A few rappers have expressed anti-vaccination views with Royce Da 5'9" being the most recent to take it on wax. Fresh off of the release of his latest project, The Allegory, the rapper recently elaborated on lyrics from "Tricked," explaining his controversial stance. On the song, he raps, "From day one at the hospital they target our children/Say they gonna immunize 'em they somehow get autism."
Speaking to Complex, Royce explained that the stance isn't one that he's actually pushing others to believe. He explained that he and his wife don't even share the same beliefs in this and that all of his children have been vaccinated.
"I have a child on the spectrum. All of my kids have been vaccinated. Within the last couple of years, I started being just real, real information junkie," he said. "I found that I was able to draw a correlation between autism and vaccination. I found vaccinations link back to autism in many ways. And my wife is not anti-vaxx. So if I was ever going to have any more kids, we'd probably have to figure out a way to meet halfway. So I'm not in any way trying to encourage people to not get their kids vaccinated. I encourage you to believe what you want to believe.
The journalist, Shawn Setaro, pressed the topic further, asking whether it's dangerous that, as a public figure, he's pushing this message, even though the link between vaccines and autism has been disproven.
"It's not a danger, because I'm speaking the facts. People who are against the anti-vaxxers, where are their facts at? What facts do they have? Was there something that America told them? Because I operate under the edict that America is guilty until proven innocent," he said before asking Setaro whether he has a child on the spectrum.
"You're telling me what you want to believe, and I'm telling you what I want to believe. It's just that simple. You don't have any facts that can say that I'm wrong. You're just telling me what you believe, and I'm fine with you believing that. But don't try to tell me what I can say and what I believe. I believe what I want to believe. And I say what I want to say. So you feel like I can believe it, then it shouldn't be anything else to talk about."
Peep the interview here.