"Cops Shot the Kid" is a song by American rap artist

Nas Nas (born 1973) is the stage name of American rapper Nasir Jones. Nas, NaS, or NAS may also refer to: Aviation * Nasair, a low-cost airline carrier and subsidiary based in Eritrea * National Air Services, an airline in Saudi Arabia ** Nas Air ( ...

featuring fellow rap artist

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

, and the second track off of Nas' eleventh studio album ''

Nasir Nasir ( ar, ناصر, translit=Nāṣir) is a masculine given name, commonly found in Arabic which can mean "helper" or "one who gives victory" (grammatically the Stem I masculine singular active participle of consonantal verb root ''n-ṣ-r''). ...

'' (2018). The track was written by Nas, West, Andrew Dawson, and

Che Smith Che Smith (born July 6, 1977), better known by his stage name Rhymefest, is an American rapper from Chicago whose first official album, ''Blue Collar'', was released in 2006. His prominent songwriting credits include co-writing Kanye West's "Je ...

, with West handling production and Dawson providing additional production. The song samples "

Children's Story "Children's Story" is a song recorded by British-American hip hop artist Slick Rick. Taken as the second single from his album ''The Great Adventures of Slick Rick'', the song was a Top 5 hit on both the Hot R&B Singles and the Hot Rap Tracks ...

" by

Slick Rick Richard Martin Lloyd Walters (born January 14, 1965), better known as Slick Rick, is an English-American rapper and record producer. He rose to prominence with Doug E. Fresh & the Get Fresh Crew in the mid-1980s. Their songs " The Show" and " ...

throughout, and includes dialogue spoken by

Richard Pryor Richard Franklin Lennox Thomas Pryor Sr. (December 1, 1940 – December 10, 2005) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He reached a broad audience with his trenchant observations and storytelling style, and is widely regarded as on ...

from the film ''

Wattstax ''Wattstax'' was a benefit concert organized by Stax Records to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots in the African-American community of Watts, Los Angeles. The concert took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, ...

'' (1974); both are also credited as writers.

Background

Nas took to Instagram shortly after the song had generated attention as a standout from the album and paid homage to

, since he's sampled and behind the inspiration for it. In October 2020, a snippet of the original version of the song featuring an unreleased guest verse from André 3000 surfaced online.

Composition

For the background vocals saying: "The cops shot the kid" throughout the vast majority of "Cops Shot the Kid", a sample from "

" by Slick Rick is used. The speech in the track's intro is sampled from a scene including

in 1973

Stax Records Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records. Stax was ...

film ''

''.

Critical reception

The song received mostly positive reviews. ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' described it as being: 'a track full of evocative images', and labelled the Rick sample as being both 'breathless' and 'frantic'. ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...

'' viewed "Cops Shot the Kid" as being the album's 'most cogent song' and branded West's appearance as a 'lone guest verse'.

Commercial performance

Upon the release of ''Nasir'', the track debuted at number 96 on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100. This made it the only song from the album to enter that chart.

Charts

References

{{authority control 2018 songs Nas songs Kanye West songs Song recordings produced by Kanye West Songs written by Nas Songs written by Kanye West Songs written by Rhymefest Songs against racism and xenophobia Songs about police brutality Songs about black people Songs based on speech samples Songs written by Slick Rick