Mistah F.A.B. will not stand idly by as the list of unarmed African-American victims of police violence grows ever longer. With the paranoid-yet-hopeful “6 Shots,” produced by The Mekanix, Mistah F.A.B. explains the ills affecting the American criminal justice system and decries the racism that plagues all aspects of society. Though much of the song comes from a place of anger, and Mistah F.A.B. directs much of his anger towards police officers, the final verse ends with a plea for action from African-Americans, especially black police officers: “What got me hot is there ain’t no black cops speakin’ out/coulda been your son, coulda been your daughter out there bleedin’ out/tell me what good is having arms if you ain’t reachin’ out/tell me what good is having a tongue if you ain’t speakin’ out/you see there’s power in the people they don’t speak about/you see the power in the people is what I speak about.” The track ends with a clip from a speech by Nakia Jones, an African-American officer who did speak out, decrying officers for standing by colleagues guilty of murder.
States Mistah F.A.B:
“The police put the most radical and reckless officers in the most dangerous neighborhoods. If you’re afraid, if you’re intimidated of black people, why are you patrolling those neighborhoods to begin with? Police forces need to invest more in prevention. And they need to be held accountable for their actions as well. We have to stop the ‘bro-code’ of police and courts standing in solidarity with each other just because they wear the same badge. What makes you any different than someone who murdered unjustly if you stand in solidarity with that person?
“As civilians, we need to teach our ourselves our rights and how to react in escalating situations with the police. We’ve got to stand in solidarity with each other by participating in community work, philtanthropy, and we’ve gotta get on the front lines. We can’t jump into a healing process right away because to ask ‘How can we heal?’ is to be forgiving. Although we have fought for the dignities and rights through the Civil Rights Movement, how much farther have we come since we’ve been dragged to this country?”
