One of the ongoing trends in the city of Chicago, Illinois, is the violence that has claimed so many Black lives. Chicago Rapper G Herbo experienced that violence firsthand growing up in his neighborhood, and he’s shared those stories on several of his songs.
During a recent interview with Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning radio show, G Herbo briefly spoke about what it means to survive in the gritty streets of Chicago by channeling some vintage Kanye West lyrics. According to Herbo, people automatically become saviors if they make it past their 25th birthday.
“I’m taking a responsibility to just let people know ‘hey, look, life is real along these ends,'” Herbo said. “When I was 18, even before that, 15, 16, I used to call people from my hood that turned 25, I’m like ‘Oh, yeah, you OG status now,’ cause being outside, your life can be taken from you at any moment.”
Kanye West shared those same sentiments back in 2004 on “We Don’t Care,” off his debut studio album The College Dropout. The lyric in question was, “We wasn’t supposed to make it past twenty-five/Joke’s on you, we still alive,” which symbolized the dynamic between the hood and the years it takes off Black Americans.
Blacks who grew up in the inner city have a shorter life expectancy than their white counterparts due to several factors such as drugs, gun violence and inadequate health care. According to a report by the Chicago Sun Times in June 2021, Black Chicagoans are nowhere near expected to live as long as white residents. If they make it past 25, Blacks still have to face the ongoing threats that other races rarely face.
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“Black Chicagoans on average live 71.4 years while non-Black residents live 80.6 years,” the article read. “While non-Blacks saw their life expectancy drop by more than three months in those five years, life expectancy dropped for Blacks by more than 14 months.”
Another report from Bookings says the issue is even worse on a national scale. Their article from February 2021 claims the life expectancy at birth for white men is “6 years lower than at age 65,” but for Black men, that gap is over nine years meaning they were more likely to die prematurely. Kanye West played into sentiments many Black Americans feel about their place in society via his infamous 2005 Hurricane Katrina rant aimed at former President George Bush.
In October, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested 5 men allegedly responsible for the murder of FBG Duck in Chicago’s affluent Gold Coast. FBI agents held a press conference to address the violence plaguing Chicago and blamed it on the city’s drill music scene.
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FBI Agents Denounce Chicago Drill Rap, Music Videos Following FBG Duck Murder Arrests
“What’s happening on social media and what’s happening in music videos that are on YouTube, particularly in the drill rap genre, it shows you what’s happening in the city,” the agent said in the clip. “It shows you exactly what’s happening in the city, which are people are flooding the streets to commit acts of violence and then either bragging about acts of violence or talking about how they’re going to retaliate through other acts of violence, and it’s happening on a regular basis.”
G Herbo, who’s currently 26, dropped his latest album 25 in July 2021 and it details his life at that age. 25 debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 chart and was inspired by Herbo’s friend Lil Greg who was killed one week before turning 25.
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Stream G Herbo’s 25 below.
