"It just was a tragic, tragic story of why," Cube says. "Young people are dying for no reason all over the world that don't know why. It's ugly, everywhere."
Shaw had been on track for a college sports scholarship when he was gunned down in March a few yards from his house in a working-class neighborhood south of downtown Los Angeles. His mother was serving in the Army in Iraq at the time.
Pedro Espinoza, an illegal immigrant and suspected gang member who had been released from jail a day earlier on weapons charges, has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Prosecutors say Espinoza drove to Shaw's neighborhood and shot him after asking him about his gang affiliation. Police have said Shaw was never in a gang.
The rap video begins with the tightly framed, sorrow-filled faces of Shaw's parents and aunt. His father recounts a final conversation with his son.
"To drive this home, it was only right to use real family and not use a bunch of actors," Cube says.
His video features photographs of dozens of other crime victims blowing from a tree, then across the sand in the desert. It also depicts a young man in a football jersey being gunned down on a street. As he lays dying, he asks, "Why me homie, why me?"
Espinoza's early release from jail led the Shaws to call for the passage of "Jamiel's Law," which would push Los Angeles police to crack down on illegal immigrant gang members.
