Gone are the days of Richie Homie Quan taking a carefree approach to coming up with clever lyrics. In the wake of rappers’ words being used to connect them to federal offenses, Quan recently shared that he thinks about the long-term impact his music will have on the lives of his loved ones.
“Well, for one, I really feel that we should protect Black art. Music is music. A lot of those songs are made from the third person anyway. I could have saw it, you could have saw it,” he said during a Sept. 21 appearance on “Sway’s Universe.” He went on to mention Young Thug and YFN Lucci before saying both men should be released so that they can continue to support their families.
Thugger was arrested last May. He is facing racketeering and gang-related charges. Lucci was incarcerated in May 2021 for a parole violation. Both men are currently housed in metro Atlanta jails. While Quan did not delve deep into the minutiae of Thugger or Lucci’s cases, he did add that seeing his peers face jail time has influenced his approach to creating music.
“I watch what I say,” said the “Type of Way” artist. He continued by explaining, “My kids are getting older. They can Google me, so I care about what I’m saying in these songs. ’Cause I know they’re listening and they gonna be, ‘My daddy Rich Homie, listen to what he said,’ so I don’t want them songs shoot ’em up bang bang.”
He added, “Everything don’t gotta be shoot ’em up bang bang. You make ’em shoot ’em up bang bang then you put a target on your back before you made a RICO. Man, so let’s get back to hip hop music.”
Multiple states, including Washington, California and New York, have introduced legislation to prevent rap lyrics from being used in court as evidence against artists. The push for laws to protect the art form is a byproduct of high-profile racketeering cases such as the ones Thugger and Gunna are facing. Thus far, the proposed bill has passed in New York’s Senate but still has to pass through the State Assembly before becoming a law.
Watch Quan’s full interview below.