When he chants “It’s the sound of the police / WOO-HAA!” he is not just describing a noise. He is describing the sound of a structural wall that keeps the poor and the Black in their "place."
KRS-One once said, “Rap is something you do; Hip Hop is something you live.” With this track, he gave us a harsh, noisy, necessary piece of Hip Hop to live by. krs one lyrics sound of da police
isn’t just a song. It is a thesis statement. It is a history lesson. And thirty years after its release on the 1989 album Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop , it remains one of the most misunderstood, sampled, and urgently relevant protest anthems ever written. When he chants “It’s the sound of the police / WOO-HAA
By juxtaposing the cheerful Dragnet theme (a symbol of 1950s law-and-order nostalgia) with a guttural yell, KRS-One flips the script. He shows us that the "nice cop" narrative is a fantasy. The sound of the police, he argues, is universally aggressive. The most quoted verse in the song is the masterclass in analogy: “The police are here to protect the white man’s property / So when the black man moves in, the white man moves out / And then the police come to keep the black man out.” But the lyrical apex comes when he compares the relationship between a Slave Master and a Slave to that of a Police Officer and a Citizen . It is a thesis statement
If you grew up in the late 80s or early 90s, there are certain needle drops that instantly change the chemical composition of a room. One of those is the opening baritone of the Dragnet theme, slowed down to a crawl, followed by the booming voice of Lawrence "Kris" Parker—better known as KRS-One.