As a result of the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd last month, streams for N.W.A.‘s 1988 hip-hop anthem F-k tha Police have nearly quadrupled in overall numbers.
The anti-racial profiling, anti-police brutality track saw a whopping 272 per cent increase in on-demand audio streams between May 27 and June 1, in comparison to the week before Floyd’s death, according to a report from Alpha Data.
On top of that, statistics obtained by Rolling Stone show that other protest songs, including Childish Gambino’s This Is America, Kendrick Lamar’s Alright and YG’s FDT, saw a sharp increase in numbers as well.
In only a two-day span (May 31-June 1), F–k tha Police amassed just over 765,000 streams — which is reportedly five times more than it received the previous Sunday and Monday combined.
The Ice Cube/MC Ren-written and performed track — which also features the late Eazy-E — came from N.W.A’s world-renowned debut album Straight Outta Compton.
F–k tha Police’s last resurgence occurred in 2015, a year after the killing of Michael Brown — an unarmed Black teenager — in Ferguson, Mo., according to the data.
Brown was shot to death by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, on Aug. 9, 2014. He was 18.
The killing triggered protests against systemic racism and police brutality all across the U.S.
Floyd, a Black man, was killed on May 25 after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for nine minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis.
An autopsy commissioned by Floyd’s family has since found that his death was caused by asphyxiation. The family’s autopsy differs from the official autopsy listed in the criminal complaint against the officer, which found that Floyd’s death was caused by cardiac arrest.
All four officers involved in Floyd’s death have been fired.
Derek Chauvin, the officer filmed kneeling on Floyd’s neck, was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter last week.
On Wednesday, it was announced that Chauvin is facing a new second-degree murder and the other three officers have been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.
— With files from Reuters
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