Ohio Machine Gun
The Isley Brothers
SOLDIERS feat. Dead Prez, Sa-Roc & Maimouna Youssef
n the Spring of 1970, armed National Guardsmen fired on Vietnam protesters at Kent State in Ohio, killing four students. The event reverberated across the country, spurring Neil Young to pen Ohio for Crosby, Stills & Nash, a folk anthem The Guardian calls the greatest protest record in American history.
Days laterforgotten in the shadow of Kent Statepolice killed two black students at a similar protest at Jackson State in Mississippi. The incident echoed a growing racial divide, and rising tensions between police and inner city youth across the country. Fusing Ohio with Jimi Hendrix Machine Gun, The Isley Brothers re-framed the narrative of the song around urban unrest, bridging the cultural gap between two songs (and their fans) as a deliberate statement. Music was one of the few forces that could bridge the racial divide and bring people togethercultural connective tissue for a divided world.
Now, DJ/Producer J.PERIOD is proud to present the next chapter in the historic saga of Ohio: SOLDIERS, the epic new single from Hip Hops pre-eminent freedom fighters Dead Prez and rising stars Sa-Roc & Maimouna Youssef. Sampling elements of The Isley Brothers Ohio over a hard-hitting track produced by J.PERIOD, SOLDIERS reframes the narrative again for a new generationthe generation of Ferguson, Flint, Oakland, New Orleans, Sanford, and Charlottesville.