Jay Z releases protest song, called Spiritual, against US police brutality

Jay Z has released a new song after the police shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile in America.

The rapper says he wrote Spiritual a while ago but never finished it.

He's released it on his streaming service Tidal along with a statement attacking police brutality.

He wrote: "Punch (Terrence Henderson, co-president of record label TDE) told me I should drop it when Mike Brown died, sadly I told him, 'this issue will always be relevant'."

Listen to the song on Tidal.

Black teenager Michael Brown was shot dead by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, which led to mass protests and rioting.

Jay Z rapped: "I'm hurt that I knew his death wouldn't be the last...

"I'm saddened and disappointed in THIS America - we should be further along. WE ARE NOT.

Michael Brown was shot and killed in a confrontation with police in the St Louis suburb of Ferguson, Missouri

"I trust God and know everything that happens is for our greatest good, but man.... it's tough right now."

He ended by sending his blessings to the families of those that had lost loved ones to "police brutality" and included a quotation by African-American social reformer Frederick Douglass.

in Louisiana on Tuesday after being pinned to the pavement by two white officers.

Alton Sterling was shot dead by police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

A Minnesota officer shot Philando Castile dead while he was in a car with a woman and a child a day later.

The shooting was streamed live on Facebook.

Philando Castile was fatally shot by police in Falcon Heights, Minnesota

A demonstration against their deaths ended with five officers being killed as snipers opened fire on police in Dallas, killing five officers.

Six others were injured.

Jay Z appears to have started writing the song at least two years ago, as his statement mentions the death of 18-year-old Brown in 2014.

Protest marches were held across America after the shootings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile

Other lyrics include: "I am not poison, no, I am not poison. Just a boy from the hood that got my hands in the air. In despair, don't shoot, I just wanna do good."

He also references his own daughter Blue Ivy, writing: "Can't even raise my little daughter, my little Carter. We call her Blue cause it's sad that, how can I be a dad that, I never had that."

It's the first new single from Jay Z since Part II (On the Run) from the Magna Carta Holy Grail album two years ago.

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