Jay-Z Launches Blistering Attack Against The Racist War On Drugs In This Animated Video
Watch Jay Z and Molly Crabapple's trenchant critique of the hypocritical and racist war on drugs. From Reagan to today's poor attempts at decriminalization.
Mr Beyoncé has kept something of a low profile lately. Well—he's back. *Insert trademark laugh*
And he's showing the world a side we don't often see. In his new video op-ed for the New York Times, animated by the trendy visual journalist Molly Crabapple, Jay Z eviscerates the "War on Drugs" by combining a couple decades of lefty talking points—Reaganomics, defunding schools and the end of social safety nets—with an intimate first person narrative about growing up in Brooklyn during the age of crack cocaine.
The video titled 'The War on Drugs Is an Epic Fail' is full of lush illustrations and clever animation. Jay's voice at this time in history sounds more like a Jay Pharoah impression of Jay Z than Jay Z but, if you can get past that, it's a great primer on the racist history of drug enforcement and how the hypocrisies of that paradigm are extending even into the recent wave of decriminalization.
Sometimes it takes an artist to present the hard truths in a way that will get noticed. Here's a to new paradigm and an end to the racist war on drugs.