This is one of the most powerful music videos I’ve seen in a long time. In the visuals for “Petey Greene,” Washington rapper Uptown XO combines politically-charged hip hop with images of the Teachers’ Strike in Chicago, American Republican candidate Mitt Romney (who he has harsh words for) and institutionalized racism as dramatized in HBO series The Wire.
The track, which comes from the rapper’s upcoming project The Color Grey, opens and closes with footage of the black television presenter Petey Greene, who comprehensively exposed the social problems and racism of America in the ’70s and ’80s.
Driven as it is by a fantastic sample of Motown classic “Love Don’t Live Here Anymore” and those famous lyrics used by Kanye West – “The schools closed, the prisons open… we ain’t got shit to lose, motherfucker we rollin” – you can’t look away. The evils of racism, poverty and drugs are all inextricably linked in America, and here they’re put on record. Watch the process below:
