Freestyling Across Time

The most important line in Lil Wayne’s “Mrs. Officer” comes when Wayne, speaking of a particularly – shall we say – aggressive police officer, declares: “She know I’m from the streets / And all she want me to do is fuck the police.” The line is humorous, and Wayne delivers it with his typically relaxed, half-drunk drawl. But this riff represents far more than a simple wisecrack. With this line, Wayne appropriates the hip hop phraseology of an earlier era, and does so in a way that completely inverts its original meaning. He is, to put it another way, participating in a hip hop freestyle across time.

NWA’s “Fuck the Police,” off the group’s 1988 mega-album “Straight Out of Compton,” verbally assails the Los Angeles police department. Inspired by an incident in which Dr. Dre and Easy-E were pulled over and, in their opinions, unduly harassed by police, “Fuck the Police” candidly advocates brutal acts of violence against cops. Ice Cube, after famously declaring that “police think they have the authority to kill a minority,” fantasizes about a “bloodbath of cops dying in LA.” MC Ren then claims that “[t]aking out a police [officer] would make my day.” Easi-E concludes with an equally provocative verse.

“Fuck the Police” immediately became a street anthem in the ghettos of L.A., hinting at the undercurrent anger that erupted during the Rodney King race riots of 1992. Government officials were so unsettled by the inflammatory nature of “Fuck the Police” that the FBI sent NWA a letter denouncing the song, and several radio stations were banned from playing it on-air. Over time, “Fuck the Police” has evolved into a worldwide anthem for oppressed minorities seeking liberation. In the late 90s, for instance, “Fuck the Police,” alongside Public Enemy’s "Fight the Power," was played in a continuous loop on B92, an anti-totalitarian radio station based in Belgrade.

In short, “Fuck the Police” is a song about violence, brutality, and, perhaps, revolution. Which is why Lil’ Wayne’s appropriation of this song’s refrain is so remarkable. Lil’ Wayne uses the phrase “Fuck the Police” not as an incitement to violence but instead as an invitation to sexual debauchery. The police have been transformed from a symbol of ethnic repression to an object of sexual desire and fulfillment. “Us vs. them” has been replaced with “me and her.”

All of the so-called “classical arts” are defined by internal conversations between the artists of different eras. Johannes Brahms grappled with the standard set by Beethoven, and many contemporary composers have laughed in both of their faces. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet has been reinterpreted and reconstructed in countless historical and geographical contexts – indeed, the original itself was constructed from various preexisting sources.

Certainly, hip hop’s internal conversation does not date back to the days of Beethoven or Shakespeare. But the conversation exists. Hip hop is not just “money, ho’s, and bitches,” as many scholars of more traditional arts would have us believe. Of course, there is some bad hip hop, just as there is bad painting and bad writing. But at its best, hip hop is an intelligent dialogue not just between the MC and the listener, but also between the MC and the history of the art.