Bay area rapper and entrepreneur Mistah F.A.B recently sat down to speak with XXL magazine, and one of the topics of discussion was Kanye West's infamous slavery comments. During an appearance on TMZ live, West shared, "When you hear about slavery for 400 years, for 400 years?! That sounds like a choice. Like, you was there for 400 years and it was all of y'all?" Kanye upset a considerable amount of people with his perturbing remarks, but it seems the "Ghost Ride It" rapper was an exception.
F.A.B expressed his interpretation of Kanye's comments sharing, "I understand what he said when he said it. We was talking about it yesterday, I was like 'Man, it's hot as fuck, imagine picking cotton in this weather. Imagine it being 120, 130 degrees—you picking cotton in the field. Nigga you gotta kill me. I'm running away 'til I don't have no limbs or nothing."
Despite seemingly agreeing with the base of Kanye's argument, F.A.B is aware of the mechanisms that were employed to keep enslaved peoples on plantations for generations. "Fear is a cofactor," he shared. "And Caucasians, since Black Americans have been in America, have utilized fear as a psychological triggering mechanism to continue to keep programming us. So the programming of the people [has] always been first by fear. Then they put it in by disciplinarian acts that show people, 'This what can happen to you,' which is another sign of fear."
F.A.B went on to share an anecdote involving his brother to highlight the role he believes complacency played in the plight of enslaved peoples. F.A.B told XXL that his brother had a difficult time assimilating to society following his release from prison where he served a 13-year sentence. Of his brother's experience, F.A.B recalls, "He was like, 'My nigga, this shit is different.' The roads are different, life is different. That's scary, because you feel like you in a time warp. That's scary. He went back to jail, and he's okay with being in jail, which is the crazy part. He knows jail. He knows that plantation. They don't know freedom."
You can read more of Mistah F.A.B's comments on the matter here.