The first time Howard “Treble” Cox saw the video for Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s raunchy new single “WAP,” he was almost aghast. Here are two of the hottest rappers in the industry right now using their massive platforms to rap about “Wet Ass P-ssy,” something he saw as a wasted opportunity.
So, the St. Louis-based rapper decided to take matters into his own hands and flip the chart-topping hit into his own version called “Weak Ass Police” in an effort to bring more awareness to the horrors of police brutality.
“As much as I love them both and believe that they are entitled to rap about whatever they feel, I just feel like as an artist, especially Hip Hop artists, we need be speaking on the issues that we’re facing right now and using this culture that I believe is the most powerful in the world to bring forth change,” Treble tells HipHopDX. “With that being said, I don’t hate the song. I catch myself singing it everyday.”
Aside from the many “WAP” meanings he saw floating around the internet, including “What About Prosecuting (The Killers of Breonna Taylor),” he also drew inspiration from comedian Lala Milan.
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“I realized there was a significant amount of open beat on the track available that would be easy to edit into an instrumental and rap over,” he says. “Then there was a comedian named Lala Milan who posted a video to the song where she appears to be dancing in the house from the video.
“Once I saw that, it occurred to me that I could do the same, as I had experimented with green screen on a video of mine prior. I don’t remember if I came up with the line ‘Weak Ass Police’ before or after I realized I could chroma key myself in the video, but I did know that I was gonna rap about police brutality and misuse of force over the track just because of the current climate.”
Like many Black Americans and beyond, Treble is fed up with the seemingly endless stories we hear of White police officers killing unarmed Black men and women — and that frustration is evident with the current climate.
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Nationwide protests erupted following the May police killing of George Floyd, the 46-year-old Black man who screamed for his mother as ex Minneapolis Police Department officer Derek Chavuin pressed his knee on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.
In the case of Breonna Taylor, the 26-year-old EMT from Louisville, Kentucky, she was killed by Louisville Metro Police Department officers who were serving a no-knock search warrant at the wrong house — and yet, no justice.
Elsewhere in the video, Treble mentions Sandra Bland, Eric Garner and Elijah McClain, who also died in police custody. In one scene, he holds a copy of the recent issue of Oprah Winfrey’s O magazinewith Taylor on the cover.
“Every week we look up and there’s another story of an unarmed Black person being murdered by police, there’s another hashtag and slowly the outrage begins to lessen and lessen,” Treble explains. “Breonna Taylor’s story and many others have have all but faded from headlines. If we don’t address these issues in ways outside of traditional protest, such as music or art, people will forget what we are even protesting about and unarmed Blacks being slain by the authorities will become the new normal like masks and hand sanitizer.
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“Not everyone watches the news but just about everyone, Black and White, listens to rap music in some fashion. This is the most effective way of explaining to those who may not understand why the nation is in an uproar, in my opinion.”
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Treble is hoping his version of “WAP” can shed some light on the pressing issues at hand and inspire others to take action. Even though it’s baffling sometimes to see vapid content like “WAP” smashing records and debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, he has a mission.
“As an artist, it’s frustrating because when you put 100 percent into everything you create, it breaks your heart to hear a song you just know took 10 minutes to put together getting massive airplay everywhere you go,” he says. “It will make you question why you even do this.
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“As a music lover, it’s absolutely frustrating because songs with meaning and a message can change the world. I truly believe society today is a direct reflection of the fact that so much disposable music has been jammed into our subconscious. My mother use to tell me ‘garbage in, garbage out.’ I never understood what she meant until now, just look at where we are today.”
Watch the video above.
