Local musicians, and the Phoenix Metro chapter of Black Lives Matter, are completely outraged over the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis resident and small-time rapper.
George Floyd, 46, died May 25 after Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck for nearly 10 minutes. Police responded to a report that stated Floyd had given a cashier an allegedly fake $20 bill at a neighborhood store.
Handcuffed and lying face-down on the ground, Floyd can be heard repeatedly telling the officer that he could not breathe before becoming unresponsive in a now-infamous video that has elicited widespread outrage.
“People just watching this man dying in broad daylight is absolutely ridiculous,” said downtown-based producer James Goode, also known as “Good E. Beats.”
“The fact that they had a 4-1 ratio, clearly had the situation handled and used excessive force to what I’m assuming was to prove a point is outrageous,” he said.
Protests have erupted across the nation demanding justice for the 46-year-old father of two, including a protest in downtown Phoenix on Thursday, which resulted in some vandalism and the arrests of eight demonstrators.
Tree Season Drummer Teddy Valenzuela is relatively active in the Black Lives Matter campaign and said he believes that having officers present often escalate tensions rather than diffuse them.
“I’ve been to Black Lives Matter peaceful marches and nothing violent was done by protestors but police still ended up using tear gas and pepper spray,” Valenzuela said. “It’s been going on for so long that I think most people are tired of peaceful protesting … people have figured that if anything is going to change, we have to make it so these protests can’t be ignored.”
Floyd rapped under the stage name Big Floyd and was part of a group called “Screwed Up Click,” a hip hop collective out of Houston, according to a report from Revolt TV.
Phoenix Metro Black Lives Matter released their own statement regarding the death of Floyd on their Facebook page.
“Racism is not an individual act,” the post read. “Racism = Prejudice + Power. Policing is a violent, sexist, anti-Black institution with impunity / systemic power.”
The organization has said they believe the common belief of a “few bad apples” in police departments is an understatement, and that “the whole tree is rotten.”
Local artists like rapper ‘King’ Emmitt Dupree have since paid tribute to Floyd with a freestyle rap he posted to his Instagram account on May 27.
Dupree wrote the song after viewing the video of Floyd’s death. He said he felt restless after first viewing it.
“My first reaction (to the video) was to keep scrolling,” Dupree said. “I didn’t necessarily want to see another video of a man’s death let alone another black male at the hands of police yet again, but I watched.”
Dupree said the only thing he wanted to do after watching the video was what he does best: Write a song about it. He hopes that it will challenge the conventional thinking of these cases.
“I want people to look at these cases a certain way,” Dupree said. “To question it all. Like, why are these videos dropping so often? And in this fashion? It’s not a conspiracy anymore when patterns continue and so on.”
Phoenix musician and educator Río Wiley also took to Twitter about the matter.
“How many more videos do we need to watch to conclude that racism is still hyper-prevalent and that the prejudiced continue to plague (people of color)?” Wiley said.
this is and has been real. this is and has been murder. how many more videos do we need to watch to conclude that racism is still hyper-prevalent, and that the prejudiced continue to plague POC?
initiating and enacting systemic change takes time, but there is power in numbers
— río wiley stinger (@riowiley) May 28, 2020
Local musicians expressed sadness at what they feel is an all too common trend.
“It’s like we keep seeing black people get murdered by police for no reason every day and nothing changes,” Valenzuela said.
Goode believes that the key to invoking change in our society is by changing our ideology of humanity.
“I feel that we all need to change humanity as a whole,” Goode said. “The problem lies where someone thinks that they’re better than someone else. No one is better than anyone else, we’re all equal.”
Others want more of a change in the mentality of the audiences during these times.
“Controlling your mentality is probably not an easy game being a cop, but when lives are on the line there aren’t any excuses,” Dupree said. “I feel they should be more picky on how we pick officers as certain things just need more time to be honed.”
“I’m calling on all teachers, professors, and administrators to look deeply into their educational philosophies and systems they serve to begin the process of identifying and uprooting any notion of inequity,” Wiley said. “Change begins in how we serve the underprivileged and uneducated.”
Most agree however that this event should serve as a turning point in American history, and one that may turn the page on racism and police brutality in the United States.
Chauvin, the officer who can be seen in the video with his knee on Floyd’s neck, was fired from the Minneapolis Police Department and has since been charged with murder and manslaughter.
The remaining officers at the scene, Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng, were also fired and charges are anticipated for them as well, according to the Hennepin County district attorney’s office which has jurisdiction over the case.
Contact the reporter at asgalla1@asu.edu.
