What COVID protocols are you putting in place for yourself and your team?
We started implementing certain things probably in May of last year. Our protocol is basically staying masked up, keeping hand sanitizer, and not having a lot of people around us. For Lollapalooza, there was no entourage, I made sure my artists stayed in their own section. Everyone had to have a vaccine, but we also made everyone around us get COVID tests. We’re just trying to stay responsible and follow the protocols of the venues we’re touching.
What was your rationale for getting vaccinated?
When I first heard about the vaccines, of course, I heard the conspiracy theorists. But then I have to be logical about my life and being around my parents, my daughter, the artists I’m with. I had to sit down and research the vaccines. I talked to a Black doctor. He kept it real with me — [gave] pros and cons. He understood my fears. I also had to look at the fact that I’m in the music industry around rappers and artists and they are around people. I’m going to take my chance on medicine with this. I had COVID [and] I don’t want that again. I was able to also take that knowledge and sit down with my artists.
Where do you think our community is with building our trust back with health care?
I think people don’t understand the power of social media, of being an influencer. I’ve been fortunate enough to be at an age where I can read in between the lines, and I can see [misinformation]. We talk about our distrust in medicine, but there’s a lot of things medicine has saved. We have to have those discussions.
For information about COVID-19 vaccines in Chicago, visit www.chicago.gov/covidvax.
