User:Fred Gandt/Get the Fist

"Get the Fist" is the only song released by the purpose-formed, all-star group of popular West Coast hip hop artists, Get the Fist Movement, to raise funds to assist in rebuilding communities affected by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. Although the song was recorded within days of the end of the riots, it received very little promotion and was not released until six months later.

Background
Three-fifths Compromise

Historical racial and ethnic demographics of the United States

1964 California Proposition 14 -> Watts riots

Ethnic groups in Los Angeles

History of Korean Americans in Greater Los Angeles

List of criminal gangs in Los Angeles

Bloods, Crips and crack cocaine

During the late 1980's and early 90's rappers "reported" on conditions in LA...

Rodney King -> 1992 Los Angeles riots

After the 1992 Los Angeles riots rappers responded with a bunch of stuff...

Get the Fist Movement
With some urgency, in the wake of the riots, Lisa Cortes, then vice president of Mercury Records, brought a project called "Get the Fist Movement" to her company. The group was established to raise funds through sales of their four track 12-inch single "Get the Fist", to be donated to the Brotherhood Crusade's National Black United Fund, with the aim of helping to rebuild the communities affected by the riots.

Notable, contemporary, cause-oriented hip-hop all-star collaborations "Self-Destruction"&mdash;condemning black-on-black crime&mdash;by the Stop the Violence Movement, and "We're All in the Same Gang"&mdash;condemning gang violence&mdash;by the West Coast Rap All-Stars...

Project funding
Production of "Get the Fist" was partially funded by a US$50000 contribution from the malt liquor brewer McKenzie River, who had a long running professional relationship with DJ Pooh and Ice Cube, and who were donating to charitable causes with which Ice Cube was involved. The brewer received "special thanks" on the record sleeve along with Lisa Cortes and "everyone close who deserves it."

Notes on the record sleeve go on to state that: "The artists and others involved in this project are generously supporting and contributing to Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade Black United Fund, Inc. and/or other charitable organizations in an effort to help rebuild and strengthen the Los Angeles inner-city community, and they encourage your contributions."

Brotherhood Crusade
The Brotherhood Crusade was formed in 1968, and the organization founded the National Black United Fund in 1973.

Music video and release
Lisa Cortes told the Los Angeles Times that a major cause for the delayed release of the single, was that use of news footage featured in the single's accompanying video required clearance.

Although the song was "mentioned prominently in post-riot news coverage, and was featured on MTV News"(emphasis added), it received little record label promotion and was not released until six months after it was recorded and the riots that inspired it.

No merchandise, posters etc...

Lyrics
The people talking in the song say some things about which people in the press said some things...

With its anti-police-brutality message, "Get the Fist" was called "probably the most belligerent charity single ever made" by Jon Pareles for the New York Times and "hardly conciliatory" with "incendiary lyrics" by Jimmie Briggs for the Washington Post in 1992.

Credited samples

 * "Pride and Vanity" by the Ohio Players used courtesy of Westbound Records
 * "People Make the World Go Round" by the Stylistics used courtesy of Amherst Records