Bobby Shmurda, who famously rapped about murders and gun violence says he’s done with the criminal-minded negativity in hip hop and no longer wants to be associated with the genre. During his recent appearance on The Danza Project podcast, the 28-year-old Brooklynite who was accompanied by LouGotCash says he no longer wants to be labeled a rapper.
“I don’t want them to label me or Lou as rappers, we’re artists, we’re just artists,” Bobby said at the 52:00 minute mark in the video below. “We wanna be artists, we don’t wanna be a part of the rap game, we don’t want no awards. We don’t wanna be associated with you f-cking rappers, OK? You guys just f-cking talking a lot…you guys just off the chain.”
He went on to explain his rationale, citing the genre’s obsession with violence, which he says sets a negative precedence for children.
“You got these f-cking kids following you guys…and you’re f-cking rapping about these lifestyles. It’s endangering, it’s very detrimental, very dangerous to the communities, that these little kids think that is going on; [something] that you did not even live.”
He continued, “I think rap is supposed to be telling muthafuckas to go from negative to positive, coming from poverty to going to riches and stuff like that. And how to stay in that and how to change. That’s the shit that I wanna hear, I wanna hear about living life.”
Bobby added he doesn’t listen to rap anymore and only ever hears the genre when he’s in the club and can’t avoid it.
“That’s why I don’t listen to rap, I don’t know nothing about no rappers… Only time I listen to rap is when I’m in the club.”
Bobby Shmurda was arrested in 2014 and was subsequently charged on a 69-count indictment that included conspiracy to commit murder and weapons possession for his involvement in the GS9 gang. Since his release from prison in February, 2021, the “Hot N-gga” hitmaker has maintained a relatively low profile, releasing two mixtapes and a handful of songs.
Although Shmurda’s comments have drawn wide attention from fans, this is not the first time he has spoken about violence in hip hop. Back in December 2022, Bobby took to Instagram Live to proclaim that he did not want to be labeled a rapper anymore. He drew a correlation with the Megan Thee Stallion and Tory Lanez case and also alluded to the danger of the fictional storytelling in rap music.
“I don’t want to be named as a rapper no more, bro,” the Brooklyn MC stated. “It’s like when you do that rapper sh-t, n-ggas like try to come for that light. It’s just nasty, like these labels nasty. Look at what they just did to Tory. That sh-t is nasty, my n-gga.”
He continued, “Then the whole rap community that’s f-cking supporting these n-ggas, y’all n-ggas [are] disgusting my n-gga, cause these the same people that come from saying that they live our lifestyle, they came from our lifestyle. These muthafuckas [are] out here playing dress up right now.”
Watch Bobby Shmurda’s full interview with The Danza Project below.
