Nas - Cops Shot The Kid

What this video is

Released January 7, 2019, the video arrives at the confluence of the Black Lives Matter movement's mainstream peak and a broader cultural reckoning with systemic racism in American policing. The track, drawn from Nas's Kanye West-produced album NASIR (2018), samples Slick Rick's 1988 'Children's Story' — itself a classic moral fable — and repurposes its hook as an indictment of police violence against Black youth.…

Why it matters

A landmark entry in late-2010s conscious hip-hop visual culture, 'Cops Shot The Kid' demonstrates how the music video format can function as protest documentary. It bridges New York golden-era rap legacy (Nas, Slick Rick sampling) with contemporary activist discourse, while Blair-Mangat's…

The director

London-raised director of Jamaican and Indian heritage. Graduated from Central Saint Martins with a Fine Art degree. Has won multiple Cannes Lions awards. Credits include JAY-Z's 'Bam' (from the 4:44 album), the visual album 'Nasir – The Film' for Nas, a…