Eddie Murphy recently teamed up with Snoop Lion (are we still calling him that?) to record a reggae song called “Redlight,” about racial profiling. Because OBVIOUSLY. It might be more political than Steven Seagal’s reggae song about how much he loves the poonani, but hey, everyone has issues they’re passionate about.
Sample lyrics:
Redlight, stop right there where you are. Emancipation [gone], race relations [gone], all our rebels are gone
It can’t be long [before] the military come, with a KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK at your door….
No one knows yet whether the track is part of a planned album or some other collaboration, but the two had been talking about collaborating. Either way, I can’t wait for Chris Tucker and DMX’s smooth jazz jam about global warming.
The purpose of the track is not yet clear, but Snoop Lion, aka Snoop Dogg, revealed in May (13) that he had been in talks with the reclusive movie star to collaborate on a series of film and TV-related projects – and it appears Redlight is their first offering as business partners.
Snoop told Rolling Stone magazine, “I’m gonna holler at him, see if I can get some paper (money) to do some of these movies. I got a lot of ideas and I’m tired of paying for them myself. He ain’t making fresh, dynamic s**t. He only do a movie once a year for the white world.
“I’m talking about real n**ga s**t that’ll keep him connected. Real boss s**t (sic).” [IndyChannel]
As some have pointed out, the song seems to be about New York’s controversial stop-and-frisk policies. Normally, I’d probably make a joke here about the guy from A Thousand Words wondering “where the rebels are” from the comfort of a studio in his million dollar home, but after watching that video of cops shooting that dog this morning I kind of want to grow some dreadlocks and join a freegan peace commune ponytail docking with Avatar hippies all day. So instead I’ll simply say that I could watch an endless loop of just the two seconds at the beginning of this video where Eddie Murphy croons “WOY-YOY!” He’s really committed to this reggae thing!
Based on this being called “Redlight,” I now like to imagine that “Roxanne” is a love song Sting wrote about a sexy racist cop he was trying to save from life as an oppressor with the power of tantric love. “Yooooou don’t have to put on the red liiiight…”
Obligatory: Seagal’s reggae jam.