“For Them We Stand” by Lit Reeezy

Lit Reeezy is a singer-songwriter and artist from Baltimore, Maryland and proves to be way ahead of the pack in a new vanguard of rappers. With Public Enemy jump-starting the beginning of political rap by focusing on society’s ills, other rappers have since taken on that mantle and the past few years have felt like their time. A great deal of inequality and oppression has ratcheted the pressure, and protest is becoming one of the few ways to release that long-simmering tension.

The oppression is particularly close to Reeezy, who is of Persian descent and whose family name is Arya Shahbazy – he sees firsthand the brutal tactics used by the Iranian government to suppress its future generations. For decades the country has been in a malaise, unable to reach the potential that its people promise. Intelligent, thoughtful, and the winners of multiple Nobel Prizes continue to influence the world, yet in their immediate homeland, they’ve been restricted. Nonetheless, Reeezy pays them some mind and allows his art to speak for them. 

Throughout his music, Reeezy speaks about those suffering from heavy depression. The last few decades have seen antidepressant usage skyrocket. While Reeezy is unable to offer answers to such a complex problem, he hopes he can speak their truth by rapping about something more significant that affects a larger number of people each year and every day. 

A highly compassionate artist, Reeezy has just begun his career and has already started speaking truth to power.