i'm just coming from a place of privilege so my perspective isn't straight. i see it from a window of "you've f***in made it, why are you claiming bodies on a youtube video?" or goating people to come find you and shit.
i've never had to walk a day in my life in fear of anything like that. i've never had friends that were caught up in dumb shit. i've never lost someone to gun violence or gang violence. i'm sure durk and other chi-drill music helps people a lot and gives them an outlet and to inspire. it's just so depressing and f***ed up that anyone has to live on this planet in this country with those insecurities being super real.
not chi-town, but i'm just all about the Nipsey vibe. that's a dude who walked a tight rope and ended up being such a positive member of his community in the end. he could tell stories about how it was, how it is, and not spend 2/3rds of the record bragging about smoking tooka. wish that guy was still around. he was a huge f***ing loss for everyone.
Yeah, like I said it’s mostly coming from a place of insecurity. I see it the same way I see someone talking about their drug addiction or something like that, it’s a cry for help. Someone might come along and say “damn these whiny ass kids need to stfu with their talking about drugs, all it does is influence more kids to go down that route” but to me it’s all important to be discussed.
The worst thing to me is when people get straight up uncomfortable and ignore the problems completely because it doesn’t fit into their world view. I’m glad you’re not one of those people and actually know how to have a convo about it, but many times on this forum I’ve dealt with idiots who are not so open minded. Music is a portal into a lot of social issues, but these issues never get resolved if they’re never heard about.
And I can partly agree on the Nipsey thing, although Durk is pretty similar too. He started a trucking company and gave people legit jobs as well. And Nipsey lost his life over some dumb gang shit as well. The Chicago gang culture is just an evolved version of the Cali gang culture, where in the 90s people watched in awe at the level of disrespect being thrown around over things that would become life and death situations. It’s sad all around and I really do hope it gets better with time, and a lot of the dialogue I’ve seen online since this past year where so many rappers died or got shot is pretty encouraging. People are finally starting to have convos about how the culture needs to shift. But change is subtle.