
Warzone is a new American hip hop song released by the rapper Clifford Joseph Harris Jr. also known as “T.I.”. Warzone is a song about police brutality, released in lieu of the many incidents going on in the world about police violence. In the music video for this song, T.I. casts white actors to be the main characters and African American as cops. The casting of these people provides viewers with a picture of the recent happenings among African Americans and cops, from the opposite view point. In doing so, T.I. uses this visual illustration to intensify his lyrics. Although the lyrics are extremely deep and controversial, they are softened slightly by the distracting nature of his video. The video sets up many cases of repetition and thought-provoking scenes that allow one to sympathize with those going through cases of police brutality against themselves. In this music video, the sense of realism will overwhelm the viewer with grief and sadness and truly grasp the viewers’ emotions. It allows one to be put in the place of others and feel how those going through police brutality cases feel.

The first way that T.I. connects to those viewing the video are through his lyrics. He uses many different examples of expression and repetitive sayings to emphasize the cases of police brutality around America. The first expression T.I. uses to describe what is going on in the world is “Warzone”. This is the name of the song, but it is also a perfect description of what is going on in the world. The dictionary definition of a warzone is “a region in which a war is being fought”. This is an accurate depiction of the world today. There are sides that say there is nothing wrong with police and who completely look away from the police brutality going on. Then, there are those who experience the police brutality and go through it personally. These two sides war over this issue and there have been riots that have been violent because of it. T.I.’s use of the word, Warzone, is very clever and allows the viewer to have an image of what this world is going through. When there is a warzone inside of a country, big or small, there is change needed in that area. T.I. is beckoning for change by using this expression as his title and throughout the song. The association of his lyrics with the images in the video is slightly puzzling at first. As the images are swapped from their real life images, white cops are replaced by African American cops and suspects are swapped as well. This song is brilliant in the sense of linguistic power. T.I. is providing an illusion with his images that intensify the words of his song. He continuously mentions the recent Black Lives Matter protests in unique ways. He uses the phrase “hands up, can’t breathe,” to compare with the rhetoric that the Black Lives Matter protestors have been using, “hands up, don’t shoot.” He continues to provide an anti-Blue Lives Matter and pro-Black Lives Matter viewpoint. In the video, he is seen sitting atop a police car similar to the powerful Charlotte protest picture from earlier this year. Is this a music video from a concerned rapper or a music video from some organization leader’s agenda? We most likely will never know, but the tone of this video is contagious and definitely powerful enough to sway some viewers, empowering groups and threatening others. 

The rapper also uses “I cannot breathe” throughout the song. It is a part of the chorus. The chorus goes, “…. Hands up, can't breathe, hands up, can't breathe, Hands up, can't breathe, Hands up, can't you see we livin' in a war zone?” ("T.I." - War Zone Lyrics). The “I cannot breathe” saying came from Eric Garner, an African American outside a convenient store, who was being choked to death by a white policeman. It has become a very popular saying when it comes to opposing police brutality. By using repetition of this saying, T.I. is constantly reminding the viewer and listener to not only enjoy the beat, lyrics, and cool video, but to remember that this video is to shed light on the darkness that is police brutality and to make people aware of it. 

The rapper’s beautiful use of repetition is not the only thing that helps emphasize his message. T.I. uses beautiful lyrics that convey a major message about the dysfunction of the American system. T.I. says in his second verse, “Pardon me, somebody tell me what happened to Alton Sterling, killed Philando right in front of the girl, And the world saw, And was like hell naw!”( "T.I." - War Zone Lyrics). In a matter of four lines, T.I. accurately describes the murder of two African American men and the feelings of the world when they saw Philando’s video that was released by his girlfriend. He later compares this world to modern day slavery and states that the Emancipation Proclamation is just a piece of paper. With such comparison, T.I. provides a questioning look at the U.S. government, not police. With Harris’s clear opinion of the constitution as a dead document, the video can be seen as not only anti-police, but also as anti-American. The advocates that empower hostility towards police is not changing, so clearly the hatred is going to continue. Harris provides a view that should be seen from both sides as it may be a way to gain common ground. His statements in the video really make the viewer/listener think about how true the lyrics are. They begin a complete train of thought and it is not hard to come up with the conclusion that African American’s are still treated like slaves in some instances. If the Government is treating the Emancipation Proclamation like a piece of paper with no meaning, then there is really no point in having it around. Word without action is dead. 

A final way the rapper Clifford Harris was able to get his message across was by the actors he casted in his music video. He is known to have predominantly African American actors in his music videos, but for this one, he switched things up. He depicts the murders of Eric Garner, Philando Castle, and Tamir Rice with white victims and black cops. At the very beginning of the video, it shows an innocent white boy giving his mom a hug goodbye before he goes out to play in the park. He strolls along to the park and pulls out a fake gun (it has the orange tip clearly) and pretends to shoot it in the woods. Momentarily, two African American cops appear and without hesitation, one of them shoots the innocent boy. This strikes a chord in the viewer’s heart. From the video, it becomes easy to get sympathetic with those going through police brutality cases. He proceeds to show a “white” Eric Garner, doing nothing, but hanging outside of a store and African American cops tackle him for no reason and choke him to death. This white victim/African American cop storyline continues for the rest of the video. Later on, there is a white lady who is forced to sit in the back of the bus because no African Americans want her to sit next to them. 

In conclusion, the main point of this video and song is to not just emphasize the “Black Lives Matter” campaign, but it is to emphasize the “All Lives Matter” campaign. It was formulated together to call for change because that is what America needs right now and cannot continue without. T.I. is not the only celebrity coming out producing different songs and actions to shed a light on police brutality in America. 
