The title of Ab-Soul’s single “Huey Knew” invokes Black Panther co-founder Huey Newton, and in the song’s new video, he puts black politics on full display. Soulo sits in a wicker chair, toting a shotgun as a mixture of news clips plays behind him.
Soulo employed a similar tactic on “Terrorist Threats” with Jhené Aiko and Danny Brown, projecting cuts of news footage to connect the song’s lyrics with current events. Ab even told Genius that the “Huey Knew” beat reminded him of the Control System song. “It was real reminiscent of ‘Terrorist Threats.’ It reminded me of a riot, like 1969 type shit,” he said.
Ab-Soul draws parallels between the 1960’s civil rights movement and the #BlackLivesMatter protests by mixing clips of Eric Garner’s chokehold death at the hands of police, riots in Charlotte following the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott, and angry 49ers fans burning Colin Kaepernick’s jersey with old-school Black Panthers and protest footage. The events are further blended by washing all of the videos in the same grainy black and white.
With the 2016 election bringing unprecedented racism and xenophobia to the forefront of American politics, Donald Trump is naturally included, as is a section where Soulo spray paints footage of the White House. He even references President Obama on the song:
Bucket of black paint in-front the white house nigga
I hope I’m in Obama’s iPod
One thing that’s conspicuously absent is an appearance from Da$h. Although he had a guest verse on the song, he’s not featured in the video, and his contribution is cut from it.
You can watch Ab-Soul’s “Huey Knew” video above, and read all the lyrics—including Soulo’s own annotations—on Genius now.
