Rappers The Game and Snoop Dogg came together July 17 in Los Angeles to address violence inviting all gang members to meet. Wanting to create ‘dialogue’ in wake of the recent shootings, the meeting attracted hundreds of people, including Will.i.am and the city’s police chief.
The Game, 36, took to his Instagram to publicize the “Time To Unite: United Hoods + Gangs Nation” meeting in honor of him and Snoop, 44, on July 14. His post, invited “all hoods, gangs and sets,” as well as “CRIPS, BLOODS, ESE’s & all other gang members, major figures & GANG LEADERS from every hood in our city [Southern California] as well as the surrounding cities.”
The rapper informed attendees to meet at the Church of Scientology Community Center. With a turnout of hundreds of people, “the much needed conversation,” as The Game said, attracted hip-hop artist Will.i.am, 41, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and the Los Angeles Police Chief, Charlie Beck, Daily Mail reported. Anti-gang activists and gang members filled the meeting, and a live broadcast was set up for a large audience outside.
In wake of the recent shootings and racial tensions, Game displayed in a caption from his invitation that the conversation was “about our influence on the youth in our respective neighborhoods & how we can serve as better role models to them & the brothers we stand beside daily…. Because the sad truth that no one wants to face is, before we can get OUR LIVES TO MATTER to anyone else… We have to show that OUR LIVES MATTER to US !!!!”
Snoop stepped up to the podium inside the meeting, where the site contains video. “Our whole mission today was to move in peace and to show that LA can be unified and not to bash the police, but to come up here and get some dialogue and some communication,” he said.
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The Game took the podium to voice his thoughts. He said, “Hearing and watching what happened to Anton Sterling and the very next day seeing another video that was just of catastrophic proportion I was torn; Number one as an African American, because I am African American, not because it is African Americans against the world. It’s because I embody who I am, and that hurt me.”
The rapper even mentioned how he had to explain recent shooting news to his own children. “My son asked me why would police do that to a man…and I had to answer in a way he would still trust and he would still believe in the police force, and I did and that was my job as a parent.” He went on to mention how “we are really really destroying humanity…as a whole,” and “if we don’t stop, then one by one our lives will dwindle away along with our families and our children’s.”
Game and Snoop led a peaceful march with Charlie Beck earlier this month in Los Angeles after the Dallas police shootings occurred, where Micah Johnson killed five police officers. The march to LAPD headquarters suggested unification among authorities and minority communities.
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