The tragic death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri has led many in the hip-hop community to speak out. Now XXL Freshman Vic Mensa has stepped forward to give his opinion. At the age of 20 the young rapper already has a lot of insight into the issues of racism and police brutality that face Ferguson and the larger community.

“The whole thing really just shines an unflattering spotlight on our nation’s systemized racism and oppression of poor black people,” Vic told Huffington Post. “The attitude of law enforcement in America is meant to keep people in their place. It doesn’t come off as genuine. It’s power and power corruption. It’s been a part of my whole life, you know, being a kid and riding my bike down the street in Chicago on the south side of my neighborhood, I would get stopped and the police would just question me, like, ‘How you doin'? We saw you yesterday.’ I would be like, ‘No you didn’t,’ and they would respond, ‘Yes we did, you ran from us yesterday. You have a brother? Do you have a twin brother?’ That’s the type of shit we would go through, and that’s just when we were younger.”

The “Wimme Nah” rapper said he’s he be believes the “police need to be policed.” Growing up in Chicago he knows how often police can be corrupt and play the law to work in their favor. While he is not claiming that all law enforcement is bad he does advocate for them being filmed so that they will be held accountable for their actions.

“When you put the cellphone and camera on them, and you try to get their badge number and their name, they get scared. They need to be afraid of fucking up just like we are terrified of fucking up because in can go mortifyingly wrong in an instant.”

In order for there to be true change amongst us, he said, “it needs to represented in the whole mind state. It needs to represented in music, entertainment, art, in policy everywhere.”

Previously: Lupe Fiasco Wants More People To Become Officers
Nelly Shows More Support For Ferguson
Hip-Hop’s Response To The Protests In Ferguson
Kevin Gates Performed In Ferguson The Day Of Michael Brown’s Murder

[Huffington Post]

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