"New York City Cops" is a song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

the Strokes The Strokes are an American rock band from New York City. Formed in 1998, the band is composed of lead singer and songwriter Julian Casablancas, guitarists Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond Jr., bassist Nikolai Fraiture, and drummer Fabrizio Mor ...

. It was released along with "

Hard to Explain "Hard to Explain" is a song by American Rock music, rock band the Strokes. It was released as the lead single from their debut studio album, ''Is This It'' (2001), June 25, 2001. It peaked at number 10 in Ireland and number 16 in the United King ...

" as a double A-side single on June 25, 2001, in Australia and Europe. It appears on international editions of their debut studio album, ''

Is This It ''Is This It'' is the debut studio album by American rock band the Strokes. It was first released on July 30, 2001, in Australia, with RCA Records handling the release internationally and Rough Trade Records handling the United Kingdom release. ...

'' (2001); it was replaced with the track "When It Started" on the then-unreleased American CD edition following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

due to its lyrics regarding the

New York City Police Department The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

. As a double A-side single, it reached number 16 in the UK and number 66 in Australia.

Background and release

"New York City Cops", written in response to the 1999 murder of Amadou Diallo by four plainclothes police officers, was released along with "

" as a double A-side single on June 25, 2001, through

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label currently owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside RCA's former long-time rival Columbia Records; also A ...

in Australia and Europe. Both tracks would later be included on their debut studio album, ''

'' (2001). The song features the refrain "New York City cops, but they ain’t too smart." Since the American CD release had not been released yet, the song was removed from it following the

. The band did so after they witnessed the "valiant response" of the city's police department during the tragedy, feeling that it would be "wrong to release it during these highly sensitive times". They replaced the song with the newly recorded " When It Started". The vinyl release retained the original track list, due to its release falling on September 11, 2001.

Live performances

The Strokes continued to perform the song live despite the September 11 attacks. During their performance in Toronto on October 2, 2001, Casablancas stated, "I liked this fucking song and it's ruined. We live in New York. It's fucked up. The cops have killed a lot more people that they're saying and that's the fuckin' truth." The song was performed at a rally for Bernie Sanders at the Whittemore Center Arena in Durham, New Hampshire on February 10, 2020. According to some accounts, "New York City Cops" was not on the band's setlist, but the Strokes performed the song after taking issue with lights being turned up and attempts to stop crowd-surfing fans.

Track listing

Personnel

The Strokes * Julian Casablancas – vocals *

Nick Valensi Nicholas Valensi (born January 16, 1981) is an American musician and songwriter, best known for his role as lead and rhythm guitarist in the American rock band The Strokes. Since 2001, the band has released six studio albums, some of which Valen ...

– rhythm guitar (1), lead guitar (2) *

Albert Hammond Jr. Albert Hammond Jr. (''born'' Hammond III; born April 9, 1980) is an American musician, singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his role as rhythm and lead guitarist, as well as occasional keyboard player and backing vocalist ...

– lead guitar (1), rhythm guitar (2) *

Nikolai Fraiture Nikolai Philippe Fraiture (born November 13, 1978) is an American musician best known as the bassist of the American rock band The Strokes. Since co-founding the band in 1998, he has released six studio albums with them. Among other creative pr ...

– bass guitar *

Fabrizio Moretti Fabrizio Moretti (born June 2, 1980) is a Brazilian-American musician and visual artist best known as the drummer for American rock band The Strokes, with whom he has released six studio albums since 2001. A collaborative artist, he has been pa ...

– drums Additional personnel *

Gordon Raphael Gordon Raphael is an American record producer and musician from Seattle, Washington, and New York, currently living in Hebden Bridge (UK), after a few years in Berlin. Raphael is most widely known for his work with The Strokes, whom he met while ...

Background and release

Live performances

Track listing

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Footnotes

References