Watch the Powerful New Video for Algiers’ “Cleveland”

One of the most talked-about tracks from Algiers’ sophomore album The Underside of Power, “Cleveland” commemorates the black lives lost to police violence and the lack of public interest surrounding their deaths. Sandra Bland is specifically mentioned in the song, along with Kindra Chapman, Alfred Wright and other victims of police brutality whose cases were less publicized.

Algiers often assert confronting injustice as a theme in their music, and the tensions between optimism and despair, innocence and penalty. We recently spoke to the band about their personal beliefs on fighting for justice and how they interpret them in their music.

Interlaced with the principles of the Black Panthers’ Ten-Point Program, the “Cleveland” video sees frontman and lyricist Franklin James Fisher in both Staten Island and the Pink Houses project in East New York, where Eric Garner and Akai Gurley were killed at the hands of New York City Police Department. The lyrics make for a powerful and uncompromising message of resistance and defiance, as well as a life-affirming tribute to those lost to an unjust system.