The various deaths of unarmed Black men at the hands of police, is a battle that stings the Black community deeply. It’s a stigma that is causing a new wave of rebellion and protest. The unjustified acts led to the Black Lives Matter movement and many artists and athletes to use their platform to speak out against it.
And though every case hits a nerve, there was one in particular that struck an intense cord with North Carolina rapper, Mark Steele. That being the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott.
“Keith Lamont Scott was murdered by police, on the very next block behind where I currently live in Charlotte, NC,” Steele said in a release sent to JET. “I’m born and raised in Durham, NC (Bull City) so being that close to murder isn’t unusual to me at all. We made “Turn Around” in the spring of 2015 at Patchwerk studios in Atlanta, GA because we were inspired by the chaos around us.”
“Turn Around”, the latest visual released from Steele’s forthcoming album Almost Time (Oct.28), centers on the adversity the Black community faces on a daily basis. From racial profiling to brutality, hustling on the block and inequality.
“[It] seems like every time we turn on the TV there was another killing and then another protest turned violent. All that did was trigger memories of my teenage years living in Durham, and dealing with the grief of too many of my actual friends being killed,” Steele expresses. “Seemed like every time I turned around one of my classmates didn’t make it back to school on Monday. It makes me so angry to hear about another black man being killed by a cop, but instead of going out to protest or riot with the rest of the people in Charlotte; I’d rather express my frustrations through art.”
Take a listen to the track below. *NSFW*
