Kanye West’s expressions of support for President Trump are not going over well with some LA area rappers. CBS LA reports that a former member of Snoop Dogg’s Dogg Pound has put out a video encouraging crips gang members to “f— Kanye up.”
Daz Dillinger, who recorded several successful hip hop records as part of Tha Dogg Pound duo in the 1990s, made the apparent threat in a video posted to his Instagram, which was later removed.
“Yo national alert, all the Crips out there, y’all f— Kanye up,” he said, referring to the infamous Los Angeles-area street gang.
Dillinger – whose real name is Delmar Drew Arnaud – also warns West to stay out of Long Beach and California, even though the Wests famously live in upscale Calabasas in the northwest San Fernando Valley.
“Better not ever see you in concert. Better not ever see you around the LBC. Better not ever see you around California,” he says in the video. “Stay in Calabasas, ya hear me? ‘Cuz we got a Crip alert for Kanye.”
Here’s a tweet linking to the since-removed Instagram post:
FUCC KANYE UP ON G.P WORDS FROM THE CRIP GOD DAZ @ Los Angeles, California https://t.co/tyJ4PAKNaX
— DAZ DILLINGER (@DAZDILLINGER) April 29, 2018
But as always, someone grabbed it before it vanished. The language in this clip is definitely NSFW:
https://twitter.com/IamAkademiks/status/990997787826425857
If you check the response to the tweet, most people responding aren’t impressed with the threat. Quite a few people are stating the obvious: Just because you disagree with someone’s political outlook is no excuse to encourage violence, which is of course correct.
The interesting point about this is not how it impacts Kanye West (he’s a multi-millionaire who can hire top security if needed), it’s whether or not this sort of threat creates a more generalized chilling of free speech in the black community. After all, if you’re black and happen to agree with Kanye, even a little bit, you might think twice about sharing that opinion if you believe the crips are now acting as unofficial Democratic Party enforcers. Even if you think that’s far-fetched and believe this is just an attempt to grab some attention, why take the risk?
If nothing else, the threat demonstrates Kanye West has taken a risk that goes beyond disappointing his fans or even a risk to his personal success. There are still some people out there who consider his statements worthy of a beating or worse. Maybe we should talk about that?
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