Rapper The Game says: 'A lot of people are going to be ready to ride' with Farrakhan

Rapper The Game says: 'A lot of people are going to be ready to ride' with Farrakhan - #JusticeOrElse

By FinalCall.com News | Last updated: Jun 30, 2015 - 9:26:02 AM

The Game

Jayceon Terrell Taylor, better known as Hip-Hop artist The Game is largely credited with resurrecting the West Coast Hip-Hop scene. Hailing from Compton, California, in addition to his multi-platinum selling albums, he has also performed roles in movies and had a voice role in the wildly popular video game Grand Theft Auto. The Game was present for The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan’s “Justice…or Else!” message recently delivered in Los Angeles and he sat in to observe the Minister’s interview with popular LA radio personality Big Boy. He shared some of his thoughts with The Final Call’s Ashahed M. Muhammad during an interview at the Renaissance Hotel near the Los Angeles Airport.

Ashahed M. Muhammad for The Final Call (FC:) You just heard Minister Farrakhan talking about justice for our people. What are your thoughts on what he shared and the theme “Justice…or Else!”?

The Game: For me it’s more of an intellectual battle first. I feel like if everybody could be sitting in a seat where I was sitting, it would be easier to kind of elevate as a people. I think the first thing is just getting the Minister doing what he is doing which is traveling. I just wish that it could be in front of a world audience. It’s good when a few hundred people are hearing it. But I think of the effect it would have if more people could get the message, and I’m sitting there and I’m thinking in my mind what could I do to help to spread the message and raise awareness for our people. Not only for our people, but also for others so that we can coexist in a righteous manner.

FC: Now a lot of people especially with the young generation, the young brothers who are in street organizations and in the Hip Hop community find the elders to be very judgmental. The Minister is not judgmental. He doesn’t place the blame on the rappers and youth nor does he place the blame on the street organizations, and that’s pretty much why they respond to him the way they respond; do you agree with that?

Don’t Shoot was a single released in the summer of 2014 By The Game as a tribute to Michael Brown Jr., the teenager killed in Ferguson, Missouri which sparked nationwide protests after the officer who killed him—Darren Wilson—was not charged. The song featured Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, Diddy, Fabolous, Wale, DJ Khaled, Swizz Beatz, Yo Gotti, Curren$y, Problem, King Pharoah and recording group TGT as the chorus. The song mentions other Black men killed Emmett Till, Ezell Ford, Trayvon Martin, and Sean Bell.

The Game: I agree with it. I think that … I watched him on The Breakfast Club—the whole interview—and the way that he speaks and empowers our youth, I think that commands attention. It really got mine. I loved the approach that he took talking about this newer generation. With media and the government, what they’re doing is labeling our youth as this and that, but they have us in these situations where we can’t better ourselves, so we’re forced to deal with what it is they’re throwing at us. But the way that the Minister is approaching it is a solid way. It is opening a lot of doors. The way that he’s attacking it—we’re going to see in the next coming months. People are just gaining awareness and a lot of doors are going to open. A lot of people are going to be ready to ride.

FC: You travel all around the globe performing, and what do you hear your young fans saying? What are you seeing out there?

The Game: I was just talking to one of my best friends right here—Sonic—that in this day and age, the reason that it’s hard to get the youth to listen and come aboard and be down and reverse the struggle is because a lot of the family values are lost. Number one is marriage and I’m talking about Black families. Marriage, family orientation, your mother and your father both being your life whether they’re together or not, it’s just lost. The art of family and that family organization is just lost and that’s where the youth get lost. It’s like everybody … the youth these days feel like it’s everybody for themselves, and with social media—which has its pros and cons—the number one negative thing that I got to say about social media is that it individualizes everyone, and so everyone feels like they’re a celebrity, they’re a star. So there’s no unity in that. And then you get one person over here going on this person’s page, hating on them, them coming back to hate on you. It’s so broken up I just wish that we can do something to sort of just bring it back where we believe in ourselves again. So I think we’re losing belief. We’re chasing other peoples dreams and not our own. I think a lot of youth out there are just lost.

FC: What about the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement. It seems to be a battle we’re fighting on two fronts. There are protests and we’re upset when the police kill our people, but in many urban areas, we’re sometimes involved in these battles fighting and killing each other in Black on Black crime? It seems to be a point that’s causing many people to think.

The Game: I would say just from children as young as Emmett Till all the way to Trayvon Martin and even to Tamir Rice—young brothers like that—I just think it’s always been there. I struggle myself trying to find the balance in the right and the wrong. I know some of our youth are very upset and they channel that energy in a negative way which sometimes bring problems upon ourselves but I don’t think it gives the authorities who are trained in how to deal with these situations civilly. I don’t think it gives them the right to kill our kids, and so I’m in that fight too. I think Black lives matter. I think all lives matter. God put us all here …put us all down here and we just haven’t … all these years that humans have existed on the Earth, we still haven’t figured out how to balance peace and love. I think that’ll be the ongoing struggle not only for Black people but for everybody—the human race.

FC: You’ve met Minister Farrakhan before, right?

The Game: I have.

FC: What are your thoughts about him as a brother, as a leader?

The Game: I think that he’s one of the last powerful real true leaders that we have and that people should take as many pictures and open their ears as much as they can before he decides to sit it down. I think it’s remarkable and I think when you talk about figures like the Honorable Elijah Muhammad and you talk about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and you talk about Brother Malcolm and just really amazing Black historical leaders, I feel like Minister Farrakhan is the last of that era, and it doesn’t need to be taken lightly.

FC: Thank you.

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