Conway the Machine Rallies Behind George Floyd Protests in New Song “Front
Written by SOURCE on June 1, 2020
Griselda’s Conway the Machine has been hard at work finishing up his new album From King to a God, but as acts of police brutality and racial injustices have continued to unfold around the country, he felt the need to say something.
“Enough is enough!” he wrote on Instagram this weekend. “Fuck the police! We had enough of the police brutality of black people and systemic racism!!!”
Fed up with the senseless deaths of Amaud Abrey, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and others, Conway stepped in the studio and recorded a Beat Butcha-produced song called “Front Lines.”
“In the middle of the COVID pandemic, I’ve been quarantined finishing up FKTG,” Conway tells Complex. “The Amaud situation and Breonna situation and now George Floyd has brought me so much pain and anger because I’m a black man: a father, a brother, I have 2 sons. I wanted to give you the mindset from the protesters point of view, and I was able to paint that picture perfectly over this Beat Butcha production.”
After opening the second verse by calling out people who support 6ix9ine (“You so-called real niggas celebrating rats/Going on YouTube running up these niggas’ views”) Conway raps about the killing of George Floyd: “I just seen a video on the news I couldn’t believe/Another racist cop killed a nigga and get to leave/He screamin’ ‘I can’t breathe,’ cop ignoring all his pleas/Hands in his pocket, leaning on his neck with his knees.”
As the verse progresses, Conway doubles down, rapping: “We ain’t taking no more, we ain’t just pressing record/Can’t watch you kill my brother, you gon’ have to kill us all/Just ’cause he from the ghetto, that don’t mean he sellin’ crack/He driving home from work, you pull him over ’cause he black.”
Complex is happy to premiere “Front Lines,” which you can hear below.
