Say Her Name: 50 Artists Whose Music Honors Assata Shakur’s Revolutionary Spirit
These artists kept Assata's name alive, even in exile.
- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Google-preferred
- Share this article on Flipboard
- + additional share options added
- Print this article
- Print this article
- Print this article
- Print this article
- Print this article
- Print this article
- Share this article on Print
- Print this article




2Pac

Image Credit: Steve Granitz Archive/WireImage “New Afrikan Panthers, America’s nightmare/ Mutulu Shakur, America’s nightmare/ Geronimo Pratt, America’s nightmare/Assata Shakur, America’s nightmare.” –2Pac, “Words of Wisdom”
–
“Assata Shakur?”/ Another auntie, I miss her though/ Please thank Mr. Castro for keepin’ her safe bro/ How many more of us die before we can see the light/ It’s time brothers work it out, unite for a bigger fight.” – 2Pac, “Tearz of a Clown”
Nas

Image Credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival “Y’all dudes will never see me down/ Reading everything, books and body language/ Du Bois, Baldwin, and Chavis/ Assata, John Hope Franklin, Angela Davis.”Nas, “Stay Chisel”
–
“Football wives, basketball wives/ Mistresses slash more tires with knives/ They lookin’ for a dollar/ I’m lookin’ for a JoAnne Chesimard to turn to Assata.” – Nas, “Royalty”
Killer Mike

Image Credit: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images) “When I surface on the streets I can hear the crowd yelling/ And see the neighborhood snitches pointing and telling/ I’m bailing like a felon orAssata Shakur/ Before the law leave me stinking like a bag of manure.” –Killer Mike, “Don’t Die”
–
“The U.S. government has a million dollar bounty on the head of Assata Shakur/ Y’all ni**as go on the internet, check that sh*t out, man/ That was Pac aunt, she in exile right now in Cuba/ Don’t let them bring our mamas home man and put her in no cage/ Just a little consciousness for all y’all wanna be rap trap motherf**kers.” – Killer Mike, “Long A** Outro”
–
“Thick with her a**, she in some Betty Shabazz, pretty as Coretta Scott/ All that I got, she got the face of a model/ She got the heart of Assata/ She from the gutter, my ni**a/ Wife and a mother, my ni**a/ Winnie Mandela, my ni**a.” – Killer Mike, “Down By Law”
–
“Black lives matter? Then prove it/ Grab a black Glocker, make them coppers face the music/ They try to tell me, ‘Mikey, but your papa was a copper’/ I tell ’em, ‘Suck my d**k because my auntie is Assata’/ And then I double down and tell them something twice as hard/ Jesus is a fraud, the black woman is god.” Bobby Sessions featuring Killer Miker, “Black Neighborhood”
Common

Image Credit: Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy “In the Spirit of God/ In the Spirit of the ancestors/ In the Spirit of the Black Panthers
In the Spirit ofAssata Shakur/ We make this movement towards freedom/ For all those who have been oppressed/ And all those in the struggle.” –Common, “A Song For Assata”–
“My man went to Cuba/ Caught in a political triangle, Bermuda/ The same way they said she was the shooter/ Assata Shakur, they tried to execute her/ I went to Cuba to see her/ We should free her, like we should Mumia.” – Common featuring JAY-Z, “Open Letter Pt. II”
–
“Child of a fresher God/ Influenced by the life of the former, Joanne Chesimard/ Assata Shakur, I gotta do more/ The light-skinned spook who got in the door/ I got in here for the same thing Cassius Clay uses pottery for.” – Common, “Pyramids”
Rapsody

Image Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Billboard “I came through the rain, and I came through the thunder/ I push through the pain; I’m laughin’ at summer/ My hell was way hotter—I feel like Assata/ Escape with my truth; I came back like Nirvana.” –Rapsody, “Back In My Bag”
–
“Nobody know nada/ We all know the fate of Assata if Cuba don’t harbor/ Nobody know I’m harder on myself than lonely fathers/ Watching Mrs. Parker, these days nobody know who authored/ Rhymes of rappers on carpets.” – Rapsody, “Nobody”
–
“Bullets burn; they Holocaust us, ashes to our daughters/ Pray our sons have granddaughters and live to be grandfathers/ Dedicated to Assata, broke our fourth chakra/ In memory of the Rasta who forewarned us for Breonna.” – Rapsody, “He Shot Me”
Black Thought

