Hip Hop Police
| "Hip Hop Police" | |
|---|---|
| Song |
"Hip Hop Police" is the first single of Chamillionaire's second album, Ultimate Victory. It features Slick Rick and was produced by J. R. Rotem. The clean version of the song leaked to the internet June 18, 2007. A little while after the clean version leaked, the explicit version leaked as well. (Chamillionaire uses no vulgarities, but various other words of his are censored out of the edited version, including "gun" and controlled substance references, along with some titles of songs and albums. While the video censores album covers of other rappers.) Chamillionaire described the track by saying, "The "Hip Hop Police" record is like a "Murder Was the Case" record. It's really a concept record. ... Most records now are dance records or for the club. It's so much of that, I need to go a different direction. I think that's why I decided to come with "Hip Hop Police."
It's automatically different because Slick Rick and Chamillionaire, that's automatically gonna raise eyebrows," he added. "Slick Rick has always been one of those guys real good at telling stories. That's what we're doing ... telling a story about a murder. The metaphor means, nowadays, just loving hip-hop and being a rapper and loving music is the same as committing a murder. ... With all the controversy surrounding rap, that's what the record is about.
The song officially was released through Chamillionaire's MySpace page at June 22, 2007.[1]
The song was available for download on iTunes as of July 10, 2007.
Music video
The music video debuted on MTV's Total Request Live on August 22 and reached #1 on September 19.
Samples
The song samples:
- Snoop Dogg's song Gin & Juice, which Snoop says "With so much drama in the LBC / It's kinda hard bein Snoop D-O-Double-G", which in the chorus of Hip Hop Police, Chamillionaire says "With so much drama in the industry / Hip hop police are listenin'".
- The "Go Go Go Go Go Go" at the beginning from 50 Cent's "In da Club".
- In the chorus, Chamillionaire says "Murder Was the Case", which is a 1994 movie and Soundtrack. It may also be a reference to the Snoop Dogg song "Muder Was the Case", Snoop says "Murder was the case that they gave me" on his song, and Chamillionaire says "Murder was the case and they blamed me" in a similar fashion.
Success on BET
The music video for "Hip Hop Police" premiered on BET's 106 & Park on July 27, 2007. On September 19, the video debuted on 106 & Park at number-ten and later peaked at number-eight on the series. On December 31 of the same year, the video appeared at number 87 on the network's Notarized: Top 100 Videos of 2007 countdown.
Description
The video begins with Chamillionare standing on a sidewalk with Famous when two detectives pull up in an unmarked police vehicle. A detective (also played by Chamillionaire) proceeds to interrogate Chamillionaire about his doings in that location, and how he is able to afford so much jewelery. He also asks Chamillionare how his next album will be compared to his last one. Chamillionare answers by saying "Bigger." and the detective pretends to mishear him and claims that Chamillionaire called him a "nigger." Chamillionaire denies it and is defiant, and as the detective attempts to arrest him, he begins running. The detective, his partner and numerous police officers catch up to Chamillionaire. He is arrested while the detective continues to taunt him. At the police station, Chamillionaire is further interrogated as to what he is doing and with whom he is associating. But Chamillionaire refuses to give any information. Although Chamillionaire claims that he has done nothing wrong, the police insist that he is guilty of "hip-hop crimes" (in this case, meaning freedom of expression). Chamillionaire is put in a police lineup with Slick Rick who is being interrogated by another detective (also played by Slick Rick).
Throughout the video, an anchorman (also played by Chamillionaire) named Bob O'Wildy, a parody of Bill O'Reilly, reports a nationwide crackdown on rappers and anything associated with hip-hop due to Chamillionaire's usage of "The N word". The stories reported include:
- Search Warrants Issued for Snoop's Home
- Kanye West Apprehended in Chicago
- Jay-Z Apprehended Near Island of St. Barths
- Rap Music Banned In all 50 states
- Shipment of Rap CD's stopped in Atlanta
- Famous L.A. Eatery Raided
- Eminem's Detroit estate seized
- Brooklyn on Lockdown, Curfew in Effect
- Martial Law ordered in Houston
- South Beach closed until further notice
The news ticker reports that the following rappers are wanted by the police:
Lil' Kim, Lil' Wayne, UGK, Busta Rhymes, Akon, Cam'ron, Redman, Method Man, Young Jeezy, Mike Jones, Slick Rick, Fat Joe, RZA, Ice T, Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent, The Game, Nas, Rakim, Yung Joc,Scarface, Trick Daddy, Xzibit, KRS-One, Juvenile, Kanye West, T.I., Big Boi, André 3000, Ludacris, Twista, Baby Bash, Pharoahe Monch (misspelled as "Pharoahe Monche"), Fabolous, Juelz Santana, Memphis Bleek, Lil' Flip, Juicy J, MJG, Paul Wall, Slim Thug, DJ Paul, Birdman, Luther Campbell, Q-Tip, Lloyd Banks, Sean Combs, DMX, Jadakiss, Killer Mike, Timbaland, Bubba Sparxxx, Young Buck, Jim Jones, Eightball, Murphy Lee, Hurricane Chris.
In the second verse of the song, Chamillionaire references Notorious B.I.G. as "B.S." (Biggie Smalls), Method Man (who's censored) as "meth", Inspectah Deck as "Inspectin your Deck" , Chamillionaire's song Ridin' as "Ridin' Dirty", Busta Rhymes as "Busta", Snoop Dogg as "Snoop", the Pirus gang(which might be a reference to either The Game or Lil Wayne. Most likely Lil Wayne since he appeared on the Ultimate Victory album, just like the other rappers that are referenced. Except Snoop and Busta, since their track was cut off of the final album), Pimp C of UGK (mentioned twice, saying he was on one of Chamillionaire's songs (Welcome to the South)) and their song Pocket Full of Stones (which "stones" is censored, as it's a slang for crack cocaine), James Bond as "A Bond like James", Dr. Dre's The Chronic (which is censored, also as it's title refers to cannabis), Clipse (who are censored) as "The Clipse", Scarface's The Diary as "Diary that you had ", Jay-Z's The Blueprint albums as "your Blueprints", and Death Row Records as just "Death Row."
In the final shot, a news graphic reports Chamillionaire has been sentenced while the ticker reports "Without hip-hop, white teenagers are now listening to hardcore polka" (believed to be a reference to "Weird Al" Yankovic, who parodied Chamillionaire with the single "White and Nerdy"). With a smile, Bob O'Wildy reports "Hip-hop is officially dead."
Another version featured this video followed by the video for the track "The Evening News."
It was the first Chamillionaire song to receive airplay on Radio Disney, and also the first song featuring the subject of crime on the children station. Although Radio Disney has edited one portion of the song, the part when Chamilionaire says "Hell Yeah", instead he says "Heck Yeah."
It was also the first time we see Slick Rick without his singature eye patch while playing the detective.
Chart position
| Chart (2007) | Peak Position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs | 76 |
| U.S. Billboard Rhythmic Top 40 | 28 |
| UK Singles Chart | 50 |
| Sweden Singles Top 60 | 45 |