For better or for worse, violence and hip-hop appear to be indefinitely linked. More so than almost any other genre of music, fans of rap music frequently have to watch as their heroes have their lives taken away from them. The tragic death of XXXTentacion, at only 20 years old, was a testament to how bad the issue has gotten.
Since his release from prison, Meek Mill has completely changed his image. A fighter for criminal justice reform, Meek is using his experience to try and bring others down a more positive path. At a recent live show, Meek took the opportunity to give a shout out to X, and to speak out against the never ending cycle of violence.
"That was a good young nigga that lost his mother fucking life," Meek said. "And if you come from the mother fucking streets, and the ghettos of America, your black or your spanish; the system is already trying to hunt us the fuck down."
As Meek has spoken about before, the justice system is titled heavily against people of color. One statistic puts black people at 13% of the American population, but 40% of the prison population. The causes for this are many, and there's no easy answer to solving the conditions that lead to criminal behavior, but at some point something has to change.
"Make sure you think about it before you kill a mother fucker that look just like you," Meek says. He's right, at the end of the day, no one wants to end up dead or in jail.