The trauma Migos rapper Quavo suffered after witnessing his nephew Takeoff being gunned down final yr is a disturbing sight he doesn’t need anybody else to expertise.
Through his ache, Quavo discovered his function as a vocal advocate towards gun violence. He met privately with some highly effective political figures together with Vice President Kamala Harris then later spoke on a panel about combating the problem throughout the Congressional Black Caucus legislative convention in Washington on Wednesday (Sept. 20).
The Grammy-nominated rapper mentioned Takeoff’s premature loss of life in 2022 finally satisfied him to talk up. “I feel like your calling comes at the least expected times,” mentioned Quavo, who additionally honored his nephew with their Migos bandmate Offset throughout the BET Awards earlier this summer season.
Police say Takeoff was an harmless bystander who was shot outdoors a Houston bowling alley after a disagreement over a profitable cube sport led to gunfire. Takeoff’s loss of life was the most recent in a string of deadly shootings in recent times that concerned hip-hop stars equivalent to Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke, PnB Rock and Young Dolph.
“You don’t think nothing is going to happen,” Quavo continued. “I need to step up to the plate and hit a homerun. I have to do something about it, so it won’t happen to the masses — especially in our culture. I don’t want this to happen to the next person. I want to knock down these percentages.”
Quavo joined a panel dialogue Wednesday alongside Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, Rep. Lucy McBath — whose activism was propelled after the capturing loss of life of her teenage son — and Greg Jackson of the Community Justice Action Fund. It was a solutions-oriented dialog on group intervention methods, the battle with gun violence and the ability in advocacy.
Earlier, Quavo arrived on the convention hand-in-hand together with his sister Titania Davenport, the mom of Takeoff. After Quavo met with Harris, the vice chairman praised the rapper and Davenport’s “call for action” to forestall gun violence.
“We need to do better with the control of guns,” Quavo mentioned. “We need to figure out how do we keep these types of incidents from happening to people going anywhere and thinking they can hurt somebody where it shouldn’t happen.”
After Takeoff’s capturing, Quavo usually requested himself “How do we use (guns) safely?”
“And how do you keep them out of the hands of people that make bad decisions?” he mentioned. “I’m kind of in a half-and-half place. Even police have guns. Unfortunately, some of the people in our culture and loved ones have been lost to police brutality. It’s all about choices and how we can put a filter on who can use these guns.”
Jackson mentioned Quavo’s voice may make a distinction. He applauded the rapper for sitting down with members of Congress, providing his firsthand insights and placing the stress on them for impactful change.
“His voice and commitment around community violence intervention could provide more resources for those who are most at risk,” mentioned Jackson, whose Community Justice group hosted Quavo for a day of advocacy. They are each pushing for passing of the Break the Cycle of Violence Act, which would offer a $6.5 billion federal grant to communities to curb gun violence, create prevention packages, job coaching and workforce improvement for teenagers.
Jackson, who was shot in 2013, mentioned combating gun violence has change into private for him.
“It’s what we need,” Jackson mentioned. “With gun violence, in order to change it, we have to change the behavior just as aggressively as we focus on safety and ownership and access. But we can’t change behavior if our communities don’t have the resources they need, and our youth is being overlooked and forgotten.”
So far, Quavo has taken the proper steps ahead: Last yr, the rapper and his household launched the Rocket Foundation in honor of Takeoff and he dedicated $2 million to spend money on group violence intervention. He aspires to develop extra after college packages in areas the place group facilities have been shut down and basketball objective rims had been taken down.
Quavo says it’s crucial to maintain the youth busy with productive actions in a protected atmosphere. He’s already reached out to some within the hip-hop group for help together with rapper Meek Mill, who’s been lively with prison justice reform.
But Quavo says he is aware of he wants extra political backing to streamline much-needed assets to the much less lucky.
“I feel like after going to the White House, I need resources,” he mentioned. “I need a bag of goodies, so I can take back and say ‘Here, this is for the culture.’ We have that extension cord. We are plugged into that type of environment. I don’t think no one else in our stature is that connected. In order for things to change, we need resources.”
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