Vince Staples stepped into the HOT 97 studios with Funkmaster Flex and hit him with a freestyle weighing in on the Black Lives Matter movement.
A medley of topics flowed into the bars of the Norf Side, Long Beach-bred rapper: white privilege, gentrification, the lack of black-owned businesses, poor education, police brutality, and more. With these issues all plaguing black communities, Staples addresses his people directly. “With my big black fist, with them blisters in it from that wood grain whip,” he asks that that the black community put aside things like gang rivalry and material things to focus on the well-being and progression of black lives, and taking action to ensure others outside the community do as well.
If my black life matters, mothaf*^ka stop the killin’
If my black life matters, mothaf*^ka stop snitchin’
If my black life matters, mothaf*^ka start business
In your hood ‘stead of lettin’ fuc*^in’ Starbucks in it
If my black life matters then respect our women
If my black life matters don’t neglect our children.
Despite aiming these words at black people specifically, his freestyle doesn’t necessarily prioritize the popular deflection. “But what about black on black crime” that BLM supporters are challenged with? His call for rage against police brutality proves that his idea of bettering the community insists external reform too.
Check out more of Vince Staple’s Freestyle019 below.