Image Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for GQ
“Dear white people, I am not your negro/ Yeah, Black people, y’all just got your hero/ All these rap demons I’m about to Deebo/ Me and Assata, my ATLien alter ego.” –Sa-Roc featuring Black Thought, “The Black Renaissance”–
“It’s a long drawn out saga, like The Godfather/ Coming up this hard, it made a n**ga rock solid/ Now I be the top shotter, heart of a Rottweiler/ The boss that learned to move cautious as Assata.” – DANGERDOOM featuring Black Thought, “Mad Nice”
Public Enemy

Image Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
“Flow on, the project, the pop off/ Low tempo to go off/ COINTEL better go to hell/ Bout that time hear the bell y’all/ Gotta lotta nerve never knowing Assata/ Gotcha mind wading in the water.”Public Enemy – “Gotta Give The Peeps What They Need”Talib Kweli

Image Credit: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Ozy Fusion Fest 2017 “The highest caliber make it a night to remember like Shalamar/ Then escape to Havana with Assata I do what I gotta/ Planes get shot down in Cuban air space over the water/ I got insight it’s a clear case of reading your aura.” – Reflection Eternal featuringYasiin Bey, Mr. Man, “Fortified Live”
–
“She’s earth, wind and fire, don’t tempt her to show her power/ Turning all weeds to flowers/ Looking into her wise eyes will make a blind man see/ How can you dare name a eurocentric girl after me?/Assata Shakur Barbara Jordan Nikki Giovanni and Angela Davis/ Look it up!/ These are the real symbols of liberty.” –Talib Kweli, “Manifest Destiny”
–
“I got love for every artist, I’m more than just a product/ I’ve been a prisoner, see Mumia, I’ve been to Cuba to see Assata/ Way before Mr. and Mrs. Carter went on a dinner date/ I had to send the lyrics ahead of time before I hit the stage.”– Talib Kweli, “5AM In Brooklyn
Dead Prez

Image Credit: Evan Agostini/Getty Images “This is for Mumia and Sundiata, Herman Bell, we got ya/ Mutulu Shakur, we want you free with Assata/ And Giuliani, yo, you can swim with the lobsters/ I hope you mobsters lose your livers to the vodka.” –Dead Prez, “Together”
—
“Yes, they really invading your home/ And if you’re really looking forAssata Shakur/ She right here, it’s me, her and2Pac over here having a beer/ Cheers, a toast to a lovely revolution/ What’s hush hush they know what we doing.” – M1, “Confidential”
Fatal Hussein

Image Credit: Johnny Nunez/WireImage “Roddy shot Yak, Mu took the Shahada/ I had another baby girl, and I named her Assata/ Her middle name your last name, her family tree/ I can’t help but think where we would be.” – Fatal Hussein, “Letter To Pac”
–
“If I don’t make it home tonight/ Kiss Assata and tell her daddy got it on tonight/ If it’s meant to be I be back the same way she was sending me/ And I ain’t gotta finish the century, gotta ’em history.” – Fatal Hussein, “Blocka Blocka”
Sean Price

Image Credit: Mike Lawrie/Getty Images “Slap a, bi**h boy knock his tooth out his grill/Sean Price be the truth in the ‘Ville, listen/ If ya, knock on my door I’m cockin the four/ Great escape from the law likeAssata Shakur.” – Sean Price, “King Kong”
Shock G

Image Credit: Earl Gibson III/Getty Images “Afrika Bambaataa, Miles motherf**king Davis/ SisterAssata Shakur, once known as Joanne Chesimard.” – Digital Underground, “Heartbeat Props”
Rome Streetz

Image Credit: Gary Gershoff/Getty Images “Went platinum off the product to pay the rent, and cop the Prada/ My bi**h a model but she down to pop it like Assata/ Vow to let no snake in the grass divide us/ Dip the bogie in the juice if they tryin to buy dust.” –DJ Mugg featuringRome Streetz, “Ace Of Swords”
Sa-Roc

