Joey Bada$$ has released the video for his stand-out track from the recent B4.DA.$$, the pointed and scathing look at being inherently judged based on skin color. “Like Me” tackles issues surrounding race on the street level, relating to cases like Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown, and the fear a young black man like Joey feels on a daily basis: “Cause every time I make a move they be sweatin’ me / They want another black man in penitentiary / It’s even hard for that man standing next to me / Cause he could catch a bullet that was really meant for me.”
The video, which premiered via Mother Jones yesterday, continues with that thread. It depicts Joey as a calm-mannered young man enjoying a day out in the city with his girlfriend, but they are accosted and threatened by another black man with a gun. Joey told Mother Jones that “In the video, the hot-headed guy, he gets killed by the police with a gun in his hand. And me, the cool guy, who is away from all the violence, I still end up being mixed in the loop—just being a victim because of my surroundings or where I’m from.” It is a dark look at the fears young black men face every day of being lumped together for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong skin color.