Houston spitter Killa Kyleon just dropped the new visual “Killing Over Jays” from his critically acclaimed new project Lorraine Motel. Bringing more awareness to the Black Lives Matter Movement as well as calling for an end to Black-on-Black crime, “Killing Over Jays” focuses on the importance today’s youth place on being fashionable and also the shoe companies that prey on them.
Killa Kyleon details the rising costs of sneakers (cough Baller Brand) and how popular shoes are being released with far greater frequency (corporate greed) creating a vacuum of potential violence. At its essence, the “Killing Over Jays” video is a PSA trying to convey how senseless all of this is.
The Lorraine Motel honores the legacy of historic Black leaders and figures, chiefly, Dr. Martin Luther King, who was assassinated on April 4th, 1968 at the Lorraine Motelin Memphis, TN. During the segregation era, the hotel was an upscale destination that accommodated exclusively Black clientele; and it became a frequent destination for many influential and iconic artists as well, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett & The Staple Singers.
The hotel is now a complex of museums and historic buildings, tracing the history of the civil rights movement from the 17th century to present day. The National Civil Rights Museum is built around the former Lorraine Motel.
“The Lorraine Motel project is directed at what’s going on in today’s society within the Black community as a whole,” Killa Kyleon states.
“It’s not a one sided commentary, it deals with the treatment people of color have been receiving from law enforcement and how we are programmed and influenced by social media, television and the culture of Hip-Hop to treat each other as well. As a race and culture, we need to stand together, but also take accountability for our actions. I feel the black American dream and ideal died when MLK was murdered in Memphis (at the Lorraine Motel).
So I created this conceptual project as an analogy of today’s climate in America. We all (African Americans) died that day at the Lorraine Motel. Barack Obama is the last of one of our strongest black leaders to lead us as a race. The Lorraine Motel project focuses on events (both past and current) that have taken place since that fatal day.”
Check out the empowering video “Killing Over Jays” now and check out the Lorraine Motel Project below.
