August Alsina - Hip Hop (Explicit)

What this video is

Released June 29, 2015, at the height of Black Lives Matter's national visibility following the deaths of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and others, 'Hip Hop (Explicit)' positions August Alsina as a politically engaged R&B artist tethered to his New Orleans roots. The video premiered at the 2015 BET Awards Pre-Show, amplifying its reach within a Black cultural institution. Sampling Naughty by Nature's 'Hip Hop…

Why it matters

This video represents a defining example of mid-2010s socially conscious R&B, a sub-genre in which artists from hip-hop adjacent backgrounds used melodic delivery and personal narrative to engage with structural racism and police brutality. As the lead single for 'This Thing Called Life' (2015),…

The director

Payne Lindsey is an American director, documentary filmmaker, and podcast host born November 21, 1987, in Kennesaw, Georgia. He began his career directing commercials, music videos, and short films out of Atlanta before pivoting to investigative audio…