Hip-Hop Wired: You touched on Kayne, which I think is interesting. I went to the concert too. And there a few things that kinda caught me off guard. What do you think about Kanye today, the Yeezus production, what are you’re two cents?
Lecrae: I just see a man who is ok with struggling in front of everybody. You know? If he’s confused, he doesn’t mind being confused in front of everybody. If he’s feeling arrogant, he doesn’t mind being arrogant in front of everybody. If he’s sad or frustrated, everyone gets to see it. So, he’s not very – he doesn’t mind letting all that out. And there’s a catch 22, of course. That’s beneficial sometimes, sometimes that’s detrimental. But that’s what I see. I think that what he does is gamble big and so he often wins big, but you can lose big when you gamble big. That’s the quintessential Kanye from my perspective.
Hip-Hop Wired: How does your profession or role in Hip-Hop affect your household? You’re married with kids…
Lecrae: Hip-Hop is a culture and we have a responsibility to teach the culture. Mos Def once was like ‘you want to know how Hip-Hop is doing, how are you doing?’ I think when I’m a healthy person, I’m present in my home and I’m being a father to my kids, being a husband to my wife, I’m setting a precedence in Hip-Hop and I’m changing what the culture sees. And we see that. Nobody talked about being married and then Jay and B get married and now marriage is all the rage, you know what I mean? Love and Hip-Hop, relationships is cool now. You get on Instagram now and guys are putting up pictures with their kids and we get to see these photos of fatherhood and that’s dope, essentially. We don’t have to be ashamed of it or try to hide [it].
Hip-Hop Wired: Definitely. And do your kids listen to your music, are they Hip-Hop fans?
Lecrae: I love Hip-Hop, I love Pop, I love Reggae – they not messing with the Reggae [laughs]. I can’t get them to buy into that. But yea man, they love Hip-Hop. My daughter is the most “rachet” out of the three and she just turns up. She be in the back seat turning up.
Hip-Hop Wired: Is there a story about your wife or your family – a story that you haven’t told yet, that you want to tell or will tell on this album?
Lecrae: There are some stories that I’m telling and there are some stories that haven’t delved into just yet. I think that story is still being written. Being a father is still so new to me. My kids are really young, [and] I’m still getting my footing together. I haven’t seen how my actions have affected them. I haven’t seen how my presence or lack of presence has really had an affect on their lives. But I’m definitely, being really transparent about some other stuff. Me being abused as a kid, abortion, a lot of those issues that have affected me and I can see the effect of it now. I’m touching on that all that stuff now. I think it’s helpful for other people and helpful for me to get it off my chest.
Hip-Hop Wired: How old were you when you were abused?
Lecrae: I was about seven.
Hip-Hop Wired: Wow.
Lecrae: Yea, so just dealing with that. I know a lot of people are molested and abused physically, emotionally, sexually.
I’m also a part of a movement with fathers against sex trafficking. A majority of our country doesn’t realize that children are being trafficked everyday. So I think the one remedy to that, to a lot, is being a present dad. If you’re present in your kids’ lives, they can avoid some of those pitfalls that we see with trafficking and other societal issues. I touch on that a little bit on the album.
