New Music from JB!! aka Dirty Moses

Social unrest will push people into action, and they often turn to the tools of their trade. For John Brown, that tool is music.

Best known as JB!! aka Dirty Moses, Brown composed his latest track in less than a day. “Die Tonight” is an anthem for today’s protestors against the death of George Floyd at the hands of four Minneapolis police officers. And it’s chilling.

JB!! opens with Malcolm X as he shares his “Ballot or the Bullet” speech. Though he spoke those words more than 50 years ago, they describe today’s world.

“The government has failed us; you can’t deny that. Anytime you live in the twentieth century, 1964, and you walkin’ around here singing “We Shall Overcome,” the government has failed us. … Today it’s time to stop singing and start swinging. You can’t sing up on freedom, but you can swing up on some freedom.”

JB!! shared the track with me just before Albany’s South Pearl Street was set ablaze amidst a riot that ignited in the city’s South End. The violence was a stark contrast to the peaceful demonstration exhibited hours before around Washington Park. Nonetheless, today’s political and social climate is volatile and it only needed a spark. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy estimated damages associated with the riot at $1 million the other day. The Capital City joined several others across the country with similar unrest, including New York City, Minneapolis, Kansas City and more.

JB!! teams up with fellow area emcee Masai on a single that paints what it means to be Black in today’s America. He evokes the names of Ahmaud Arbery, Dion Johnson and Colin Kaepernick; the former shot and killed while jogging and driving, respectively, while the latter was heavily criticized for kneeling during the national anthem as a member of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.

“There’s too much pain in the hood to heal, we can’t deal, we can’t breathe, we can’t drive, we can’t kneel,” he sings. “So you leave us no choices, burn the city down, since you took away our voices.”

Kaepernick had inspired other professional athletes to use their platform as a means of silent protest against police violence directed towards black people. Political opponents, including President Donald Trump, said the now-former quarterback was disrespecting military veterans instead. In recent days, law enforcement officers and National Guardsmen assigned to police America’s cities have shown acts of solidarity by kneeling before protestors, including Schenectady Police Chief Eric Clifford.

In this track, JB!! doesn’t call out for violence. The song is a history lesson that reaches back from Malcolm X to old school rapper Ice-T. The West Coast rapper has a storied history of controversy related to the topic of police and race relations. In 1991, he produced the song “Cop Killer” for his metal band Body Count. It drew the ire of law enforcement agencies across the country. Especially in life of the Los Angeles riots soon afterward.  Ice-T told The Telegraph as recently as March that he doesn’t “hate cops, I hate racists.”

You can stream the single at Soundcloud.