How Problem, The Game & Snoop Dogg Met with the L.A. Mayor
In the wake of last week’s deadly shootings, Problem joined The Game and Snoop Dogg for ademonstration in downtown Los Angeles on Friday (Jul. 8). Like many, the Cali MCs were frustrated, sad, and angry about the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police. So, they decided to march in what would become a powerful moment in L.A. Read more…
For Problem, this was important because the deaths of Sterling and Castile felt personal. “Both of those situations could have been me and my children,” he tells Rap-Up. “They would have had to watch me die and somebody would have to explain that to them. They would have to relive these moments for the rest of their lives. That terrifies me.”
Game understood Problem. They exchanged text messages filled with hurt and sadness following Sterling and then again after Castile. Snoop had also been speaking with Game at the time so they decided to do something symbolic.
About 30 minutes after confirming their plans to march, more bodies dropped. This time, five police officers were gunned down by a sniper at a Dallas protest. “When those five cops were killed, it hurt me,” Problem reveals. “I don’t want to see nobody dead. I don’t want to see nobody hurt. It allowed me to step inside their shoes for a minute…Nobody dying unjustly is right.
“So, the mission actually changed when that happened because at this point, both sides were able to get in the other side’s shoes,” he added. “Seven people were murdered in those 48 hours. That’s not the solution.”
Fueled by all this, the march began at 5 a.m. the next morning where, as Problem puts it, “magic” happened. Unbeknownst to them, LAPD cadets would be graduating that same morning at a ceremony outside of department headquarters, across the street from City Hall. That happened to be right in the middle of their march.
“That was God,” says Problem. “We didn’t know that [the graduation was taking place]. When we walked up, they didn’t know what we were there for either. They were like, ‘What’s gonna happen?’ They all turned around and looked and it was 400 black, Latino, and white men standing behind a gate, lined in unison. For a minute, it was like, ‘What’s gonna go down?’”
