5 Hip-Hop Artists Joining Protests After Police Kill Alton Sterling and Philando Castile

Police brutality is nothing new in America but thanks to the invention and expansion of social media, more and more cases of police brutality, especially against Black people in this country, are being documented, shared and going viral. In less than a week, the deaths of Alton Sterling of Baton Rouge and Philando Castile of Minnesota by police have once again sparked outrage and pushed the Black Lives Matter movement into the forefront of media.

On July 5, Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old father of five, was shot six times by two white police officers in Baton Rouge despite the fact he had no visible weapon on him and police had him pinned to the ground. The very next day, Philando Castile was fatally shot in St. Anthony, Minn. by a police officer during a traffic stop. Castile was reaching for his wallet to show his identification when the cop fired his gun. In both cases, the shootings were filmed and show the officers using unnecessary force against the Black men, which have many people deeming the actions unnecessary and racially-motivated.

While plenty of rappers and celebrities reacted through social media and others have released songs about the topic, there were a few who took it the next level and channeled their pain and rage into action. A day after the two men died, West Coast rappers The Game and Snoop Dogg joined forces to organize a march on the LAPD headquarters. In Atlanta over the weekend, T.I. took part in a protest so big that the protestors shut down an expressway entrance. And August Alsina and Ace Hood both did their part by participating in marches in Baton Rouge and Miami, respectively.

Check out which hip-hop artists are marching for the Black Lives Matter movement so far in 2016 in the gallery above.