Bay Area rapper Equipto confronted San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee about the city’s gentrification and rising economic disparity. In a video uploaded to his Twitter account, the artist born Ilych Sato is seen calling Lee “a disgrace to Asians.”
“You could make a change,” Equipto says. “You have no heart, man. The people that built this city, you’re getting them all kicked out of here, man. That’s some cold shit. You’re a part of it, and I know you are. I know you’re linked to mobsters and things like that. You need to have some heart. You’re a disgrace to Asians, man. We can make a change. You’re kicking people out. You’re kicking the people that built this city out of here.”
Mayor Ed Lee was accused of taking bribes from Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, a notorious Chinatown gang leader, but was cleared of wrongdoing in August. Chow’s lawyer told SFGate that he believes the prosecutor went easy on Mayor Lee.
Reports of San Francisco’s ballooning economic inequality have become commonplace and mirror that taking place in cities across America. The Silicon Valley tech explosion has caused prime real estate throughout San Francisco to skyrocket in price, forcing thousands of residents to move out of the city in search of affordable housing.
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In the HBO documentary, San Francisco 2.0, former Labor Secretary, Robert Reich says cities like San Francisco are “becoming gated communities.”
“San Francisco is a microcosm for what is happening not only in the United States, but all over the world,” he says. “I’m worried about a city that is becoming uniformly wealthy, out of reach and out of touch.”
In 2005, Equipto released Horns & Halos, collaborative project with Andre Nickatina. He also runs Bay Area label Solidarity Records.
Following the confrontation, Equipto took to Twitter and explained that he’s not trying to be political. He’s trying to do what’s right. Watch the full video below:
I just wanted to tell Mayor Lee something.. pic.twitter.com/e5aCjtSqLq
— Equipto (@EQUIPTO) October 7, 2015
