Pick A Side

Artist

Bobby Sessions

Album

RVLTN (Chapter 1): The Divided States of AmeriKKKa

Genre

Hip-Hop/Rap

"Pick A Side" appears on RVLTN (Chapter 1): The Divided States of AmeriKKKa (Def Jam EP, July 20, 2018). Where much of the EP names external systems, this track turns inward, interrogating assimilation and complicity, what Sessions frames as the choice between solidarity and serving the interests of a culture built on Black subjugation. DJBooth read the song as Sessions "challeng[ing] the meaning of blackness, especially in how it relates to a white culture that looks to invade and infect it," citing lines that set "Uncle Sam" against "Uncle Tom" and ask "what you know about shaking hands with the man that'll hang your kin?" Within the EP's structure, the song advances Sessions' argument that a real movement requires self-knowledge before it can confront its opposition.