See, it's not about violence, or no gang-bangin', or none of that shit. It's about self-protection, you know, self determination. I mean, I got the right to stay alive by any means necessary. We out here every day not knowin' who may mean us harm, and it's not like the police is gonna protect us. I mean, shit, they'd rather pull us over, break in our homes, beat us down, shoot us in cold blood— on camera, or in public or in private. Shit, they probably get away with that shit, and the city got they back. So I guess, like, we just got our own.

You could certainly extract a pertinent message from Jarv Dee's new single, "Guns Around," but Jarv mainly does it for you in the monologue (above). Still, the song and the accompanying video form the real-life-meets-art statement that gives the message its weight. The semi-satirical saturation of household firearms (on the couch, in the fridge), parodies the arsenal stock-piling, second amendment-clutching sect, and generally warns evildoers (of all types) simultaneously.

Jarv and director Eric Miller have captured the mounting tension in current American culture quite poignantly, but beyond that, it's an extremely dope rap track, which by the way, is off of Jarv's long-awaited album Moor Bible: Book of Jarv. Local producer Raised Byy Wolves brought some heat here (pun intended) as usual, and Jarv's Moor Gang bro Cam the Mac tacks on a great verse. In music and message, it's some heavy stuff.