This month will mark the arrival of G Herbo's PTSD studio album. Prominently, the project's artwork featured Herb holding an American flag in which the 50 stars that typically represent the 50 states were replaced with images of all the friends that Herb has lost over the years. In a recent conversation, the Chicago rapper opened up about the trauma that such an upbringing brought upon him and discussed his decision to see a therapist at his lawyer's request.
“When the lawyer told me to go see the therapist, it was really just me embracing it,” Herb tells HipHopDX. “I think I was already aware of the issue, and why I even had to get arrested or have to carry a gun in the first place.”
The arrest in question was his 2018 run-in after being arrested with two other men after a limousine driver alerted authorities that they had firearms.
“It’s like, we kind of don’t know that we suffer from these mental health issues," he continued. "I’m a product of that. I was shot at. I seen my first murder at nine years old. A lot of this stuff that we encounter on a day-to-day basis, we think is normal just because it’s our reality. We think it’s something we’re supposed to be going through. I feel like in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods, a lot of us are suffering from PTSD. I thought it was important for me because I know it’s a lot of people who are like me.”
He would go on to highlight his connection to rapper 21 Savage who is set to be featured on project select "By Any Means." He elaborated on a similar background that the two share and the similar mental consequences that they've faced.
“We have had serious conversations about what we are to the people and just embracing it,” G Herbo explained. “Our flaws, and the shit that we’ve been through that made us make some of the good and bad decisions that we made in our life. We had those conversations before, and that’s kind of what inspired the record or what wanted me to put Savage on the record. I knew that it was a record that was true to him, as well as it’s true to me, because we’ve been through a lot of the same stuff.”