Cyrus Langhorne
Top Dawg Entertainment’s Kendrick Lamar and Frank Ocean have made Christmas come a bit earlier than expected this year. The duo have teamed up on the newly released N*E*R*D “Don’t Don’t Do It!” single.
The new fire premiered this week courtesy of music personality Zane Lowe‘s popular Beats 1 show.
“Don’t Don’t Do It!” appears on the first new N*E*R*D album in seven years, this month’s NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES. Speaking with Lowe Wednesday, just days before the album’s official release, Pharrell said the song first started coming together while he was watching a news report about the late Keith Lamont Scott. (Complex)
N*E*R*D frontman Pharrell Williams has since explained the song’s origins come from police brutality victim Keith Lamont Scott.
“I was watching the news. This gentleman by the name of Keith Scott was waiting for his child to get off the school bus. The authorities were looking for someone. For some reason they encountered each other. His wife is standing, trying to get him, she’s filming the entire thing on her camera phone. She knows, you can tell in her voice she sees what’s going to happen and she’s saying, ‘Don’t do it. Don’t don’t do it. Don’t do it, Keith. Don’t, don’t do it.’ And of course you know how that turned out. He was killed. When you do what the authorities ask you to do, I wonder before you die if your conscience asks you or suggests to you ‘Don’t do it, don’t do it.’ And that’s where the song came from. Who better to enlist to help communication that emotion than Kendrick Lamar?” (Beats 1)
https://twitter.com/Beats1/status/940656225187921921
Last year, the officer responsible for taking Scott’s life did not have charges filed against him.
A two-month investigation determined that Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Officer Brentley Vinson was justified in shooting Keith Lamont Scott in an apartment complex parking lot. Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray said he didn’t reach the conclusions alone; a total of 15 prosecutors unanimously agreed with the decision. The killing led to heated protests and divided the city of Charlotte. Compared to previous demonstrations over Scott’s death, a smaller crowd turned out Wednesday night, about 100 people. At least four people were arrested as police tried to corral protesters off the streets, three for obstructing traffic. (CNN)
