I Shot The Police Analysis

Bob Marley’s song ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ and Ice-T/Body Count’s song ‘Cop Killer’ both deal with aspects of antiauthoritarian behavior towards law enforcement. This attitude has been seen and popularized throughout modern culture in both hip and hop and reggae music. But in order to understand the varied reaction to this kind of material, you have to evaluate the historical and social context behind both songs.

With ‘I Shot the Sheriff’, The song is about a man who admits to killing the local sheriff, and claims to be falsely accused of killing the deputy sheriff. He also claims to have acted in self-defense, as he says the sheriff tried to shoot him. The song itself has many meanings to it. In reference to its antiauthoritarian nature, you have to look at the power struggle in Jamaica that dates back to 1834 to when the Slavery Abolition Act was made into effect by the

And so this antiauthoritarian behavior stems from the lifestyle they are living. Bob Marley even said his intention for the song was “to say 'I shot the police ' but the government would have made a fuss so I said 'I shot the sheriff ' instead… but it 's the same idea: justice.” (Marley, 1998). And so intentionally, Bob Marley isn’t promoting or insinuating to commit violence, he his highlighting the point of a view from another man because of the harsh lifestyle that is taking place in Jamaica and this life of crime is for justice because of the injustice that has gone on for so many years from the abolishment of slavery to the effects caused by