Flavor Flav, founding member of Public Enemy which has earned five Grammy Award nominations, speaks in the wake of several active shooter incidents, including one at Apalachee High School in Georgia
Rapper Flavor Flav has called on the US to ban all firearms – as he believes “our kids aren’t safe”.
The 66-year-old hip hop star, who founded group Public Enemy, says the “wrong people” have too much access to guns. This is despite he himself spending time in jail after he was charged with attempted murder for shooting his neighbour in 1993.
But seeing his kids grow up since, Flavor Flav – real name William Jonathan Drayton Jr – has said he has taken time to reflect on what he describes as “an epidemic of gun violence” in the US. The musician has expressed his opinion in a newspaper column today – Independence Day – in the wake of several active shooter incidents, including one at Apalachee High School in Georgia, which saw two children and a teacher die.
“This happens so often, we have started to become numb to it as a society. Our schools aren’t safe and our kids aren’t safe. This is because gun protection laws are weak,” Flav wrote for Newsweek.
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The father of nine, from the state of New York, added the country is caught in a “epidemic of gun violence with no sign we can stop or change course.” He blamed the lack of gun laws, which he called “domestic errorism”. The rapper, who said no civilian needs a semi-automatic weapon, added: “Stop putting a price tag on the heads of our children.”
But Flav himself shot his neighbour in 1993, for which he was charged with attempted murder and spent 90 days in jail. He refers to this in his Newsweek piece, inssting he “would know” that guns are “falling into the hands of the wrong people”.
“Guns are falling into the hands of the wrong people. I would know. I went to jail because of guns. I ended up on Rikers Island. So I am speaking from first-hand experience. Back in the day, guns and drugs were brought into Black communities. It was a time when we were taught that guns and drugs equaled power. We all had guns. There was peer pressure; a gun felt like a necessity to protect yourself from gang wars. This helped create a system of criminals who were forced into legalised slavery,” Flav reflected.
He then compared those times to the modern day, which he stresses is full of “fear and power”. The star added: “Fear is a powerful, short-term motivator. We need to flip it so it can break through to be a positive and valuable resource. Let our fear of losing our children be more powerful than our fear of our next-door neighbour.”
Public Enemy, which was nominated for five Grammy Awards between 1990 and 1995, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013. They had success with the likes of Give It Up in 1994 and Harder Than You Think in 2007.