It seems like everyone is talking about reparations, both for and against — presidential candidates, the president, members of congress, the media, celebrities and everyday people.
Here are four quotes from hip-hop artists Ice Cube, TI, Killer Mike, and Boosie.
T.I. recently sent an open letter to famed insurance firm Lloyd’s of London after the U.K.-based company admitted its past role in the slave trade. Most thought the admission was contrite.
“There are some aspects of our history that we are not proud of. This was an appalling and shameful period of British history, as well as our own, and we condemn the indefensible wrongdoing that occurred during this period,” the company said in a statement. Lloyd’s of London promised to increase diversity in hiring and donate to various charities, The New York Times reported.
But T.I. didn’t feel the company went far enough in its compensation efforts. He called for the 334-year-old company to hand over reparations in an open letter, Forbes reported.
T.I.’s letter, posted via Instagram last week, read: “It has come to our attention that your company was built on the blood, sweat, and tears of our ancestors. We have seen you apologize for your ‘shameful role’ in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, but that simply is not enough.” T.I. continued. “I must take direct aim at the fact that while many corporations and organizations like yours, denounce past behavior, verbally accept accountability and even share public sentiments of contrition – there never seems to be enough, if any, consideration or serious discussion around how to repay the descendants of the African slave.”
Killer Mike has supported reparations in general for a long time. In 2016 he tweeted, “The truth of my support is this. I am pro Reparations for any people used and abused like Blacks have been here and other places.”
In an interview with Yahoo in 2019, Killer Mike said, “For the drug war reparations, give us our 15 percent guaranteed of that. For reparations for what this country owes us for getting a 200-year economic head-start and allowing them to be a world power in under 500 years, that’s a whole other conversation.”
In an interview earlier this year with The Breakfast Club, Ice Cube said he wants Hollywood to pay reparations for “stealing our history,” Revolt reported.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.
He said, “I just think it’s a form of reparations from the entertainment industry if they all had to invest a certain amount of money into the studio each year as payment for all the damage they’ve done to Black people.”
In an interview with VLAD TV, hip-hop artist Boosie initially said he didn’t know what reparations were, but when it was explained to the Baton Rouge hitmaker, he asked, “So they gon’ give us money back?” Badazz asked. “You owe the whole world. You owe everybody Black,” Medium reported.
He continued: “If you saying it like that, reparations, they can pay everybody, Bro. They can pay all the Black people money. That’s how I feel. That’s the reparations I wanna see. Everybody who Black, everybody who Black, ancestors who Black deserve a check.”
