For the last 25 years, Willie D’s words have been dynamite. On and off of the microphone, this self-proclaimed “real-life ghetto boy” has dealt with social issues candidly and thoughtfully – even if some listeners have been left offended. Earlier this month, Willie D orchestrated a song and video, “Hoodiez,” that reenacts and reacts to the murder of Trayvon Martin. The cause was reason to reunite with longtime esteemed partner-in-rhyme Scarface, adding to the Geto Boys legendary story.
While speaking with HipHopDX openly about race and social responsibility in America, the newly-donned columnist for Vice magazine also revisited a 20 year-old song from his sophomore solo album, I’m Goin’ Out Lika Soldier. Recalling his “Rodney K” song (subtitled “Fuck Rodney King”), Willie remembers the Los Angeles Riots and discusses if the tensions between police and civilians have changed.
Willie D Explains Making “Hoodiez” With Scarface
HipHopDX: I love the “Hoodiez” video. I love everybody that’s coming out with a reaction to what’s going on. Tell me, you’ve lived and been a star during so many issues, how important is it for Hip Hop and its artists to respond to an issue like the murder of Trayvon Martin?
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Willie D: That is a great question. We’re the voice, man. We’re the voice of the youth. Hip Hop, like Chuck D said years ago, [Rap music] is the CNN of the hood. So it’s [our duty] to pick up on the social issues that affect the people that we serve. We’re sort of like… for a lack of better words, we’re politicians and the fans are our constituents. The fans are going to be behind you if you’re coming from a good place.
DX: I’m curious for you, this wasn’t really an issue with surveillance tapes and there are not a lot of images of Trayvon or Zimmerman, but you kind of recreated the incident in the video. And I have to ask, was that emotional for you and the people involved in something like this?
Willie D: You know, because I was so involved in the actual casting of the Trayvon Martin and the [George] Zimmerman characters, and even the mother and the father of Trayvon, and the girlfriend – those were really key characters in the video and I wanted to bring them to life.
I was more emotional the day before I actually decided to do the video and do the song. I was at a rally in Houston at Emancipation Park, and I was out there with some other rappers and local community organizers. I was looking out into the audience, looking into the crowd and the people… I was looking at these young kids, some my son’s age, and my daughter’s age, and it just seemed like they were looking up at us like, “What are y’all going to do to make sure this doesn’t happen to me? Am I going to die like Trayvon Martin did? Are y’all going to protect me? What are y’all going to do to protect me?” And so, it’s like we’ve got to step up. We call ourselves men, and we’re out here just maiming and murdering each other for silly stuff. Sometimes for no reason at all, a lot of it is just out of greed or anger or jealousy and that kind of stuff. And we murder just because – not for a cause. So I don’t think it’s any greater cause than to fight for than our children. So it’s like our children are saying, “I see you doing all this ‘gangster gangster,’ and all this stuff…but when are you going to get gangster for me? When are you going to get gangster about making sure I got the proper [resources] that I need to extend my education? When are you going to get gangster for me so that I have clothes on my back and proper nourishment so that I can grow up and be a healthy and productive person? When are you going to start investing in me emotionally and talking to me and being there for me, like you did for your homeboys?”
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DX: That’s the origin of so many street organizations, also called gangs, was to do stuff like that. So it’s funny that now the kids are looking at gangsters – whether they’re gangsters on the microphone or in the streets, to provide that same safety.
Willie D: One thing that I learned early on is that we had a voice. Geto Boys made an impact, wherever we went. We was just in our early twenties when we came out, and I remember people would say… we would go to concerts and there would be like forty-something-year-olds that were like, “Man, how do y’all know that information, man? Y’all talking about some real stuff, brother.” And I’d be like three feet over, with like four or five dudes out there soaking up game from us because we were in the streets from such a young age that we took in a lot. And we expressed that in the music, and I know that for a lot of youngsters, they don’t have father figures and the ones that are out there, ain’t nobody for them to look up to. So when they hear this music, a lot of times they’re getting their lessons from the music. We’re their father figures. We’re their surrogate fathers and they’re looking for the information, the guidance from us. So when we’re speaking on something and it’s coming from a violent nature, it’s never reckless. There are always complications and repercussions [to the violence]. “This is why this happened, this is why this happened, this is what will likely happen,” it’s not like we’re going to say “I got a bunch of guns and assault weapons and silencers and I ain’t worried about nothing.” Well, if some po’ po’ pull you over with assault weapons and silencers, you going to have something to worry about. So it’s important to talk about that side too, that’s why when we did “Mind Playing Tricks [On Me],” I wanted to do my part from a paranoia standpoint: Yeah [on the song] I’m the big drug dealer and [quoting his verse] “I make big money, I drive big cars / Everybody know me it’s like I’m a movie star / But late at night / Somethin’ ain’t right.” See, that’s the part that we don’t tell the youngsters about enough. The part that’s what’s not right about [the violent lifestyle], so that they don’t go into these situations blindly.
DX: You have D. Boi on “Hoodiez.” D. Boi is the first White Rap artist that I’ve seen that’s spoken on the issue and when you orchestrated this song, I’m not trying to tokenize him in any way – but how important was it for you, or notable for you to say, “Hey this somebody who doesn’t look like Trayvon Martin in the eyes of many” speak on the issue?
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Willie D: Well see, here’s the thing: D. Boi represents the hundreds of millions of White people in the world who are tired of that shit. They are tired of this shit too, because every time some clown goes out there perpetuating an injustice against somebody based on the color of their skin because they’re not White, [the White people are] getting looked at upside their heads [by association]. It strains their relationships on the job and in their communities. It’s not productive, so they have to address this stuff and they have to get on the Internet – and they’re reading these comments on websites and checking out the “Hoodiez” video and saying certain things. Black people are responding sometimes – being reckless with their comments [such as] “I hate all White people,” “Fuck White people,” and this and that, or whatever. And they’re going, “Hey, wait a minute what did I do? Why do you hate all White people, what did I do?” It’s like we do the same thing when we say, “Why do you hate all Black people? He’s the motherfucker who hit you in the head and took your purse – not me; you know what I’m saying? Why you hate all Black people?” So, D. Boi represents those people. D. Boi is that kind of person already, but D. Boi comes from Huntsville, Texas. [Texas is] a Red state, and quite frankly, a lot of people in Huntsville are racist when you look at it by proportion. When you look at it by the numbers, there’s a lot more racist people in Huntsville by the numbers than there are in some of the major cities. And that’s how it is with a lot of these places in these country towns in America. You know, these people who live out in these country towns, they’re trying to run from reality, you know? They’re trying to get away so they can only be around people that look like them, and talk like them and think like them. So I wanted D. Boi on the song to speak up. You know there’s a lot of White artists who won’t even speak on this because they still have to go into their community where a lot of people in their community or even their family, are resistant to “justice for all.” So they have to be concerned about, “If I do this song, what is my mom going to think? What are my girlfriend’s parents going to think? My girlfriend is not a racist, but man her parents got some crazy views,” so they have to deal with all that shit. It was very, very important to have D. Boi on that song. And he’s speaking for a whole legion of White people out there that are sick of this shit.
DX: I remember the last time we saw each other, in 2006, you kind of said you weren’t sure if there was going to be anymore music within the Geto Boys brand. Obviously “Hoodiez” is not a Geto Boys song, but to me, it was monumental to see you and Scarface on a record together for an issue like this – which like you said even going back to when you were in your early twenties, was always a foundation of the Geto Boys mission.
Willie D: Very, very monumental. See, again, when I came up with the idea to do the song, I had three people in mind to do the song, and those were the three people that ended up being on the song. [Scarface] was like a natural pick to get on the song because I know his political views and I know what his stance was on the situation and I know that he could articulate [it uniquely]. See, it’s not just having a certain stance, it’s being able to articulate it in a certain way that people get it. And also, when you’re doing collabs, even if you’re the greatest rapper on earth, [you need diversity]. I don’t need another Willie D on the song, I need someone who can offer a whole new perspective so that we can cover as many angles as possible and we don’t give people no kind of wriggle-room so they can be like, “Well they forgot about this, or they forgot about that.” See, I know ‘Face was going to offer a perspective that I hadn’t probably even thought about. And it was good to give the fans that; the fans have been begging for a Geto Boys album. If you go to my Twitter, it’s evident right there…you just go to my Twitter and read some comments, every single day there’s several comments about “Man, can we get another G.B. album; can we get another Geto Boys album?” So while this is not a Geto Boys song, I think it’s the next best thing.
Willie D Explains His Love Of Social Media, Connecting With Fans & Listeners
DX: You mentioned Twitter. As an artist a lot of us deeply look up to, it’s great to see what you’ve done with Twitter and what you’ve done with Formspring where people pretty much ask you everything and you pretty much answer it as candidly as possible. Tell me a little bit about how youv’e embraced social media. I mean even your website and what you creatively wrote recently about “clown rocker Ted Nugent.”
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Willie D: [Laughs] Right, right. You know, it took me a minute to embrace putting the information out there, just being accessible like that. [It] took me a minute to embrace it, but that’s who we are. Social media is the future of music. If you’re an artist it’s a must that you engage with your fans, and to me being on Twitter is like – it actually ended up being like better than what I thought it would be because my fans don’t have to wait a whole year to hear what I got to say, or wait three, four five years to hear me say something. They don’t have to wait to hear from me trying to promote an album to hear what I have to say about something. The Secret Service [prostitution scandal] happened the other day and the fans don’t have to be like, “I wonder what he thinks about this.” Hit me on Twitter and I’ll tell you. Hit me on Formspring and I’ll tell you. It really gets the fans more engaged, and for an artist like me who wears his heart on his sleeve, it’s even better than the artist that’s out there promoting what he’s doing – promoting his records and trying to get fans to always buy something. It’s more rewarding for me because I understand that there’s people out there that are hurting. And I understand that my life is bigger than me, and if I can just say “thanks” and just reach out and allow them to ask me a question and I can acknowledge that fan’s existence. I know how far that goes in that person’s life. So that’s a small gesture to make a difference in the life of a human being.
That’s nothing for me to do that: I hear a lot of times fans will be like “Man, Willie D you’re the best artist on Formspring because most artists when they answer questions, they answer in one or two words and that’s it, they don’t take time to answer questions. You take the time to respond and answer.” But that’s the type of person I’ve always been because I really do love the people. Not just my fans, you don’t have to be a fan for me to answer your question, for me to be engaged with you and sit there and talk to you, you don’t need to buy something from me. Because I understand that we are in this world together, and it’s impossible for us to be here and not figure out a way to coexist. It’s impossible. None of us are going anywhere: you’re not going to wipe out the Black race, you’re not going to wipe out the White race, you’re not going to wipe out the Asians, the Latinos, Filipinos – you’re not going to do none of that. That’s not going to happen, especially with the way of the youth, the way they are today. They’re looking upside their parents’ heads and their grandparents’ heads, like “You motherfuckers are crazy. Y’all are the reason why everything’s so fucked up because you got these old-ass, ancient values or ideas about life, and about people and getting along with one another. Y’all are the problem, it’s not the youth.” A lot of people say, “Well the youth are fucked up! It’s the youth,” it’s not the youth! It is the fucking adults. It’s the people who have birthed the youth. They’re the fuck-ups.
DX: That’s real.
Willie D: If I raise my child in a house that is conducive to learning, then it is going to be a natural process for them to do well academically. So when they graduate high school, I’m not screaming like a motherfucker clappin’. I’m doing a little clap [claps], and be like “Alright God-damnit, time to go to college, time to do this shit again. We got bigger fish to fry. This is not the end, this is just the beginning. We finna’ take over the fucking world because I’ve invested in my child, I’ve invested in you. You’re expected. All the damn money and time I’ve spent going back and forth from school and sitting up helping you with homework and buying books and driving back and forth from school and dropping you off, picking you back up, you better graduate high school! Shit.” So I’m not going crazy like that, but at the same time, if I allow my child to grow up in a household where education is not valued, where education is looked down on, well then I’m not going to bat an eye when my child drops out in the fifth grade, or stops going to school in the ninth grade or gets kicked out of school and stops going back. I’m not going to bat an eye because hey, no on in the family graduates.
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DX: Through being a man of the people, and connecting with your fans what have you learned about yourself, whether it’s professionally or personally, through that kind of communication and access with the people?
Willie D: What have I learned about myself…you know what I’ve learned about myself? I’ve learned that I’m capable of doing much more than I ever thought I could. And what I mean by that is there’s a lot of things you can do – you don’t even have to be a super-star, a rapper, a public figure – to help people along the way to make it a little bit easier. You can see a fight going on in a neighborhood or in the street. Some kids are fighting. Maybe they’re some pretty big kids and a lot of adults are scared to intervene, so you decide, “Hey, you know what, I’m finna’ stop this damn car, I’m going to get out of her, finna’ break this shit up.” But guess what? If you’re an adult, you almost certainly are going to be able to break that fight up. You’re going to be successful breaking that fight up. Because the key is, despite popular belief, they want to be civil. They want to respect adults. They know right from wrong, they know it’s right to respect adults. So it’s about how you go over there to break that fight up: you go over there with some sense. And you say “Hey, hold up, hold on man, y’all done your job, you got him, the fight over, dog.” You know what I’m saying? The fight over. You can do way more than you think you can.
You know, I’ve stopped my car on the way home, two in the morning, tired, sleepy. [I] saw a girl, maybe 12, 13 [years old], at the bus stop with her brother, like six years old. I pulled out my CD, showed her the CD and was like “Hey this is me, Willie D; Ever heard of the Geto Boys?” [She replied] “Yeah, we know the Geto Boys,” “Well look, this is me, right here, take a look, this is my ID. Look, I need you to know that the buses have stopped running around here, and it’s dangerous, anything can happen to y’all. Where you going?” “Trying to get to our mom’s house.” “Here, here’s my phone, call your mother and tell her I’m bringing y’all home.” You know what I’m saying? And I took them home, and it was not like Brownie points to get to Heaven, nothing like that. It was the fact that I think I may have – there’s a possibility that I saved their lives, because anything could happen. If I was another kind of dude, a hunter, then those kids may have perished never to be seen again. So, you know hey, it’s little things you can do. Now that whole little experience took, for me, maybe about 45 minutes to an hour. About an hour later, I got home, and I may have saved a child’s life. We can do much more than we think we can, all we got to do is just take that first step, and we can get a lot more done than we think we can. I think instead of trying to look at saving the whole world, start off with just trying to save a few.
DX: Whether it’s going into some type of preaching of public service or politics, or something like that where you can give this wisdom in another medium besides music?
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Willie D: Well, I’m a ghetto boy for real. So unfortunately I’ve got a criminal record, so I don’t know if I can ever become a politician. Maybe if I go buy my own town or something I can create all the laws, I can be the mayor of a small town or something. Put up a ticket or something, you know what I’m saying? But as far as being a preacher, I don’t know, I don’t think that’s in my future. I think…doing things like – I can see myself being an orator, I can see myself going out and speaking and I can see myself doing stuff like that. Speaking in groups of people or whatever. I’ve done that in the past: speaking in prisons and youth facilities and high schools and middle schools that other artists and public figures wouldn’t dare walk into. I’ve been to youth facilities that house 15 year-old killers. Every single person there is there for murder. And I’ve done that, because I easily could have been one of those 15-year old killers, because I was 15 with a pistol in my hand. So I could have been just as easy… I could have been in their shoes. I like to tell people that the only difference between them and me was that I didn’t get caught. You know? Or I just went this way instead of that way. It don’t necessarily mean I’m smarter, it just means that I was either lucky or just shown favor.
And it’s not just youth facilities, it’s important also that I go to universities, especially Ivy League universities. And speak at these universities because a lot of people that go to these Ivy League universities, they are so far removed from the whole mentality of someone from the streets. That someone has had to grow up in the hood and grew up without a parent, or both parents are alcoholics, abusive relationships, babies at 15, 16, 17 years old, three, four babies. They can’t fathom stuff like that. But regardless of if they can fathom it or not, it’s still a reality, and these are still people and they need assistance. They need to be helped; you cannot discard them, because if you do, they will come see you sooner or later. If they don’t see you their children are going to grow up and they’re going to come see you.
We think we can just set up shop in our nice little neighborhoods where the grounds are nicely manicured and we have a security detail and people are waving and everybody drives nice cars and we can just get inside of our gated community and be safe. Well, the Trayvon Martin case is indicative of that type of thinking not being 100% accurate, because this kid was killed inside of a gated community. You know what I’m saying? This kid lived in a gated community and was still murdered. So living in this nice neighborhood, in our gated communities and as far away as we want to be, no matter what little corner of the world we want to be in, we still have to come out and deal with people. So, indirectly, we’re all affected when we leave kids behind.
When I was growing up, my aunts didn’t want me to stay at their houses. No adults ever came out to me and said, “Willie, I’ve got an extra ticket to the game, do you want to go?” “Hey, Willie, I’m taking my family to the park do you want to go?” “Willie, here’s a book that I thought you might be interested in.” “Hey Willie, what’s up? How’s it going? How you doing man? You alright?” No one ever walked up to me and told me nothing like that. Not even just to check on me. It was always admonishment. My interactions with adults were always admonishment growing up. Persecution, blah blah blah, they avoided me. I was on all accounts considered a bad kid. I pretty much was, but I was reacting to the environment in which that I lived, so I treated them bad and they treated me bad and I treated other people bad, because we’re all creatures of habits and we all are who we are by a process of conditioning. So I was conditioned to be disrespectful and not care about other people or whatever. I was conditioned to be that way.
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DX: Yeah, no one showed you a different way.
Willie D: Nobody showed me a different way and only by the grace of God did I start getting a sense of humanity in me. You know, I started having some remorse for my actions and if I would have never gotten to that point, I would really be in a bad place right now.
Willie D Remembers The L.A. Riots, Recording “Fuck Rodney King”
DX: You mentioned Ivy League Universities. I know you and I know Rap-A-Lot and Geto Boys always had ties to Los Angeles. I know you’re from Texas, but I’m curious, we’re upon the 20th anniversary of the L.A. Riots and David Banner, you know who’s not from L.A. either, he’s speaking at Harvard about it. I want to ask you, what are your memories from the people you knew or the experiences that you had from 20 years ago?
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Willie D: Well what I think about the most is the song I wrote called [“Rodney K,” also known as] “Fuck Rodney King.” First of all, I don’t think real justice can be accomplished without bloodshed. Not in America, because Americans don’t listen. They don’t respect nothing but death and money. The reason why homosexuals, the gays and the lesbians are having so many more rights in this country [given to them] is because they have the power of numbers to stop you. In America you can either stop a person with money or you stop ‘em with death, blood. And so they’re stopping them with money. It’s like, “Okay, you want to fire me? We’re going to protest and shut your motherfucking shit down. We’re going to shut your company down, we’re going to protest your shit and you motherfuckers ain’t going to be able to sell one God damned candy bar. We’re going to shut it down.”
It’s just like overseas when America went overseas and raided Iraq [in Operation Iraqi Freedom]. [We] went over there bombing and everyone was gung-ho about kicking ass, you know? “We’re going to get in there and kick some Iraqi ass and then get on back home and I’ll be home in time for supper.” Went over there, first few nights was beautiful. But then, those Iraqis was like, “You know what, we can’t beat them motherfuckers, man. They got too many bombs and they got all these tanks and shit like that. But what we can do, we can kick one of their asses and chop their head off and put it on TV and we’ll get ‘em like that. We’ll get ‘em through fear. It’s like all the killing they’ve done to us, killing thousands of us. Cool, we’re going to kill one of y’all and put it on TV.” And that right there was enough to make America reconsider their position and their stance. And that was enough to make the soldiers start crying to not go to Iraq. It gave the families a reality check like “Whoa, do we really need to be there?” Because bullies man, you have to bully bullies.
And I felt like the energy over there [L.A.], it was misdirected, because the cops who did it, they got off. No matter what, they still got off and I’m sure all of them are still working with law enforcement to this day. All of them got off, and so you know I understand – that’s the part that I’m split on. It’s like something did happen, so I kind of relate that what happened, the way they were indiscriminately going out and rioting and burning shit up and doing all this stuff, I kind of related it to the guerilla tactics that the Iraqis used.
DX: Put it on TV, yeah.
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Willie D: Yeah. How about putting it on TV? It was like “Okay, we can’t go out and kill every cop, but we can bring harm to the citizens and if the citizens feel the heat enough, the citizens will put the pressure on the cops.” But see the problem with America is that we have never really addressed the issue of police brutality in this country, which goes right to the heart of racism in this country. The biggest part about police brutality in this country is that it is disproportionately levied against Blacks and other minorities. So, because cops got this thing in they’re minds like a lot of… see, what a lot of people don’t understand is that a lot of people who join the police department – they’re racists, and they join the police department so that they get a pass to kick ass and kill at will. Real talk.
Think about it: [speakingf hypothetically] I’m a racist. Okay I know now it’s a new day so I can’t go out and hang a nigga, I can’t do that no more. So what I’ma do? I’m going to join the police department and I’ma get me a badge and I’ma get me a gun. And when I kill one of them, it’s not a big deal because no matter what, I’m covered. Law enforcement is going to get behind me without even asking any questions, they’re just going to automatically get behind me and they’re going to award me the best council. And they’re going to do that because they don’t want to fear the precedent of cops being murdered for murdering. They don’t want to start killing cops, executing cops who go out and hunt people and execute them, they don’t want to do that. So they’ve got to make sure that they get off always. Always, they automatically without knowing any part of the story, they immediately support the cop who did the killing. They don’t even know the story they’ll just be like, “Well, he’s a good officer and the guy came at him and he thought he had a gun.” He thought he had a gun. He thought. I felt. I felt like my life was in danger. Do we as citizens get to do the same thing? What if a cop walks up to me and puts his hands on his gun and I thought my life was in danger so I shot him in the head. Do we get to use that same argument?
Come on, man. So it ain’t going to change until we eliminate all racists. Racists must be exterminated, just like roaches. They are an infestation in America. They are America’s biggest problem. The biggest problem in America is not the economy. The biggest problem in America is racism and it always has been and has never really been dealt with. America needs to deal with all racists the same way that they deal with terrorists because racists are terrorists. In this country, racists are our terrorists, so they need to be dealt with the same way: they need to be extinguished. They need to be put up on the FBI’s Most Wanted List; bounties need to be put up when y’all identify one of them, put up a bounty for him and the amount of the bounty is going to be determined by how big of a racist they are, how much power this racist has, you know? What laws has he committed against the citizens of America? What hate crimes has he committed? There’s a lot of people out there that think this is crazy, but I guarantee if someone had the balls to put this in front of congress and we started going after racists like they do terrorists, these military-style militias- most of these militias are terrorists. If those militia groups would be black or any other color in America, they would shut ‘em down, they wouldn’t be over there talking about, “Well, they’re exercising their Freedom Of Speech and The Right To Bear Arms and you know, hey, as long we they don’t do anything or we don’t hear about them trying to overthrow the government, you know, hey, it’s fine man, they have a right to live in peace – no they’re going to go over there and shut them down. They need to shut these militias down. There shouldn’t be no such thing as a goddamn militia in the United States of America. Anything starts with an M-I-L needs to be military. Shit.
But that shit needs to be dealt with, man, so we don’t have situations like the L.A. Riots and shit man. Why do we still have to still deal with this shit today? Here we are 20 years later and we’re right back where we was, like no one ain’t learning shit. And the rest of the world is watching – if America thinks only America watches what’s happening over here, they’re laughing at us, like “You hypocritical bastards. How dare you come over here and try to tell us how to live, how to be fair to people in my country?” That’s why a lot of those dictators and presidents in other countries, they’re still honorary. They’re defiant of America because they know we’re hypocritical over here. So, “How dare you come over here and tell me to clean my house when your house is dirty as hell?” That’s why they’re defiant.
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DX: At the time you made “Rodney K,” did you catch a lot of flack or that?
Willie D: Uh, no. [Laughs] I just didn’t, I mean, everyone else was saying “Poor Rodney King, poor Rodney King,” and I said “Fuck Rodney King,” because you know, the cops [and] America was not listening. They didn’t give a shit, they were like “Okay we did it, we’re what we’re going to do, we’ll let them off the hook and that’s the end of it. Fuck you. We don’t care what you think. We don’t care about y’all.” So I’m about to go out there and blow that shit up. Now all of a sudden, “Okay, shit well I guess we need to. Well we don’t care but we better act like we care because these motherfuckers are crazy. These motherfuckers actually are capable of fucking shit up.” So I’m like- I don’t spare the raw when it comes to any race. I’m the same dude who that “Niggas And Flies,” know what I’m saying? I just feel like the truth is the truth and that’s what it is and if you don’t like it then don’t be a part of it. And I talked about how I said “Fuck Rodney King,” and I meant it and any motherfuckers out there who resented [can feel whatever way they want]. ‘Cause didn’t nobody set no fires for me when the law beat the fuck out of me. Fuck Rodney King, you know? In this situation, it’s bigger than Rodney King; the situation is bigger than Trayvon Martin. Trayvon Martin is a symbol for justice. That’s what people need to understand. Most people think, “Well [George] Zimmerman got arrested, so it’s over,” it’s not over. Even when Zimmerman gets convicted, it’s not over. We’ve still got a whole bunch of people out there that think it’s cool to just profile somebody and gun ‘em down. In this country. So, it’s not over. It’s not over, that’s what they have to understand.
DX: What is your proudest verse of your career?
Willie D: Proudest verse? Whoa, that’s a good one. You know, I would have to say “Leanin On You” [by] Geto Boys. When I say: “We was living on Colfax / Pops had an old ‘Lac / Couldn’t get along with T. Jones, so he rolled, Jack / I was on Prozac before I was twelve / Spent my senior year in high school sitting in jail to no avail / I was screaming out and nobody heard me / Messed around and got shot, but it didn’t deter me / I think I was 15 so my boy was one tray / Cut my hair one day left my crib and got sprayed / And expired right away nothin’ to say sad chapter / Around here, either you get killed or you get captured / Sister girl I ain’t know what you was dealing with / Pointed the finger at you now I’m feeling like an idiot / But I’m wiser now and I seen the world / It’s messed up how they treat us ghetto boys and girls / The doctors tried to resuscitate it was too late / I got a daughter named Caen and a son named Blake / And they be asking about you all the time / I try to be a better man sometimes I fall behind / So if you feel some extra weight on you don’t be alarmed / Don’t move don’t flee that’s me leaning on you.”
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That was like if I could just have just given somebody else a synopsis of me in a verse, that’s everything in that verse. That’s the one.
