Anyone who has listened to a ScHoolboy Q album knows that he keeps it all the way real with his vivid depictions of gangsta life. Rather than glorify the lifestyle, like 95% of other rappers, Q’s lyrics are grim and mournful, and he is quick to say that, while he is from that life, he is no longer about it. This ethos is captured masterfully on his song “Lord Have Mercy,” from his stellar new Blank Face LP, where ScHoolboy raps “Still hangin’ with niggas that can’t do nothin’ but cause damage. Guess I’m bein’ a real nigga like I’m ‘posed to be. But bein’ real never once bought the groceries. And, Top told me keep rappin’, you’ll make it hopefully. And, hope was all that I needed, dreamin’ myself to work. This workin’ affair was better than bullet holes in my shirt. The demons hate when you make it and stay alive. They’d rather see me down under than see me fly. Lord have mercy!”

ScHoolboy Q Shows How Crime Is Tearing Apart Families, In His Video For “Black THougHts”

On his song “Hoover St.,” Q details some of his earliest experiences with guns. He emotionlessly describes being shown an AK by a friend’s older brother, and being amazed by its power. He also details finding his grandmother’s gun on a shelf, and says “every last one of us had a pistol in the room,” calling his family “Glock Clock Familia.”

With such a deep history with guns, one might assume that the MC born Quincey Hanley was in favor of the right to bear arms, but a preview clip from new interview with Montreality reveals quite the contrary. When asked if he could rid the world of one evil what would it be, Q replies “Guns. That gun law shit is real…Niggas need to take away guns–from officers, from everybody. It should be no guns.” He goes on to discuss the absurdity of the amount of lives that are taken each year by gun violence, saying “Now, people are just getting killed left and right. You’ll have 400, 500 people die in Chicago every year. That’s fucking insane.” Q also calls out some of his Rap peers from glamorizing violence. “Niggas always want to talk about that gangsta shit. Ain’t nothin’ gansta about none of that shit. Especially rappers. Niggas always tryin’ to act gangsta. Nigga, you ain’t gangsta no more. You a rapper.”

Spoken like a true G.