On Friday August 15, Dreamville rapper J.Cole released "Be Free", a tribute to Ferguson, MO shooting victim Michael Brown. Within 2 days he was headed to Ferguson to speak with protestors and activist.
“That coulda been me, easily. It could have been my best friend,” he wrote in a blog post. “I’m tired of being desensitized to the murder of black men. I don’t give a f–k if it’s by police or peers. This s–t is not normal.”
The shooting has sparked widespread discussion over police authority and racial profiling as well as protests around the country, including rallies in Detroit, Nashville, New York and Chicago, among other places. Cole recorded the piano ballad, with lyrics like "All we wanna do is break the chains off/ All we wanna do is be free" – and samples of a news report about the police shooting – after identifying with Brown' story.
