VIDEO: Big Sean Takes on Police Brutality and Violence in New Video

By Sameer Rao Jun 19, 2015

Coming right on Juneteenth and two days after the massacre in Charleston, Detroit-bred rapper Big Sean just released a powerful new video for his latest single "One Man Can Change The World", featuring Kanye West and John Legend. Shot in black and white, the video features the MC spitting his verses from a preacher’s pulpit interspersed with images of a child encountering violence in his neighborhood (particularly in the form of riot police) and mourners gathering for a funeral in a church. The imagery takes on poignant meaning in the wake of the Charleston shooting, and the songs lyrics—inspired by the rapper’s grandmother, who was one of the first black female captains in World War II and a respected police officer in Detroit—invoke the anxieties and musings of people trying to move on after having their world shaken to the core 

The piano ballad song is the fourth single off of Sean’s latest album "Dark Sky Paradise", which was released this winter on Kanye West’s GOOD Music and Def Jam. The critically-acclaimed album is West’s first to reach number one on the Billboard charts. 

Click above to see the moving video. 

(H/t Billboard)