T.I. Takes Aim at Police Brutality and Twitter Activism in Powerful Spoken Word Performance of "United We Stand"

Trace William Cowen
Updated

"United we stand, because we created a hashtag for Sandra Bland," T.I. (Tip) begins while supported by members of the Youth Ensemble of Atlanta, a theatre group for young adults in Georgia. Though his moving call-to-action poem "United We Stand" definitely takes aim at so-called Twitter activism, T.I.'s message is ultimately one of hope. "If you think solely making them a trending topic is going to solve them, then you are a part of the problem," T.I. says of solely tackling pressing societal issues from the comforts of one's timeline.

"I was surprised that within a couple of months after [Sandra Bland's] death and the other deaths, the social media activity had all but stopped," T.I. said in a statement to Rolling Stone. "Even I had to question myself as to what part am I really playing." Though the performance won't officially debut until the Triumph Awards air on TV One on Saturday, you can catch the powerful footage below:

T.I. recently released a new EP entitled Da' Nic, considered to be his energetic warm-up for his forthcoming full length Da Dime Trap, which may or may not feature some decidedly A+ guest stars:

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