Synopsis

KRS-One delivers a forceful performance while the video dramatizes the song's indictment of police brutality and systemic racism. Scenes show Black youths being confronted, restrained, dragged, and threatened by armed officers, connecting modern police power with the historical role of slave overseers. The rapper performs directly to the camera amid stark urban imagery, turning the clip into a visual extension of the track's central argument: the authority once exercised by overseers continues in altered form through the police.

Factoids & Trivia

• Released in 1993 as the second and final single from KRS-One's debut solo album, "Return of the Boom Bap."

• The track was produced by Showbiz and recorded at D&D Studios in New York City.

• Its recurring "whoop whoop" hook imitates a police siren and became one of the most recognizable vocal refrains in politically charged hip-hop.

• The song's "overseer" to "officer" comparison links the history of slavery to contemporary policing and is reinforced by the video's images of police violence.

• The production samples Grand Funk Railroad's version of "Inside-Looking Out," along with elements from Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song."

• "Sound of da Police" reached No. 89 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 79 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart.

• The song later appeared in films including "Attack the Block," "Cop Out," "Black and Blue," "Tag," and "Ride Along 2," as well as the video game "Battlefield Hardline."

• In 2012, Anonymous used the video while defacing the Boston Police Department's website, giving the track another prominent political afterlife.