Image Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET “They try to censor me, instantly on a hundred/ Named Assata, makes sense I’ma be the most wanted/ Wanna send for me, got the sentry on the hunt/ With that rrah soundin’ like a freaking symphony, son.” –Sa-Roc, “40 And A Mule”
–
“I ain’t new to this profession, I’m established in it/ Any challenge to the status quo would be a cataclysm/ Cuz I’m Assata with the good hair-9 ether/ I have em pissing lemonade when I arrive eager.” – Sa-Roc, “Queen Ting”
Kxng Crooked

Image Credit: Tiffany Rose/Getty Images for Smoke Big Documentary “Conspiracy theories fueled the rumors/ Slaughterhouse faked they death and moved to Cuba/ Yeah, they with Assata now, the group is not around/ Ni**as went solo like Bobby Brown.” –KXNG Crooked, “Sorry”
Styles P

Image Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for ESSENCE
“They say payback’s a motherf**king ni**a/ That explains why I’m sick of getting treated like a goddamn step-child/ Living like Assata, I’m an exile/ Gotta climb out of my skin, just like a reptile.”–Styles P, “Cause I’m Black”Flatbush Zombies

Image Credit: Johnny Nunez/WireImage “My grandfather, he live through me/ In the night, sometimes I feel like his voice is talkin’ to me/ Connected to a higher power, they couldn’t find me like Assata/ Weh dem a do like Mavado, and I’ma shoot if I gotta.” –Flatbush Zombies featuring RZA, “Quentin Tarantino”
JID

Image Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
“Y’all need some lovin’ in your life/ A little Giovanni by your side/ A little of Assata’s all I need/ A little bit of Angela Davis and Ruby Dee.” – Alkebulan, “W4R” byJID & 6LACK featuring OG MacoStephen Marley

Image Credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images “It’s foul how the youth glued to the television/ Ain’t heard of Assata but twitter followingParis Hilton/ It’s only right we want to be more than poor and righteous but/ Even the rich today can’t ignore the crisis in Babylon.”–Stephen Marley, “Babylon”
Freddie Gibbs

Image Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images “Prick my finger, Alfredo, Illuminati/ Joe Pesci, pushing product/ You ni**as is sweeter than Joe Exotic/ On the run like Assata, so f**k the police/ As a ni**a be chillin’ in La Habana.” –Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist, “1985”
Yasiin Bey

Image Credit: Arturo Holmes/Getty Images “All our loved ones behind the walls/ All of those still in the struggle/ Assata, Mumia/ Sundiata/ My man Jamil, life is real/ To all the real soldiers, black people/ We family, y’all Let it be bright.” –Yasiin Bey, “Sunshine”
Vic Mensa

Image Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET “Rockin’ Prada leathers bought my chick a Saffiano/ Gelato in the fronto, it’s thick as a Cubano/ Touched down in Havana, just to holla at a Assata/ When they stop me at customs, I know nada.” –Vic Mensa, “Clipse Freestyle”
Billy Woods

Image Credit: Facebook “Is that stupid or gangster?/ Is that flight or bammer?/ Mumia, if I had a hammer/ You’d be with Assata in Havana.” –billy woods, “High Treason”
–
“Temple Grandin, keep the cattle calm/ Side-saddle, took Carrie to the prom/ Joanne Chesimard, windows open, nights warm/ Power cuts, no ice, so the cuba libre’s strong.” – billy woods, “Smith + Cross”
Noname

Image Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Coachella “We seen ’em murder the indigenous, the Passage Middle/ The Constitution, a life for a bag of Skittles/ So when we bleed, I load the sacred pistol/ And if you need, I’ll read Assata with you/ And if you rich, I pray that God forgive you.” – Anderson .Paak featuringNoname, “Lockdown (Remix)”
Nick Cannon

Image Credit: Robin L Marshall/Getty Images for ESSENCE “This for Rosa and Coretta, Assata and Loretta/ Betty, Roseta, Angela, Mahalia/ Dr. Bethune, Sojourner, she the truth/ I do it for the culture, the new Oprah in the booth.” –Nick Cannon, “The Invitation Is Cancelled”
Smino

