Ja Rule is leveraging his public persona to combat the black community’s concern over public safety with police.
In an interview with VIBE, the rapper recalled a recent conversation he had with his 15-year-old son, who expressed concern for his safety around police officers.
“He said to me, ‘Dad, I’m scared that the police might pull me over and do this, that, and the third.’ I said, ‘Yo, Rule. I worked too hard for you to feel that way.’ I said, ‘That’s why you’re living in this house and in this neighborhood, because I don’t want you to feel like that. You shouldn’t have to feel like how I felt growing up. Looking over your shoulder every five minutes for the police, when you driving cars looking in your rear-view to make sure they ain’t behind you…’ He shouldn’t have to feel like that,” the rapper said.
As for a possible solution for alleviating his son's concerns, Ja suggests that a bigger movement -- aside from the Black Lives Matter movement -- needs to take place addressing black on black crime.
“If Black Lives don’t matter to Black Lives, who the f**k else is it going to matter to?” he asked. “So I know it all starts with us. I want to see bigger movements. I don’t want to see Black on Black violence no more. I want to see us root for each other, and I want to see us be happy to see the next man win. And it starts with messages like this that I’m sending…The more positive, successful Black men we have, the more chance we have to break the cycle.”
Check out more of Ja Rule’s VIBE interview in the clip above. (WARNING: Explicit language).
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