As one Rebels returns. Tis The Season

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It was a possibility every day that you’d be there. You’d be one day hanging out, the next day locked up whether you’re guilty or not. So if you’re standing next to your boys you might be doing nothing but your boys might be doing something or they might have just did something that they’re not telling you about. And now here the cop car comes with the victim in the backseat pointing in your direction. Or a cop thinks he recognizes you for making a sale. Now he arrests you. Now it’s you against him in the court for a direct sale. Now it could have not been you, you probably just had the same jacket that your man had on that just made the sale he left. Any day it could be your day if you’re innocent.

So those are the conditions. It wasn’t my intentions to write about jail like that. I didn’t want to write about jail. It was my vocabulary, it was my conversation, it was the conversations around me. So that’s why it’s always there. There’s 46,000 teens arrested in New York City alone every year. That’s more than any place in the nation. Between the ages of 16 and 17; 46,000 and most are black or latino. So you see what I was dealing with.

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It should be illegal that I’m allowed to talk like this. I can’t even believe I’ve got this freedom. This is what makes me understand this freedom of speech thing. It’s like, wow, I didn’t really get it. You know, if someone’s yelling on the megaphone, “Protest, protest.” You have freedom of speech to say these things, right? That’s one level.

But now, the stuff I was saying wasn’t never said before in rap. So I was like, “How am I getting away with this? I’m waiting any day, they coming to get me for rap jail, rap prison. Somebody’s coming. The Catholic church, somebody.” Because I was saying things that wasn’t said. So that’s why I was like “Nas' raps should be locked in the cell,” because shit is crazy.

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