Image Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for BET)
“Silk the chakra, I’m tuned in with Assata/ From womb, been a lil prodigy/ New boo, like Rapunzel/ I love her the long way like PeeWee/ Spit shine like kiwi, for a hour, it make life more easy.” –Smino, “Black Luv Ain’t Dead”Arrested Development

Image Credit: Monica Schipper/Getty Images for The Recording Academy) “Freedom is our right, we demand that/ Possessed with the spirits of the Black Panthers/ The MOVE Organization/ Nat Turner/ Assata/ David Walker.” –Arrested Development, “Pride”
Denzel Curry

Image Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images “Anti-American, I’m pro-Assata/ Write rhymes like a scholar, all about a dollar/ Dollar equals Allah, put away the scouters/ You won’t see my power, this your final hour.” –Denzel Curry, “Hate Government”
Grand Puba

Image Credit: Johnny Nunez/WireImage “Now if this falls short, I’ll try harder/ A wisdom to me is someone like Assata/ I’d like to say peace to Bambaata.” –Grand Puba, “Brand Nubian”
Paris

Image Credit: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images “So many things that I seen on tour/ Took a trip down to Cuba, metAssata Shakur/ Had dinner with Fidel, talked about hard times/ And now America’s steady tryna destroy minds.” –Paris, “Check It Out Ch’All (Alternate Version)”
—
“We the same thang/ That’s why the media is givin’ us the same names/ Convicts strikin’ Assata, the same game/ Settin’ up the same circumstances in the barrio and in the hood ’til we gangbang.” – Paris, “One Gun”
Saul Williams

Image Credit: Jason Mendez/Getty Images “Yeah, I became militant too/ So it was clear on every level I was blacker than you/ I turned you on to Malcolm X andAssata Shakur/ In my three quarter elephant goose with the fur.” –Saul Williams, “Black Stacey”
Saigon

Image Credit: Brad Barket/Getty Images “They said all I had to do was just follow the for-/Mula you does, and you gon’ be popular boy/ See, what they fail to realize is I rhyme for the cause/ And got the same mind frame asAssata Shakur.” –Saigon, “The Game Changer”
Blu

Image Credit: Chelsea Lauren/WireImage “Al Sharpton, Fred Hampton, Oprah Winfrey/ Barack Obama,Assata Shakur, Tupac Shakur, Biggie/ And everyone else creating black history/ That lives with me everyday, until I’m gone.” –Blu & Exile, “Roots Of Blue”
–
“Yeah and ain’t an artist as pure behind bars like Assata Shakur/ Slap cops, peace to Zsa Zsa Gabor, tell ’em pardon my gore/ Had flashbacks, started a war/ What a loss got caught in a storm.” – Blu, “BeGo(o)D!”
–
Killah Priest

Image Credit: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images
“Taught to pray hard, he would answer/ But he never answered the prayers from the Panthers/ From Stokely Carmichael, Geronimo Pratt, Assata Shakur/ We adore.” –Killah Priest, “The Beloved (DJ Wool Remix)”Meshell Ndegeocello

Image Credit: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival “If you desire to be confrontational like Sojourner Truth/ If you wish to be audacious like Audrey Lord, antagonistic like Angela Davis/ Gangsta like Winnie Mandela, angry likeAssata Shakur/ Come roar with us in the corner, sit beside us in schools/ Chant with us in church, vote with us and for us at the pole.” –Meshell Ndegeocello, “Tsunami Rising”
Chino XL

Image Credit: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images
“I took a deep breath leaving everything I knew behind/ The country air, the green grass and my piece of mind/ Harassed by white cops on our way, we’re pulled out our car/ Mistook my mom for Joanne Chessimar, now I’m really scarred.” – Chino XL, “What Am I?”Blackalicious

Image Credit: Rick Diamond/WireImage “I am the might ofcommon law/ Kumbaya Chronicle/ Got piranha flow/ Jungles beside a hole/ Songs that Assata told Geronimo Pratt.” –Blackalicious, “Aural Pleasure”
Mr. Muthaf**king’ Exquire

