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| Vice President Kamala Harris talks to Quavo and his family. The rapper is working with the White House to prevent gun violence. His nephew, rapper Takeoff was killed in 2022. |
While the far right is attacking the first Black woman to be Vice President of the United States, Kamala Devi Harris is brushing off the noise, she is working behind the scenes to help Joseph R. Biden, Jr. succeed as the 46th President of the United States.
They test their nerves everyday.
The FBA, the Moors and Black separatists are backing Washed Up 45.
Kodak Black, Ice Cube, Ye, Teddy Riley, Ray J, Forgiato Blow, Lil Wayne, Lil Pump, Takeshi 6ix9ine, Fivio Foreign, Travis Scott and Nicki Minaj are riding with Washed Up 45. They are getting praise from white nationalists like Tomi Lahren.
Lahren, Candace Owens, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Rep. John James (R-MI) are fans of hip-hop music. They are far right extremists but lovers of hip-hop.
The far right and Republican exploited the gun violence epidemic. They zeroed in on Black on whatever crime and illegal immigration as factors to gun violence. They have no solutions to solving gun violence.
Biden now wants to do something and it is expected that many on the far right will find outrage with it.
The White House announced the formation of an Office of Gun Violence Prevention.
President Joe Biden chairs Vice President Kamala Harris as the leader of this initiative.
Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) is also a part of this initiative. But guess who is also a part of this movement to stop gun violence in the country?
Quavo, the hip-hop artist who was once part of the trio The Migos. The group is permanently inactive after a fallout between Offset and the death of Takeoff
The Migos were an Atlanta based group that featured Quavo, his nephew Takeoff and cousin Offset. As solo artists and as a group they are signed to Quality Control Music, YRN Music, Capitol Records and Motown Records.
Takeoff was killed in Houston, Texas in 2022 after a man shot at him and others while playing a dice game. The feds are still investigating the incident and have James Prince, Jr. under federal watch.
Quavo and Takeoff release their only album a month before the shooting.
Police say Takeoff was an innocent bystander who was shot outside a Houston bowling alley after a disagreement over a lucrative dice game led to gunfire. Takeoff’s death was the latest in a string of fatal shootings in recent years that involved hip-hop stars such as Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke, PnB Rock and Young Dolph.
“You don’t think nothing is going to happen,” Quavo continued. “I need to step up to the plate and hit a homerun. I have to do something about it, so it won’t happen to the masses — especially in our culture. I don’t want this to happen to the next person. I want to knock down these percentages.”
Quavo joined a panel discussion Wednesday alongside Georgia Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, the current reverend of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Rep. Lucy McBath (D-GA) — whose activism was propelled after the shooting death of her teenage son Jordan Davis — and Greg Jackson of the Community Justice Action Fund. It was a solutions-oriented conversation on community intervention strategies, the battle with gun violence and the power in advocacy.
Earlier, Quavo arrived at the conference hand-in-hand with his sister Titania Davenport, the mother of Takeoff.
After Quavo met with Harris, the vice president praised the rapper and Davenport’s “call for action” to prevent gun violence.
“We need to do better with the control of guns,” Quavo said. “We need to figure out how do we keep these types of incidents from happening to people going anywhere and thinking they can hurt somebody where it shouldn’t happen.”
After Takeoff’s shooting, Quavo often asked himself “How do we use (guns) safely?”
“And how do you keep them out of the hands of people that make bad decisions?” he said. “I’m kind of in a half-and-half place. Even police have guns. Unfortunately, some of the people in our culture and loved ones have been lost to police brutality. It’s all about choices and how we can put a filter on who can use these guns.”
Jackson said Quavo’s voice could make a difference. He applauded the rapper for sitting down with members of Congress, offering his firsthand insights and putting the pressure on them for impactful change.
“His voice and commitment around community violence intervention could provide more resources for those who are most at risk,” said Jackson, whose Community Justice organization hosted Quavo for a day of advocacy. They are both pushing for passing of the Break the Cycle of Violence Act, which would provide a $6.5 billion federal grant to communities to curb gun violence, create prevention programs, job training and workforce development for youths.
Jackson, who was shot in 2013, said combating gun violence has become personal for him.
“It’s what we need,” Jackson said. “With gun violence, in order to change it, we have to change the behavior just as aggressively as we focus on safety and ownership and access. But we can’t change behavior if our communities don’t have the resources they need, and our youth is being overlooked and forgotten.”
So far, Quavo has taken the right steps forward: Last year, the rapper and his family launched the Rocket Foundation in honor of Takeoff and he committed $2 million to invest in community violence intervention. He aspires to develop more after school programs in areas where community centers have been shut down and basketball goal rims were taken down.
Quavo says it’s imperative to keep the youth busy with productive activities in a safe environment. He’s already reached out to some in the hip-hop community for support including rapper Meek Mill, who’s been active with criminal justice reform.
But Quavo says he knows he needs more political backing to streamline much-needed resources to the less fortunate.
“I feel like after going to the White House, I need resources,” he said. “I need a bag of goodies, so I can take back and say ‘Here, this is for the culture.’ We have that extension cord. We are plugged into that type of environment. I don’t think no one else in our stature is that connected. In order for things to change, we need resources.”
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