Waka Flocka Flame is standing up for a topic that has impacted a lot of families, including his own.
On Monday night (May 25), the Atlanta rapper tweeted his support for those battling and affected by suicide and mental health issues. "I’m officially dedicating my life to suicide prevention and mental illness!!!," he wrote. "Y’all not alone Waka Flocka Flame is with y’all now!!!!"
Waka's tweet comes seven years after his brother, KayO Redd, took his life in December of 2013. The rising rapper was found in his home in Henry Country, Ga. after passing due to an apparent suicide.
The Salute Me or Shoot Me 7 rapper has spoken on his brother's death over the years and revealed in a 2017 interview that KayO called him prior to his passing, but Waka didn't answer the call. During an appearance on VICE's The Therapist, Waka Flocka also shared details of his brother's death, revealing that he killed himself with a handgun.
"With a handgun," Waka said when asked how KayO died. "Before my little brother killed hisself, I ain't pick up the phone and I seen him call. I'm like, fuck, lemme call Kayo back as soon as this shit over with. I call him back, no answer."
Waka then questioned what would have happened if he would have answered his younger brother's call. "What if I'd a picked that call up?," he continued. "That's when I seen like, yo, this rap shit? Fuck this rap shit. Nah, ’cause I'm tryna work so much to keep everybody happy, then reality is going by. What the fuck my little brother was going through to make him kill hisself? God damn. That's how stressful this shit is? Like, it's that crazy? Like damn, what he had to go through to be Waka Flocka's little brother. And man, he was losing his eyesight too, so. It's a lot of shit going on. Like damn, how could I…how I'm that busy to where I couldn't recognize that? It's fuckin’ crazy, man."
Waka's other brother, Rahleek, passed away in 2000.
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