“Dance with the Devil” by Immortal Technique is about a boy named Billy Jacobs and his struggles of living in the ghetto. Coming from a dysfunctional family and living in the projects in New York, Billy wanted to make a name for himself. He participated in many criminal acts in order to climb up the ranks but one even changed his life forever. This song brings art and crime together because it tells a true story about a criminal but rather than telling it as a documentary they incorporated music and turned this criminal act into a rap song.
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I first heard this when I was a freshman in a high school social justice class, and while it’s been over 10 years now, this song is still haunting. I sometimes listen to it and it’s safe to say it’s had a lasting impression on me. I think that this song (and the class in general) was pivotal to my understanding of “criminals” and why people commit crime, and it instilled in me important critical thinking skills.
Immortal technique had a powerful and true message about how we are doing these crimes in our own hoods to our own people our own family, in essence, to ourselves.