Parental Advisory: Explicit Content

They told me I shouldn’t listen to them because they were violent criminals. They told me I shouldn’t glamorize them because they weren’t role models for me. They told me I shouldn’t copy them because their words incited violence.

They told me I should be afraid of them because they said: “Fuck the Police!”

They didn’t tell me they were poets and prophets and the voice of the streets. They didn’t tell me they were fathers and sons and actual human beings. They didn’t tell me they were warning us of police brutality and a system that leaves young black men crying, “I can’t breathe!”

They slapped a black and white label on every album they’d produce; try to keep those lyrics out of the hands of kids like me.

Tonight’s Super Bowl halftime show is a triumph for Hip Hop, for Compton, for Inglewood and for the black community. It’s not a victory for the NFL because of how long it took to get here.

But as a former suburban white kid—raising an urban one—it’s finally time to rip the label off so we can stop averting our eyes. It’s time to listen to Kaepernick, and Pac and Cube and Dre.

It’s time to finally see.