Since the Aug. 9 shooting death of 18-year old Mike Brown, Atlanta hip-hop star Jeezy has been vocal in regards to the incident, the protests that have followed and what he’d like to see done about police brutality. Brown was killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, and there has been tremendous outcry over the way the killing has been handled and how the police have reacted to protesters. During an interview with 97.9 The Box, Jeezy said that more celebs should help spread the word about injustice — and it’s not predicated on spending money.
“I don’t really think it’s just about money,” Jeezy said. “Everybody wanna be successful but when you’re still successful — you look at Oprah, you look at Tyler Perry, and these people — we associate success with money. So when you’re successful, it’s cool to be about your money, but when things happen you gotta step up and be a leader. You gotta step up and handle your business.”
Jeezy has tweeted and posted on Instagram regarding Ferguson; the artist has been demanding more from the police, calling for an end to brutality and criticizing those who have used the protests in Ferguson as an excuse to incite violence and heighten the simmering rage of those on the front lines of the altercations with police. He feels that those who have the most followers on these social media platforms have a responsibility.
“If you got a million followers or two million followers, these are two million people that’s gon’ listen,” Jeezy said, “that’s gon’ tell two million other people what’s going on.”
And in regards to the police withholding information from the public about the shooting, Jeezy explained that the people have the right to know everything.
“You gotta give us the reason why you felt that you had to take a human being’s life for any reason,” he said. “OK that’s cool if that’s what happened but why did you feel like it was that serious that you had to take—I mean, there’s stun-guns. There’s mace. There’s handcuffs. There’s so many different routes and the reason I think why the city is in such an uproar because this is the same community that watched this kid grow up to 18 and get ready to go to college.”
