidi says you can hear that
frustration in the music that young French Muslims listen to. We asked
him to share his thoughts for our series on Muslims in Western Europe.
lyrics below
HISHAM
AIDI: This is Mafia K'1 Fry, a hip-hop group from Vitry-sur-Seine, just
south of Paris. And this song, "Misunderstood," is about not belonging
and not being accepted in France. I was born here and I'm still called
an immigrant, goes one lyric. It's also a song about colonial history,
ghetto-ization and the grim housing projects where these artists live.
French hip-hop artists have long had an uneasy relationship with law
enforcement. Rappers have been sued for verbally abusing the police,
accused of setting back integration and of using incendiary language.
French politicians cringe when hip-hop artists speak of ghettoes. That's
a loaded term, they say - an American label and an American problem.
(Foreign language spoken) raps about these ghettos and the underside of
the French dream.
AIDI: But French
Muslims are conflicted about what music best reflects their experience.
In fact, the debate about Muslim identity in France increasingly
revolves around music, with different political camps arguing that one
style is more conducive to integration than another. If hip-hop fans
claim their music rattles their very concepts of laicite and
integration, their critics argue that French Muslims need to move beyond
protest and that angry lyrics about alienation will only further
isolate the community. They call for something less confrontational.
"With San E representing Korea, veteran American MC/producer KRS-One, Finland’s award-winning rapper Redrama, Wales’ Mr Phormula, Japan’s Julian Nagano, India’s Adx, Italy’s Strike the Head, Bosnia’s Frenkie, Taiwan’s Mr. Skin, Singapore’s Pendekar, Portugal’s Valete, Indonesia’s Yacko, Bangladesh’s SadmAnn, and Egypt’s Deeb also are featured in the stacked lineup.
...
The official music video will be released on March 3rd and proceeds of the track will go to fund children’s education via UNICEF."
