On the 23rd anniversary of the L.A riots that erupted after the Rodney King verdict, Game reflected on his participation in the riots and gave his thoughts on the current uprising in Baltimore, MD over the Freddie Gray killing. In an op-ed piece for Billboard titled “Young Black Men Are Targets,” he said at the time he was proud of what he was doing but in hindsight, he understands that he wasn’t helping to solve the bigger problem at hand.
“That happened when I was 11 years old. I remember looting and throwing bottles and jumping on bottles, jumping on police cars and just being angry. At the moment, it felt great. I felt like, you always hate the police for whatever reason. It all seemed cool for the moment, but now I’m 35. Looking back at what we did as a collective, a young black collective, we ruined our own neighborhood.”
The Jesus Piece rapper says he completely understands Baltimore’s frustration though.
“I understand people wanting to be heard and being tired and fed up. I feel what happened to Freddie Gray was just another reminder of the neglect of the African-American youth in America and us as people.”th
The left coast wordsmith usually addresses social issues via his Instagram account but says he decided to use a different platform so his message wouldn’t be drowned out with negativity.
“I haven’t posted anything on social media because when it was Ezell Ford or Trayvon Martin and I spoke my piece and made posts, people got ignorant in the comments. I had to defend my posts and I didn’t want to do that this time. Social media can be a drive for negativity, and I wanted to wait until I wrote this letter in order to get my point across.”
Read “Young Black Men Are Targets” here.