Vince Staples has made it a point to dispel the stereotypes of being a member of a gang. In an interview with The Guardian, the Long Beach, California emcee explains why he joined a gang.
“I started gangbanging because I wanted to kill people,” Staples says. “I wanted to hurt people. There’s no reason. It’s a bloodthirst. The same reason people join the army, because they want to kill. A lion doesn’t make an excuse to kill anybody. He does it because he wants to.”
Staples acknowledges the system that created gang culture, but says it isn’t just race that has caused oppression.
“It’s also a class thing,” he says. “When it’s time for it to really go down, the White boys from the Black neighborhoods are Black in the eyes of the aggressor. It’s a clash of cultures. Money changes everything.”
Staples currently lives in Orange County, California, in an area more affluent than the one in which he grew up. He uses a recent incident when explaining the differences between how he is treated in each location.
“I got pulled over without a driver’s license the other day and they were like, ‘Be safe, get home safe,’” he says. “If I was in Long Beach, they’d have pulled me out of that shit and taken me to jail. You don’t have to do anything to get to jail. When they want to pick you up and take you, you’ll go.
“As someone who has been deemed a criminal in his life, I know why police are scared,” he continues.
Staples encourages the Black community to “broaden certain issues to make them more familiar [to White people],” he says. “Do we want understanding, or do we just want sympathy?”
For additional Vince Staples coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
This dude is ignorant people join the army to defend their country or for patriotism. A lion hunts cuz of hunger and also for protecting its territory and its cubs. If you want to hurt people and have blood thirst then don’t make make ridiculous comparisons that don’t apply at all to try and make sense of your malicious acts.
Naw dude, I think u missing the point. Vince said it best when he said “Do we want understanding, or do we just want sympathy?”
Agreed with HIQ they keep giving Vince this platform to make a fool of himself. Lions don’t hunt for sport but for mere survival. As much as Staples wants to be the spokesman he’s got a whole lot more to learn about how to draw appropriate and succinct comparisons.
Defend your country nah man not when we still in countries where they don’t need us as much as they wanted or want us as much as we not needed, fuck everywhere US or UK land we remain at like Germany, Vietnam & India etc
clearly you guys don’t watch national geographic. the male lion usually does not hunt, the lionesses do, but on occasion the male lion will kill a large prey just to show his power and strength, and remind everyone why he is the leader of the pride. he will kill just to kill. sure everyone enjoys a big mea, but the point is he kills just to kill, like this rapper said in his interview. clearly he’s an informed individual and you guys arent
No the fck they dont, I have never met anybody that joined the army or anything to “defend their country, its either they want the benefits, they like the environment of being in the army, or they want to kill people.
Vince speaking some real truth here. We praise you young blood.
co-sign. These other fools focusing on the nature bullshit he was saying and too stupid and narrow mindeed understanding the real message of what he was saying.
He’s a crip. Don’t get it twisted nigga or they might kill you for saying blood because that how real gangsters what
For the first time since i know this dude he’s talking crap,well said HIQ, these are some of the wrong orientation he must have been given when he started gangbanging,artists arent always right,they just have a platform to speak to the world,i’ve heard so many apologise for their past comments
Gangs are stupid I’m black and I’m not in a gang but growing up I made the gangsters fear me. I was he bully that bullied the biggest people around. I out smarted everyone but that made me realize gangs aren’t sh!t
FuCK dis cKrab ass lame
Hey that summertime 06 is fucking awesome though. One if the best releases this year by far
Make your statement broader so we can understand….”ppl join the army to kill” cause you dont Sound intelligent at all…