Hiptics.com: On the song “Murda On My Mind,” you talk about how the unemployment rate in your hometown of Gary, Indiana is roughly 60 percent. I wanted to hear your perspective how the recession and failing economy in general has been reflected through hip hop music?
I’m fresh up outta city where most niggas broke
60% unemployment, why you think we selling dope?
Little kids walk around with the issue, pistols you gotta tote
Don’t get caught sleeping, these G.I. streets leave you comatose
-Freddie Gibbs “Murda On My Mind”
Freddie Gibbs: Shit, if you look at hip hop, really, there ain’t no motherfuckin’ recession. If you look at these [rappers], they’re icy as ever. [Laughs] It doesn’t look like there’s no recession in hip hop. On the streets, there’s a real recession. And Gary, man, that shit’s a Gary-cession. We don’t even got a movie theatre, man. Financial problems and unemployment problems have been a part of the culture where I’m from since I was a small child. I saw that; I saw my Dad bounce from job to job, not being able to stay with nothing stable. The only person I know that kept a steady job for all these years is my Mom. She worked at the Post Office for thirty years straight, and she did that since she was eighteen. She had good job security, but a lot of other people I know lost a lot of their jobs. It was fucked up out here. Even with her job, it was hard for [my Mom]. [Having] three kids and my Dad didn’t always have steady income. My mom struggled a lot, you know, and I think coming up I didn’t want that struggle for myself. So I was, you know, by any means, I was down to get mine. Whether it was working a little bullshit jobs…so I could get out here and hustle. I tried to go to school…and things just didn’t work out. Everything happens for a reason and all those things led me to where I’m at right now.
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