Over the last year, plenty of hip hop artists have penned songs about the racial conflicts continuing to plague the United States. Police brutality, rampant racism, and a revival in victimizing African Americans has resulted in a changed political landscape the past year. What was perhaps reignited by Trayvon Martin three years has been significantly amplified by very public displays of brutality toward innocent citizens. (Take the death of Eric Garner last year and the entire ‘I Can’t Breathe’ movement.) The songs these artists have been writing have been met with mixed success. Fortunately, Trey Texas, of Texas, really hits the nail on the head with ‘Don’t Judge Me!’
Trey Texas’ music video for the song is especially good. He brings together both black and white for a poignant exhibition of humility and humanity. “Don’t judge me for the color of my skin,” guest vocalist Thyra Sanders croons in the most soulful voice I’ve heard in awhile. Man, let me take a moment to rave about Sanders. His brief, but immensely important contribution to this song is the vocal highlight: he owns his lines and his voice is stellar.
Now, let’s talk about Texas. His lyricism is incredible. He nails our social issues so very well, harnessing an aura of love and compassion around a very important message: we need some sort of revolution to revitalize these broken communities and fix our society and the way we’re treating black Americans. (Or any minority, for that matter.) The song is a stark reminder of our country’s racist side – it’s still alive and well and that’s nothing short of a tragedy. It’s also a reminder of the good people on the opposite side of that aisle. I’ll make a drastic, but apt comparison. What Trey Texas is doing with his music is what Chuck D and Public Enemy did in the late 80s.
This is a modern ‘Fight the Power,’ questioning the establishment and acknowledging a serious problem that’s always pushed under the rug. ‘Don’t Judge Me!’ is an excellent song. It’s the cream of the crop in regard to the mass amount of politically charged tunes the last year to come out of the indie community. Also, there’s one other thing worth mentioning: there’s an inherent beauty of both a white and black artist collaborating for this subject matter. That’s the case here, and it’s fantastic.
By Brett Stewart
I’m a professional writer and editor, a journalism major, and I have extensive experience in musical review. I worked for two years as the Editor & Chief of an arts magazine, Strike Magazine, where I worked closely with writers and musicians. Through this, I was able to interact with dozens of acts including Heart, Holly Williams, Robert Cray, John Hiatt, and more. The magazine printed thousands of issues and was even recognized by Rolling Stone’s founder, Jann Wenner.
