In honor of Juneteenth, Anderson .Paak lends his voice to the revolution with the song and video for “Lockdown.”
On the powerful anthem, the soul innovator teams up with Jay Rock, Andra Day, Syd, SiR, Dumbfoundead, and Dominic Fike to protest the injustice of systematic racism and police violence.
“You should’ve been downtown / The people are rising / We thought it was a lockdown / They opened the fire,” raps .Paak.
Along with the song, he has dropped a visual directed by Dave Meyers, which finds .Paak and friends in the wake of what appears to be a violent confrontation with cops. .Paak raps with a bloody wound on his head, while Jay Rock delivers what .Paak calls the “verse of the year.”
At the end, .Paak sheds tears while embracing his young son. The names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and other Black Americans killed by police and vigilante murder appear on screen followed by a hopeful message: “The people are rising.”
Taking to Instagram, .Paak thanked everyone for the support, while vowing to continue the fight for change. “I’m overwhelmed by the love this piece has received. We Ain’t gota stop cause they tell us to. People keep rising,” he said.
