Just Rankin’ Sh!t

The 9 Best ‘F--- the Police’ Songs, Ranked

No metaphors necessary when hip-hop’s favorite sentiment only needs three words

LEVEL Editors
LEVEL
Published in
3 min readAug 7, 2020
Photo: Doug Burrows/Getty Images

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9. “Fuck tha Police,” Bone Thugs-N-Harmony

The Bone brigade paid homage to the late Eazy-E — who originally signed the group — by covering N.W.A’s hit more or less to the letter for the 1997 tribute album In the Beginning… There Was Rap. It might lack the intricate, syncopated, singsong flow East Cleveland’s finest was known for, but on an album that featured oddities like Puffy doing LL’s “Big Ole Butt” and Cypress Hill covering BDP’s “I’m Still #1”, it at least didn’t make your brain want to turn inside out.

8. “Fuck the Police,” Jay Rock

TDE’s resident red-rag rocker flips that old Common “I Used to Love H.E.R.” schtick. But instead of a love letter to hip-hop, he personifies the police as a woman you’d want to avoid at all costs.

7. “Fuck the Police,” dead prez

M-1 and stic.man were always on some revolutionary shit, and it went far beyond croutons and futons on this broadside: “Power means the man who controls the land/He hold the key to selling drug paraphernalia and contraband.” The anti-cop sentiment didn’t motivate the song so much as it was a chanted afterthought, but it was one of a thousand ways the militant duo made sure you knew shit was bigger than hip-hop.

6. “Fuck the Police,” MellowHype

It’s not often you hear Tyler, the Creator get political — especially during his career’s shock-rap fueled start — but here he plays anchor to Left Brain and Hodgy Beats with a closing verse that recalls Jay-Z’s “99 Problems.” Fittingly, this Odd Future adaptation features some colorful dialog (“I’m Black and I’m loud, what a damn cowinky-dink”) and closes with Tyler going full Tupac.

5. “Fuck the Police,” J Dilla

Inspired by the late Detroit producer/rapper’s routine harassment by local officers…

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