'Tis the season, y'allâtree lightings, schmaltz, crass commercialismâbut please excuse this program interruption. Please step lightly over the live bodies dying-in at your favorite retail outlet, protesting in the middle of your yuletide traditions, choking out big-box stores like the Darren Wilsonâsupporting Walmart. If you're planning on tweeting ignorant racist bullshit, make sure to keep your profile public so the online masses can mobilize to get your homely ass fired from your hosting job at TGI Friday's or whatever.
Would you give a fuck about tradition if you'd just watched your father asphyxiate on a sidewalk as the cops who choked the life from his frame stood around and stared at himâfor seven minutes? Would you give a fuck about holiday cheer if your man, who you were just walking down the stairs with, suddenly caught a bullet in the chest from a nervous rookie? If your brother got shot down like a dog in a Walmart aisle for holding a toy gunâor in a park for playing with one by himselfâwouldn't you want to shut this whole motherÂfucking thing down? Especially if the grand-jury process failed you over and over and over in quick succession? Wouldn't you put your body out in the street, out on the highway, to choke the beast choking you out? Maybe you've got a better idea (so go do that), or maybe you don't careâjust know that soon enough, you will. A change is gonna come. RIP, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, John Crawford, and Akai Gurley. And so, so many more.
In the light of the latestâno, not the latest, actuallyânon-indictment of a cop (blue) murdering an unarmed citizen (black), Staten Island hiphop band Rising Sun All Stars (who are Redman's official backing band) made a track called "I Can't Breathe." They're selling it on Bandcamp, promising to give all proceeds to Garner's family. They were actually friends with Eric, and they recorded the song "a few feet from the scene of [his] untimely death." Slaughterhouse's Long Beach rep Crooked I made a helluva song by the same name, which you can find online. Instead of his usual bruising bar-fest, there's a fatigue in his voice that's familiar to anybody who's been paying attention. "I think somebody want a race riot," Crooked says, "but hiphop isn't swayed by it/Too many black rappers selling out/You white rappers shouldn't stay quiet."
It feels like finally hiphop is really waking up and thinking about solutionsâA Tribe Called Quest OG Q-Tip, last seen out in the streets of NYC protesting, has been busy with his (and 9th Wonder's) Universal Zulu Nation chapter, bringing in big dogs like Nas, Big Boi, and Lil Wayne (who's apparently now looking to break the fuck out of Cash Money). Not to mention Joey Bada$$, Freddie Gibbs, and honorary member Jimmy Fallon. Tip promises "to really put a stronghold out there, so that we can be active and not just be angry. Not just be emotional but have a real thing there for change, a real vehicle, a real structure." Time to build. 
