| Shooters | |
| Cover: | Tory Lanez - Shooters.jpg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Tory Lanez |
| Album: | Memories Don't Die |
| Released: | September 22, 2017 |
| Genre: | Trap |
| Length: | 3:28 |
| Label: |
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| Producer: | C-Sick |
| Prev Title: | Special 4 U |
| Prev Year: | 2017 |
| Next Title: | Skrt Skrt |
| Next Year: | 2017 |
"Shooters" is a song by Canadian rapper Tory Lanez, released on September 22, 2017 as the lead single from his second studio album Memories Don't Die (2018). It was produced by C-Sick.
The song contains horn-led production,[1] beginning with a "grand, cinematic" beat in the style of trap.[2] Lyrically, it finds Tory Lanez bragging about his winnings, including luxuries and women.[3]
An official music video of the song premiered exclusively on Billboard on October 12, 2017. It deals with the theme of police brutality and the concept was inspired by the documentary television miniseries . In an interview with Billboard, Tory Lanez stated:
His story had me surfing the internet to research all the different cases of people who were wrongfully charged and looking up the rate of how many unarmed black people get shot in a year – well in the last year – and then how many of those officers were indicted. It was over hundreds of deaths and the percentage of the officers who were convicted was below one percent.
I imagined that there are times when those families have thought, "What if I could go kill the officer who killed my son or nephew?" What I'm trying to preach and show with this message is no matter how you may feel about it, violence is not the answer. Even with the cops, killing us ain't the answer either.[4]
The video, which Lanez co-directed with Zac Facts,[5] opens with a disclaimer that explains his inspiration and intentions behind the intro,[6] [7] [8] [9] as well as a message reading "Sometimes the only justice is injustice". After that, the video begins with a skit that sees Lanez and a friend seeking revenge on a police officer who had shot and killed Lanez's cousin. They sneak into the officer's home and kill him. As they leave, the two men are confronted by two white police officers who question and aim their guns at them. Lanez and his friend respond calmly and raise their arms up in a "Hands up, don't shoot" gesture. Tory's friend is shot to death by the police, leading Tory to pull out his gun to fire back, only to be killed as well. The visual then transitions to sequences of him wearing luxury clothing, expensive cars, women smoking marijuana, and Lanez being surrounded by women toting guns, as well as clips of men getting arrested and an American flag with bullet holes painted on the back of a woman. It ends with a dead body laid out on a concrete floor as flowers spread across the body to symbolize the innocence of unarmed people dying.