Initially premiered on June 24, 2016 as part of a 9 minute short film on his VEVO account, “By Any Means” is the third song released from Schoolboy Q’s Blank Face LP.

The title is an allusion to Malcolm X’s classic “By Any Means Necessary” speech, in which he argued that African Americans must seek:

freedom by any means necessary… justice by any means necessary… [and] equality by any means necessary.

Q reinterprets Malcom X’s message to apply to the environment in which he grew up, one where any amount of violence, pimping, and drug running are justified in the name of “getting yours.”