Beyonce and Jay Z voiced their sympathy and strong condemnation of the recent killings of two black American policemen, Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, as one of the police officers killed in this week's Dallas shootout.
On Thursday, the rapper and music mogul released the single on Tidal, 'Spiritual' which contains lyrics expressing his anger and frustration about police brutality.
"Yeah, I am not poison, no I am not poison / Just a boy from the hood that / Got my hands in the air / In despair, don't shoot / I just wanna do good, ah," Jay Z repeated several times in the song's chorus.
In the lyrics, Jay Z's helplessness to control the situation has also become apparent and all he has is a 'hurricane of emotions.'
"I'm smack dab/ In a hurricane of emotions/ Can't even raise my little daughter, my little Carter/ We call her Blue 'cause it's sad that/ How can I be a dad that, I never had that/ Shattered in a million pieces, where the glass at/ I need a drink, shrink or something/ I need an angelic voice to sing something/ Bless my soul, extend your arms, I'm cold/ Hold me for a half-hour 'til I'm whole
The rapper, however, noted, that Spiritual has been conceptualized in 2014 before a previous shooting of a Black person, Michael Brown in Ferguson--one of the events that perpetrated the formation of Black Lives Matter movement later on.
"I'm hurt that I knew his death wouldn't be the last. I'm saddened and disappointed in THIS America - we should be further along. WE ARE NOT," the rapper wrote in a separate note.
Jay Z's Spiritual is available in Tidal for both subscribers and nonsubscribers. A screenshot of his note containing a quote of the the social reformer Frederick Douglass has been made available online.
In a separate note posted in Beyonce's website, Bey announced her stand on the recent Dallas shootout further urging fans and followers to do concrete actions towards the matter by getting in touch with their politician or legislator and to be engaged in protests calling for justice for the deaths of Castile and Sterling.
"We don't need sympathy. We need everyone to respect our lives ... These robberies of lives make us feel helpless and hopeless but we have to believe that we are fighting for the rights of the next generation. This is a fight for anyone who feels marginalised, who is struggling for freedom and human rights ... The war on people of colour and all minorities needs to be over."
In Bey's Glasglow concert on Thursday, the songstress also took a 'minute of silence' flashing on the screen the names of the casualties involved in police violence.
Meanwhile, Canadian rapper, Drake also took a stand on Instagram about the recent police violence stressing the tension between colored communities in the US. He included a sad note saying how such events can just be reduced into a hashtag in social media.
" No one begins their life as a hashtag. Yet the trend of being reduced to one continues," he said.
