Rappers’ Response to Riots Finally Out

There was a lot of urgency in the recording of the song “You Can Get the Fist,” a rap response to the L.A. riots completed just one week after the April disturbances. The project, teaming Ice Cube, Yo-Yo, Cypress Hill and other hard-hitting rappers, was mentioned prominently in post-riot news coverage, and was featured on MTV News.

Six months have passed, and the song is only now being released.

What took so long? Lisa Cortez, the Mercury Records executive who brought the project to the company, says that one major delay was getting clearance to use news footage for the video to accompany the single.

But even with the song--which benefits the Brotherhood Crusade--coming out, there’s very little sense of urgency or fanfare. “Fist” is being released this week, but the average pop fan would hardly know it. There are no posters or magazine ads or caps or T-shirts promoting the release.

One source close to the project said that Mercury is playing the release very low-key, fearing repercussions to the lyrics, which in places support the looting and rioting.

Here are lines from King-Tee’s opening verses:

Well, so don’t be skeezin on my race

I’m black and I’m proud to be lootin’ in your face.

And Compton’s Most Wanted raps:

I guess it’s time for brothers to turn a page and

Let out some ragin’

Bang a Caucasian.

But Cortez says there’s no concern about the lyrics.

“These rappers came to us as field reporters, giving voice to the people who are normally not heard,” she says. “We as a company don’t advocate violence, and his record doesn’t call for it. It calls for dialogue.”

So why not promote it with a visible campaign?

“The campaign is directed at the community that the record is a product of,” she says, claiming that advance orders in urban markets are already high. “It’s a street campaign. There are some ads, but the biggest focus is radio. . . . And all the money that would go to promotion, I want to give to the Brotherhood Crusade.”