Joey Fatts Addresses His Gang Life Before Rapping

Fresh off the release of a new EP, Joey Fatts recently stopped by the HipHopDX offices and opened up about everything from his reaction to hearing of A$AP Yams’ passing to the lessons he learned from his own history as a part of a gang.

Detailing how his mother moved his family away from her neighborhood in Compton to avoid passing on her own criminal past, the Ill Street Blues rapper reflected on his progress from gang-life to his current status as a rapper.

“My mama is a Blood,” Fatts said in a clip that debuted as a part of today’s DX Daily. “She from Lueders Park. My mama, she a Blood. That’s why we moved to Long Beach ’cause she was trying to get us out the life. We ain’t never been Crip so she failed at that. All in all, like I said, I’m fortunate that we went through that and that we all alive and we all still healthy. Now I feel like we can conquer anything ’cause we’ve seen rock-bottom already. What’s worse than you being broke and brainwashed to feel like you gotta kill another brother to get by? Or for financial gain? Or just to get credibility? You get what I’m saying? We been rock-bottom already. We was brainwashed. We wasn’t getting no money. I feel like we can conquer the world right now.”