Listen to Tink’s Timbaland-Produced Song About Police Abuse and Ferguson, “Tell the Children”

Tink and Timbaland may have sounded like a recipe for party music, but Tink, despite her relatively young age, has been outspoken and astute about social issues for a long time—from gender roles in the music industry to the killing of Trayvon Martin, which she discussed on her breakout “Versace” remix. So it’s fitting that, the morning after a grand jury in St. Louis County, Missouri, refused to press charges against Officer Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown, she’s responded with a chilling, excellent song called “Tell the Children.”

Tink is completely candid, laying out her take on Ferguson, as well as on the police climate that it stems from. Some excerpts:

“Boy’s been gunned down / boys is having fun now / with our blood / and our sons / disturbing the peace / He was more afraid of him when he’s the one with the piece?”

“They profile us / Then they wonder why we grow up being prejudiced and so violent”

“It trickles down from the rich to the poor / They fuck with you because they can’t believe that it’s yours”

It’s devastating, insightful, emotional, and essential: