Ferguson Teen Who Witnessed Michael Brown Shooting Writes Rap Song About Experience

When Michael Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson, Mo., police officer on the morning of Aug. 9, few people were on the scene to report what happened.

But Emanuel Freeman (Twitter handle: @TheePharoah) saw the whole thing and sent the following live tweets:

Along with several hundred other tweets, Freeman became the mouthpiece of Canfield Street before the media moved in.

"Every time something major happens in my life, I hop on Twitter, 'cause that's just always been my first form of communication when something happens to me," Freeman told VICE in a video interview. "Me live-tweeting it actually blew up way further than I thought it would. I thought I just witnessed something that would change my life, but it changed America.

"I had to explain my case to the FBI. I had to get a lawyer."

Freeman said he hasn't spoken with Brown's family yet.

"I don't know how that would go," he said. "I don't know if I could look his mom in the eyes without being emotionally affected."

So the 19-year-old is communicating with the world through hip-hop, his favorite form of expression. Freeman wrote a song about the past month's events in his backyard.

"I be chasing dreams in the night," he raps over a haunting beat. "But I can't escape these dreams in my life."

Ferguson, a suburb of St. Louis, is part of the metropolitan area's poor murder and crime rate, which ranks as one of the worst in the nation.

"What's bad is, people were proud of it," Freeman said. "People were proud of us being high on the murder list. Proud of us being a bad city, and I never agreed with it. I stayed away from that crowd. I stayed away from people who promoted the violence. I want this song to be the groundwork. I want people to see how I feel; how it affected me personally."

Check out Freeman's song here (skip to the 2:55 mark):

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