Montreal rapper, producer, and poet Jonathan Emile shares his latest single, "Heaven Help Dem," featuring Kendrick Lamar, a tribute to victims of police brutality. The conscious track keys in on the deaths of unarmed black males at the hands of the police, such as Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and more, while Emile offers up a solid verse to start the song where he raps about the need for justice from police brutality and murders.
On Kendrick's powerful verse, he preaches the importance of young black life but also points out the struggles in the world. Kendrick raps, "They say the average black man only live til 25, Pac died at 25, how many kids you know dead at 20? 5? Now that's life I know, 10 that's crumbling in coffins, dead as a doorknob, fresh out of high school and couldn't find no job, went straight to the grave, the Grim Reaper in love with such a tender age."
The release of this song comes on the heels of Kendrick's recent comments on Ferguson to Billboard, where he condemned the killing of Brown, but also said, "When we don't have respect for ourselves, how do we expect them to respect us?" Kendrick has yet to elaborate on his comments that were made to the magazine last week. Stream the song above.
