Jay Z announced his upcoming mini series, “Kalief Browder”, with Spike TV at a press conference earlier today.  The new show sheds light on the injustices within our justice system through the story of 16 year old Kalief Browder.  While he was answering questions about the new series reporters also asked the hip-hop mogul about his thoughts on how to combat the issue of police brutality that’s facing this country right now.  

The East Coast rapper has been very vocal lately about issues such as the war on drugs, mass incarceration, and racial inequality so it makes sense that he would have a stance about this subject.  Jay Z’s response was simply that “compassion” will be the key to ending police brutality.

Jay Z professed, “Judgment is the enemy of compassion. When you are able to identify that…we’re all not perfect, we may make mistakes. All of us, every single one of us. When you have compassion for what someone’s going through and their plight, my personal belief, having the camera on someone creates more distrust. When we have an exchange and it has to be recorded, something’s wrong there, something’s broken. A camera can’t fix a relationship between a person that’s hired to protect and serve a society. There has to be a relationship. There has to be respect on both sides”.

Beyond this statement, Jay Z has used his hip-hop platform to aid in making political changes multiple times.  The Brooklyn rapper dropped his track, “Spiritual”, a few months ago which mourned the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.  Jay Z and Beyonce, as well as their streaming service Tidal, have donated millions to the Black Lives Matter movement.  His upcoming series will hopefully spark even more conversation about these issues.

In the meantime, listen to “Spiritual” below to spread Jay Z’s compassionate message.

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