"Chains" is a song by American R&B recording artist Usher featuring American rapper

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and German singer-songwriter Bibi Bourelly. It was released on October 15, 2015, as a Tidal exclusive. The song is titled “Chains”, the interactive video experience is called “Don’t Look Away”, using facial recognition technology forcing viewers to watch, to keep their eyes fixed on those of the victims.

Background and release

The song's interactive video experience forces people to confront racial injustice and police brutality. To watch; users must open the video on their computers in

Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curr ...

or Chrome and activate their webcam. In the “Chains” it plays the images of

Trayvon Martin Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was killing of Trayvon Martin, fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic an ...

, Rekia Boyd, Sean Bell, Marlon Brown, Ramarley Graham, Amadou Diallo, Caesar Cruz and other recent victims of police violence. Along with the images it includes descriptions of their deaths, of which no one has been charged or found guilty. Following the release, Usher led a dialogue alongside civil rights activist

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, rapper

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and

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reporter Soledad O’Brien at 92 Y theatre in Manhattan to discuss their commitment to "Breaking the Chains of Social Injustice." During the discussion Usher explained the importance of speaking out against social injustice and explained his partnership with co-owner of Tidal,

in mounting the campaign.

Music video

On February 2, 2016, Usher uploaded the standard music video for "Chains" on his YouTube and Vevo account. The video is directed by Ben Louis Nicholas and

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for Film The Future. The

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video begins with the audio of Usher V, his oldest son saying "With liberty and justice for all?" and his youngest son saying "Justice for all". In the video Usher is followed by the police at night and as he runs with hands up, images of guns and people praying are shown. Later, Usher is in a church at his own memorial service, he doesn't understand until he sees the childhood pictures of himself and attempts to grab the attention of the silent mourners. During Nas's verse, Usher is pictured in the back of a police car crying.

Impact

In four days of the release the video was featured on ''

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helped amplified the message by posting on their social media accounts to help make this serious conversation.

Live performances

Usher debuted "Chains" for the first time at the Tidal X: 1020 concert on October 20, 2015, in Brooklyn at the Barclays.

Personnel

Credits adapted from Tidal. *

Writing Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

– Bibi Bourelly, Paul Epworth, Albert Andre Bowman, Nasir Jones, Usher *Composers - Bibi Bourelly, Paul Epworth, Albert Andre Bowman, Nasir Jones, Usher, Arthur Strong, Issiah J. Avila, Miguel Gandelman, Juan Najera * Production – Paul Epworth *Conductor – Sally Herbert *Mix engineering – Manny Marroquin

Chart performance

References

{{authority control Usher (musician) songs Nas songs Songs written by Usher (musician) Songs written by Nas 2015 songs RCA Records singles Songs written by Bibi Bourelly Songs about police brutality