Is there a tension between the real-world concerns you have as a parent and the anti-police attitude you express in some of your songs? I think that if you haven’t broken the law, there’s nothing wrong with complying with authority.
“The thing is: Don’t get shot. Don’t give ’em a reason to put their hands on you. Nothing wrong with complying; just make sure you come home.”
Do you think that having smartphones in 1980s Compton would have made a difference?
“No. There’s photography from the 1800s of lynchings. People went to picnics, and they’d take pictures with somebody burnt to death up there. It doesn’t matter.”
One of the more ironic turns in your life is that you’ve played a cop in three movies.
“Why is that ironic? That’s acting. It would be ironic if I was a real cop.”
You’re right. I was going to use that as a segue to talk about black cops. Three black cops were arrested in connection with the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Some people have pointed to this as evidence that police brutality isn’t always about race.
“It’s not. It’s about power, giving it to people who don’t deserve it: bad cops, corrupt cops, abusive cops. And the problem is not the bad cops, the problem is the good cops, because they won’t tell on the bad cops. They got a no-snitching policy, and then they expect us not to have one in the hood.”

 

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