Following the tragic deaths of Eric Garner in New York City and Mike Brown in Ferguson and the recent verdicts to not indict the police who killed them, Alicia Keys has penned a song called "We Gotta Pray." The singer, who is pregnant with her second child and is due later this month, asks for peace, unity, and love during this trying time in American history.
She posted the video to her YouTube page, showing images of people praying which words such as "humanity," "strong" and "we are hopeful" flash across the screen. There are also images from Ferguson shown alongside people holding signs that read "Black lives matter #mikebrown" and "Ferguson with love from Palestine" as well as quotes from peacemakers and leaders including Martin Luther King, Jr. -- "Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him" - and Gandhi -"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."
"We gotta pray, pray for the world tonight," Keys sings. "Fire in the air, what the hell going on/ Sirens everywhere singing that street song/ Violence everywhere barely holding on/ What the hell going on/ Do you know who you are/ Do you know who we are?"
As Rap-Up points out, Keys celebrated the 11th anniversary of her sophomore album The Diary of Alicia Keys this week by re-releasing the Kanye West remix to "If I Ain't Got You."
Keys isn't the only artist to respond with song following the Brown and Garner incidents. Tink, De La Soul, G-Unit, J. Cole, T.I. & Skyler Grey, The Game, Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Diddy, Fabolous, Wale & DJ Khaled, Common, Lil Herb & Chance the Rapper, and more have penned tracks inspired by these tragedies.
Listen to "We Gotta Pray" below, and let us know what you think in the comments section!
