Public Enemy rapper Chuck D asks fans to stop using the group’s “Burn Hollywood Burn” song when posting videos of the wildfires tearing through Los Angeles.
The hip-hop icon shared his request on Instagram, urging people to learn the history of the track and commenting that it “has nothing to do with families, losing everything they have in a natural disaster.”
He also took a moment to pray for those affected by the wildfires.
“🙏🏽 PRAYERS UP. BE SAFE. EVACUATE,” Chuck D captioned a photo of an LA neighborhood in flames.
Stemming from the 1990 Public Enemy album Fear of a Black Planet, “Burn Baby Burn” is associated with the Watts Riots, also known as the Watts Rebellion, which occurred in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles in August 1965. The movement was in response to police brutality against a Black man named Marquette Frye when the California Highway Patrol pulled him over for allegedly drinking and driving.
When bystanders believed the law officials’ treatment of Frye and his family to be excessive, tensions began to rise, ultimately leading to six days of unrest from Aug. 11 to Aug. 16, 1965.
As previously reported by Blavity, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Bozoma Saint John and singer Jhené Aiko are among the many people who have lost their homes to the LA wildfires.
According to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Palisades Fire has covered over 20,000 acres (almost 27 square miles), and the Eaton Fire has affected over 13,000. The fires have destroyed at least 1,000 structures, and evacuation orders affected roughly 180,000 people. CNN reported the death toll has now risen to at least 10 people.
