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Music

Jay Z Rails Against Police Brutality on “Spiritual,” His First New Track in Three Years

“I’m saddened and disappointed in THIS America... we should be further along.”

Photo via Jay Z's Instagram

A few hours after Beyonce’s website was taken down and replaced by an open letter responding to the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, Jay Z has overriden Tidal's homepage and replaced it with “Spiritual.” It’s the first Jay Z track in three years and it’s a gut-wrenching, lyrically incisive track that confronts police brutality in the most honest terms.

The hooks remain the same throughout: “I am not poison" and “Don’t shoot, I just wanna do good.” From start to finish, it’s an eloquent and devastating piece of work. Listen to the track, via Tidal, below.

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Like Beyonce, Jay Z released a statement on the Tidal website to accompany the track:

I made this song a while ago, I never got to finish it.

Punch (TDE) told me I should drop it when Mike Brown died, sadly I told him, “this issue will always be relevant.” I’m hurt that I knew his death wouldn’t be the last……

I’m saddened and disappointed in THIS America - we should be further along.

WE ARE NOT.

I trust God and know everything that happens is for our greatest good, but man…. it’s tough right now.

Blessings to all the families that have lost loved ones to police brutality.

- j

“Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”

- Frederick Douglass

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