A lot of musicians, specifically rappers, came out to voice their frustration towards the growing number of attacks on rappers, with the most incident being the death of PnB Rock, who was fatally shot after being allegedly robbed outside of a restaurant.
In an interview with “Hell Of A Week,” hosted by Charlamagne The God, Fat Joe declared, “rappers are an endangered species.”
This notion came about from Jim Jone’s Instagram live prior to Joe’s interview. Jones noted that being a rapper is a dangerous job, a sentiment echoed by Joe in the interview.
“We getting hit up by the police, hit up by the feds. And we getting hit up by our own for being in our hood trying to show love,” Joe said.
“It’s so dangerous to be a rapper these days, it’s hardest job out there right now. Because they coming out you either way, they trying to put you in jail or these your own people trying to kill you,” he added.
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‘One Shot’
Following the death of PnB Rock, various statements came about, with some saying that the rapper’s death was brought about by his wife posting on Instagram, revealing their location.
“So we get all these deflections of ‘Oh, but his wife posts the chicken. Oh, he’s not supposed to wear jewelry.’ How about we not supposed to kill each other?” He said, shutting down the victim-blaming statements surrounding the case.
Joe revealed that he himself was a robber before. He acknowledged that stealing is inevitable, however, he called out the robber for killing PnB Rock.
“I’m not against him robbing him. You caught him, rob him,” he said. “Why you got to kill him?”
“[…] Not only destroy that family but what about the other families that are sitting in Roscoe’s and they see somebody get their brains blown out in front of them? You destroy the whole village with one shot.”
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Fans React
There were mixed reactions from fans regarding Joe’s interview. Some found flaws in his logic, noting that it was gang culture that caused the deaths of the rappers, not rap culture per se.
“That’s gang culture, not rap culture. Notice that you never see female MCs checking in or rappers who are not street rappers. The checking in thing is stupid but it only applies to those that don’t have security but want to hang out in the bad areas,” a user said.
“[…] Often the gang culture and hip hop/rap culture does get intertwined. But when you think about it the only rappers that do that affiliate themselves with gang culture. I’ve never heard of Post Malone, Kanye West, or Nicki Minaj checking in,” the user continued.
Although checking in works most of the time, it doesn’t even promise your safety. Biggie was checked in and still got shot and killed. Many LA rappers live there too and have been shot or killed in their own city.
It’s a dumb thing but that’s gang culture not rap culture. (2/2)
— Eric (@EricsElectrons) September 16, 2022
“I love ya Fat Joe but why not stop the BS talk and get down to it. These rappers glorify killing and gangster life. They kill each other over petty stuff. They are not an endangered species. Lmao. This has been going on since the dawn of gangsta rap, [sic]” another wrote.
While some echoed Joe’s sentiments, “To a certain extent I agree with him. I’ll say this though many situations can be avoided. Then you have certain times when they can’t. It’s what the culture has become itself. It’s cannibalistic it eats its own. [sic]”
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