ICYMI: Jay Z Tackles Police Brutality With “spiritual”

In case you missed it, Jay Z released a new track titled “spiritual” in the wakes of last week’s shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile who were murdered by police officers who claimed both men were armed at the time they were killed.. On the track, which follows the momentum of DJ Khaled’s controversial “I Got The Keys” video, HOV asserts his spirituality in dealing with issues of self-worth facing young Black men in America. “Yeah, I am not poison, no I am not poison / just a boy from the hood that / Got my hands in the air / In despair don’t shoot,” he spits on the hook. While repeatedly claiming “I am not poison,” he seeks to find strength while reflecting on wounds that never healed and the pressures of being a father while never knowing his own. “Can’t even raise my little daughter, my little Carter / We call her Blue ’cause it’s sad that, how could I be a dad that I never had that / Shattered in a million pieces, where the glass at,” he continues.

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The track was Jay Z’s first new material as a lead artist since 2013’s Magna Carta…Holy Grail. In a statement released with the single, which includes a quote from 19th-century African-American social reformer Frederick Douglass, Jay Z claimed that he had made the track a while ago and never got to finish it. “I made this song awhile ago, I never got to finish it,” said Hov. “Punch (TDE) told me I should drop it when Mike Brown died, sadly I told him, ‘this issue will always be relevant.’ I’m hurt that I knew his death wouldn’t be the last.” He added, “I’m saddened and disappointed in THIS America – we should be further along. WE ARE NOT.” Check out Jay Z’s “spiritual” and sound off in the comment box below!