1 / 10

Unchained: When Musicians Take on Slavery - In Django Unchained, the new Quentin Tarantino film, Jamie Foxx is a long way from singing hooks for Kanye West — he's playing a slave turned bounty hunter turned hero in a movie that deals with the brutality of slavery head on. But Jamie isn't the first music star to take on slavery. Read on to see how other musicians dealt with America's so-called "peculiar institution."  (Photo: Columbia Pictures)

2 / 10

Public Enemy, "Can't Truss It" - The powerful video for Public Enemy's 1991 banger "Can't Truss It" vivdly spotlights slave auctions, whippings and other horrors of slavery. (Photo: Island/ Def Jam Music Group)

3 / 10

Erykah Badu's Name Change - As a youth, Erykah Badu changed her name from Erica Wright, which she considered her slave name. Badu is both her favorite scatting sound and a name used by the Akan people in Ghana. (Photo: Michael Conti/San Jose Mercury News/MCT/LANDOV)

4 / 10

Nas' Untitled - The controversial cover of Nas' 2008 untitled album — which was originally named N---r until the record label forced him to change it — bluntly referenced slavery with its image of the Queens rapper's back covered in scars from whipping. (Photo: Def Jam Records)

Photo By Photo: Def Jam Records

5 / 10

Ben Vereen on Roots - Broadway star Ben Vereen played a slave (and cockfighting expert) named Chicken George in Alex Haley's landmark TV series Roots.  (Photo: Bryan Steffy/Getty Images)

Photo By Photo: Bryan Steffy/Getty Images

6 / 10

Jasmine Guy on Queen - Actor and sometimes singer Jasmine Guy played Easter, a slave who has a baby with the plantation owner's son, in Alex Haley's Queen, a 1993 spin-off of Roots.  (Photo: Riccardo S. Savi/WireImage)

7 / 10

Mos Def's Documentary - Mos Def narrated the 2008 documentary Prince Among Slaves, which told the story of Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori, a West African prince who was brought to the United States as a slave before being freed 40 years later. (Photo: Amanda Edwards/PictureGroup)

8 / 10

Showbiz and AG's Runaway Slave - Golden-era duo Showbiz & AG named their debut full-length Runaway Slave to highlight the horrid conditions in their native South Bronx. (Photo: Mercury Records)

Photo By Photo: Mercury Records

9 / 10

Prince Calls Himself a Slave - In the '90s, Prince went on "strike" and infamously appeared with the word "slave" painted on his face to protest his record company at the time, Warner Bros., and their onerous contracts.  (Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

10 / 10

KRS-One, "Sound of Da Police"  - This 1993 classic from KRS-One cleverly compares police to overseers. "After 400 years, I got no choices," Kris raps.