Image Credit: Roger Kisby/Getty Images “Start out with her brain/ Not so that she’s trained but to make sure that she’s sane/ Funny like Kim Wayans/ But strongAssata Shakur.”– Mr. Muthafucking’ Exquire, “Build A Bi**h”
MARCO PLUS

Image Credit: YouTube “Black panther in the booth, Fred Hampton picked my suit/ And then I smoked a spliff with Huey and Queen Assata did my hair/ Yo team silent, we the livest up in here/ So keep quiet cuz I speak knowledge but I preach violence up in here.” –MARCO PLUS, “Lately”
Lowkey

Image Credit: Martin Pope/Getty Images “Men make them, but the women get harmed in wars/ I pray for a heart as pure asAssata Shakur‘s/ We put them down, but on the pedestal we should put them/ Behind every good man, there’s a good women.” –Lowkey, “Something Wonderful”
Marlon Craft

Image Credit: Johnny Nunez/WireImage “We live in a time when something’s gotta be more/ Where everyone who post a meme isAssata Shakur/ Where we live on explore pages but don’t gotta explore/ And everything they got in store, they done got in a store.”Marlon Craft, “Bars On I-95 Freestyle”
Brother Ali

Image Credit: C Flanigan/Getty Images “Trying to open eyes, organize, and build power/ I know all about the hell I’m trying to get out of/ Two million dollars on sister Assata’s head/ It’s when you really get it poppin’ that they want you dead.” –Bambu featuringBrother Ali & Odessa Kane, “Illuminotme”
Nick Grant

Image Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Universal Studios “If I take this peace sign, and I aim it at the coppers/ Would they take me for a threat, or just lay me out unconscious?/ Can’t explain this to my mamma/ No relation to Assata/ But these women strong and black, they been this way since a minor.” –Nick Grant, “Window Seat”
Cambatta

Image Credit: Johnny Nunez/WireImage “Aim it at their black 750 arm strong and steady/ Let off one shot for every song on the Makaveli/ I’m sorry for your mom Afeni/ I like your aunt Assata heavy/ If you live I hope you go to Cuba/ I hope they got my million dollars ready.” –Cambatta, “Tupac Murder Confession”
Jasiri X

Image Credit: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival “See Trump then gun but him now he’s really deaf/ That light skinned rapper blacker than Biggie’s neck/ Militant hardcore like them boys in Quantico/ With Assata in the chopper coming to close Guantanamo.”–Jasiri X, “P.O.W.E.R.”
Jamila Woods

Image Credit: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images for Slow Factory “Sojourner was a freedom fighter/ And she taught us how to fight/ Assata was a freedom fighter/ And she taught us how to fight.” –Jamila Woods, “Blk Girl Soldier”
Truck North

Image Credit: YouTube “It’s automatic/ The devil calls it magic/Nah this ain’t no Harry Potter more like Garvey and Assata/ Tussle with wicked warriors from Africa to Georgia/ Watts to Copenhagen, slaughter pagans up in Persia.” –Truck North & The 3rd, “Out There”
Zion I

Image Credit: Miikka Skaffari / Contributor “Yo, renegade rap writer/ Cadillac rider/ Track inside, I spray verbal Mac hot/ Blast the gat, lick a shot/ Then run like Assata/ Head to the hills, post no bills Don Dada.” –Zion I, “Target Practice”
Elucid

Image Credit: YouTube “The Wi-Fi name is Assata Is Safe Here/ The pass code transposed and notated between kick and the snare/ For whosoever believe, feelin’ Beastie, Paul Revere/ It’s all gone square, sand shiftin’, a brief history.” – Armand Hammer, “Tread Lightly”
Bambu

Image Credit: Instagram “And later as I grew up/ I found more connection in a book than in the hood I grew up/ Girls I used to fuck with used to bug/ When I request that we skip the DVDs and grab Assata off the shelf.” –Bambu, “Books”
PHZ-Sicks

Image Credit: X “My Angela Davis. black women/ My Nikki Giovanni, black women/ My Michelle Obama, black women/ My Maya Angelou, black women/ MyAssata Shakur, black women/ My Josephine Baker, black women.”PHZ-Sicks, “Black Women”
The Vibe Newsletter
Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox