Songfacts®:

• T.I. takes a stand here against police brutality and social injustice on this bombastic cut. The refrain, "Hands Up, Can't Breathe," is a slogan that originated after the cop killings of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
• The track was released as a single from T.I.'s politically charged collection of protest tunes Us or Else, where he speaks out against the killing of black men and women by white police officers. The rapper explained to Billboard magazine that he felt "compelled" to lay down the EP after the murders of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile in July 2016.
  
  "I never really planned, 'OK, I'm gonna go in the studio.' But the Alton Sterling and Philando Castile murders that took place in July, they compelled me to do something - and I didn't know what something was. It was everything from protesting to meeting with the people who I know experienced similar times in history, and formulated plans that contributed to the progression of the people. If I'm doing that during the day or that night, I'm gonna be in the studio so, quite naturally, it just happened."
• Directed by Lauren Richardson, the video poses the question, what if white people were the victims of racism and injustice? We see re-enactments of the murders of Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and Philando Castile, with Causcian actors portraying the three victims. All the cops in the clip are played by African-Americans.