America has been a pretty scary place to live in, and while the hood has always had its share of trauma, many are being on edge with the recent race-based mass shootings targeting Black civilians not connected to the violence in the streets.
It is one thing to be in the streets wilding, but when people simply “living while Black” are murdered — it shifts your soul.
Just ask Benny The Butcher, one of the principal personalities on the Buffalo-based rap label Griselda.
The Buffalo resident talked with Ari Melber during an appearance on “The Beat with Ari Melber” about the recent mass shooting in his hometown.
When asked about the massacre, which killed 10 people, Benny said, “Oh man, it hurts me. To be at the point that I’m on. I’m living at a height right now and then for my family and for the city to be going through that. I just want to let the city know we [are] here for them.”
“I’m happy that the world get to see what kind of community Buffalo is,” Benny The Butcher continued, referencing how so many people came out to support the victims and their families.
“That we’re a close-knit community, and we’re always there for each other. It’s really the city of neighbors,” the rapper said.
As reported by AllHipHop.com, on Saturday, May 14th, an 18-year-old traveled hours from Conklin, New York, to Buffalo with the sole intention to massacre Black people.
The teen drove to a predominantly Black area store called the Tops Friendly Market, armed with a legally purchased AR-15 with an illegally modified high-capacity magazine.
Benny told Ari Melber that the local community in Buffalo is still traumatized, including his own child.
“People are afraid to go to the grocery stores,” he said. “My daughter hasn’t been going to school since that happened. So it’s like, that’s the last thing we need (the Uvalde shooting). We got to find a way to protect ourselves and situations like that,” Benny The Butcher revealed.