Joe Budden Responds to Police Shootings With “Freedom” Freestyle

It's been a rough few days in America recently. Last week, two more names of police brutality victims went viral online. Two Black men, Louisiana's Alton Sterling and Minnesota's Philando Castile, were shot to death on the same day by officers (July 6). Sterling was shot six times while restrained on the ground by police officers for selling DVD's outside a store and Castile was shot by an officer for reaching for his identification during a routine traffic stop.

In the light of their deaths, rappers have been extremely vocal in expressing their heartache and outrage. There's been a slew of politically-charged songs in response to the deaths: Jay Z, Scarface, Z-Ro and Mistah FAB each made one, to name a few.

Now, Joe Budden adds his two cents on the matters plaguing the nation with the new freestyle over Beyonce's "Freedom" instrumental. Released today (July 12) on YouTube, Budden used old school imagery of the country's Civil Rights Movement and Black Panther Party to give life to his bars. Budden also starts the video by sampling a portion of Diamond Reynolds' Facebook live stream when she was reacting to Philando Castile's death.

"Land of the Free, Home of the brave? Nah/They can't let us be, we've grown from slaves/It's there if you wanna read I mean, it's all on the page/They say it's police, I just know when it's race/And now it's thrown in our face/Maybe I'm lost or its the fighter in me/Sandra Bland didn't come off as suicidal to me/Y'all play around thinking we're on safe ground/They killed Tamir Rice right and his rights, right on his playground," raps Budden, referencing other victims of police in recent memory.

"I was told there was once a world where slaves communicated with each other via music, and tho I wasn't present for that, the Hip-Hop I fell in love with always encouraged me to do the same (Thank you Public Enemy)" said Joe in a statement when dropping the song today. Listen to Joe's newest freestyle above.

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