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I Can't Breathe

by The Braided Janes

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Martin Alvarado
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about

"I Can’t Breathe” was written days after the murder of George Floyd in honor of George Floyd, Breonna Talylor and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The song pays tribute to “Strange Fruit," a song recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939 which originated as a poem written by Jewish-American writer, Abel Meeropol as a protest against lynchings inspired by Lawrence Beitler's photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Marion, Indiana.

This song is an acknowledgment that although the form of lynchings has changed, all these years later they continue to happen. 



The song honors George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tamir rice, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner and Sandra Bland.

The message we'd like to share is that now is not the time to stay quiet. To remain silent is to be complicit. But if history has taught us anything it’s that we need to be united for justice and equality now more than ever.

In solidarity The Braided Janes will be donating 100% of the download proceeds of, "I Can't Breathe" to Black Lives Matter to continue their advocacy work throughout 2021.

lyrics

I can’t breathe
Somebody help me
I can’t breathe
They’re gonna kill me

If you are the bull
You see me in red now
You lose all control
And my people are dead now

With our fists in the air we yell,
"Black lives matter"
With you knee on his neck your gun in her face
That life shatters

No justice
No peace x 2

Black bodies swinging
From the poplar trees
Modern day lynchings
Got us down on one knee praying

With our fists in the air we yell,
"Black lives matter"
With you knee on his neck your gun in her face
That life shatters

No justice
No peace x 2

George Floyd
Breonna Taylor
Ahmaud Arbery
Tamir rice
Trayvon Martin
Oscar Grant
Eric Garner
Sandra Bland

I can’t breathe
Somebody help me
I can’t breathe
They’re gonna kill me

No justice
No peace x4

credits

released October 2, 2020

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The Braided Janes Chicago, Illinois

The Braided Janes is a post-punk, Latin rock band from Chicago, IL.

Bilingual and multicultural their music manages to transcends through language and genre barriers.

The Braided Janes share a vision for social change. In this era of hateful rhetoric as a means to an end, their music seeks to uplift and empower those that have been scapegoated and labeled as the culprits for this nations woes. ... more

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