Video: The Game: "911 Is a Joke"
A hail of 50 police bullets killed Sean Bell on his wedding day. Last month's verdict acquitting the three New York City detectives charged with his death ran 1,164 words. According to The New York Times, only about 150 people marched in Harlem to protest the decision. Times columnist Frank Rich suggested over the weekend that the muted response to the verdict shows how far America has come in bridging the racial divide, and I certainly hope that's true. Rappers, however, have not been quiet about their outrage, and part of me wonders if the lack of old-fashioned violent outbursts is-- like the lack of organized anti-war protests or decent protest music compared to the Vietnam War era-- a symptom of a widespread feeling of powerlessness when it comes to making real change. "Why bother? It's gonna hurt me." By this logic, the surge of support over the last several months for presidential hopeful Barack Obama's candidacy is the exception, not the rule.
The Game isn't going to change the world with his Bell tribute, "911 Is a Joke", which originally showed up on the internet with the subtitle "Cop Killa" and is expected to appear on the West Coast rapper's forthcoming L.A.X. There's still a visceral power in hearing the usually boastful, always wildly name-checking Game offer up concentrated political rage over back-to-basics beats, gunshots, keyboards, and a foreboding bassline: "Payback's a bitch for that Rodney King shit." With guests Clyde Carson and the CMC, Game isn't covering Public Enemy or Ice-T on this song, but he gets points for attempting to revive their righteous fury with such intensity. Even if the video's scenes of rappers in whiteface skulking about in the night grow tired before the song's over. And even if Game still sounds more interested in likening himself to such rap royalty as NWA and 8Ball & MJG than in starting a revolution. Which nobody would televise, anyway.
[L.A.X. is due 07/08/08 on Interscope]