Travis Scott wants to be a “tool” in the fight for social change. In his new profile in The Face, the Houston-bred rap star discussed his role within the Black Lives Matter movement, which resurged after the police killing of George Floyd.
“You’re trying to get to a point where people are finally seeing the oppression that’s been happening and overlooked and that we — as a culture — have been fighting through every day,” Scott tells the outlet. “I mean, look how many leaders we have in the Black community.”
The Astroworld rapper explained how he wants to be one of those leaders, by getting informed about his local Houston politics and continuing to speak out against injustice.
“Houston, I got to tap in, know my officials,” he said. “That means we got a voice to try to make change. People are listening, you know what I mean? And we want to try to make sure they understand that I’m a tool. Allow me to help in any way. Let me know where we got to go show up. It’s a big picture. It’s like a lot of groundwork we got to do.”
Scott previously offered his condolences to Floyd’s family on Instagram and spoke with fellow Houston native Bun B on ways he could “help move this forward” in their hometown.
“As I pace around thinking, trying to find something to ease the pain, there are almost no words that I can think of to properly express, or I can use to suppress, this enraged feeling of us continuously losing our brothers and sisters to brutality at the hands of officers, or anyone with misguided intentions for our well-being,” he wrote.
“The rage that we are feeling is from direct personal experience and the constant pain of wanting our voices to be heard. To be seen as equal and human, too. We have to change and reform police policy in our U.S. cities, and there needs to be accountability immediately! Especially when officers abuse power to the point where it callously takes a life.”
Read Scott’s full The Face profile here.