T.I. flips the script in his powerful new video “Warzone” (which exclusively premiered on TIDAL a few weeks ago), one that tackles racism and police brutality from another angle.
In the clip, the killings of Tamir Rice, Philando Castile and Eric Gardner are reenacted with white actors in the roles as the three victims and black actors as the police perpetrators to elicit empathy from the “all lives matter” sayers.
“We wanted to give ‘the other side’ ― and when I say the ‘other side’ I don’t mean police, I don’t mean white people, I mean people who think we’re just overreacting, the ‘All Lives Matter’ people,” he said in a recent interview about the video’s concept.
He continued, “The first thing that [director Laurel Richardson and I] wanted to do was make sure that it was powerful enough to create the type of dialogue necessary to inspire some form of change,” the rapper said in an interview with People. “We just kind of tossed it around and we came up with re-enacting the events and then he came up with the idea of the role reversals.”
The video ends with a list of names killed by law enforcement and a sound clip from anti-racism activist Jane Elliott.
“Warzone” will be featured on T.I.’s forthcoming mixtape, Us or Else, out September 23rd.
Watch the powerful clip below:
