During an interview with TheNeHipHop, rapper and reality star Benzino spoke in-depth on a shooting he was involved in, which took place as he was en route to his mother’s funeral procession in Duxbury, Massachusetts over the weekend.
The “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” star revealed that he was grazed in the back and shot in the arm during the shooting, but is currently doing “alright.” He says that as a result of the shooting he’ll be required to take part in physical therapy for his hand.
According to reports, Benzino was shot numerous times by his nephew Gai Scott. It’s been reported that the shooting was the result of growing family tension involving Benzino, Scott, and other family members. Zino didn’t speak in-depth on the shooting or Scott, but did state that “Money brings the worst out of people” while addressing the incident.
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“I can’t talk too much about that only because of course it’s an investigation still going on…Only thing I wanna say about that as far as live on camera is that my mother was a beautiful, beautiful woman,” Benzino said. “And what’s transpired with her over the last 10 years was just really unfortunate. As far as her—I would have wanted her to retire. And be somewhere on the island and stuff, but things happened. Things happened that was out of my control. I’m in Atlanta and she’s up here. And she has other daughters and nephews and stuff. It’s just—it’s unfortunate. Money brings the worst out of people.”
As a result of the shooting and his mother’s death, Benzino says he has become a colder person.
“With my mother not here probably—I just start losing faith in human beings. I just start—because when I grew up it wasn’t like this,” he said. “You know what I’m saying? When I grew up…Just society on a whole. It just, it wasn’t like this. People had genuine love for each other. We live in an age of social media now and it’s no genuine love because you really don’t even know who you talking to half the time…I think with my mom passing and with the things that transpired it’s definitely made me a little bit colder. But then there could be something that happens next week that makes my heart happy again.”
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Later in the interview, Benzino criticized the city of Boston for its lack of support for Hip Hop artists. He also referred to The Source magazine as being “garbage” and says the magazine went downhill once he and Dave Mays left.
“Boston’s been hard on me…It’s funny because people don’t understand really that Boston kinda suppresses Hip Hop,” Benzino said. “I mean, it really does. And it’s been doing that—I mean, we went through hell just trying to get our groups popping…There’s no real radio station up here representing Hip Hop. There’s no real clubs up here that people can go and get their stuff played. It’s just the vibe here is just, it’s just a weird vibe. And I don’t want people of Boston to get mad when I say that, but it’s not their fault. You know what I’m saying? It’s the people that run this city.
“I would give props where props is due, the magazine is garbage, man,” he added. “At first it was sad now it’s just funny…At one point they was putting nothing but independent artists and that’s cool, but you’re not gonna sell magazines like that. You know what I’m saying? You gotta have some star power in there. And the people who running it—People have said what they want about Benzino and Dave about The Source or whatever, but some of the greatest magazines and some of the issues came from us, period.”
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Towards the end of the interview he was asked about the authenticity of the VH1 reality show, “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta.” After comparing the show to The Hunger Games, he revealed that it’s “definitely not fake,” but they do “manipulate your reality.”
It’s currently unclear when Benzino is expected to leave the hospital. His nephew, Gai Scott, was reportedly taken into custody and was charged with assault with intent to murder, according to 7 News reporter Adam Harding.
