This a cool, slightly surprising collaboration I stumbled upon last night. Toddla T and Skream, a couple of youngbloods outta the UK, cranked out a smooth and bass-heavy riddim (good speakers, please) and managed to get the legendary singjay Wayne Marshall to speak his mind on it. Riding the bassline and using the beat as his pulpit, Marshall soulfully denounces the senseless violence, corrupt police and crooked politicians that have taken over his native Jamaica to the point that they have “become the norm.” It’s a powerful track.

What strikes me most is that the lyrics could apply just as easily to the US, considering how police brutality and impunity have increasingly become the norm throughout the country in our post-9/11 world. And with all the controversy surrounding the Troy Davis execution recently, the lyrics couldn’t reflect the current state of things in the US any clearer. “Who is to be trusted, the witness or the sarge?” I think anybody who follows the news, and most people who have heard about the Davis case are probably asking themselves the same thing.

Ironically, the album that the single is from, Watch Me Dance, came out while the London riots were going on a few weeks back, which makes the lyrics poignant on so many other levels.