Chris Rivers Clarifies His Recent Controversial Music Video About Domestic Abuse (Video)

Today (November 10) would have been Big Pun’s 46th birthday. The legendary Bronx, New York MC died at the age of 28, on February 7, 2000, from heart failure. Christopher Rios’ only son, who shares his name and raps under the moniker Chris Rivers has celebrated his father, as well as told the public about some of the hardships his family faced.

This month, Chris released a music video for “Fear Of My Crown.” The Delorean single and its graphic visual confronted domestic abuse head-on. While it may be assumed, based on past interviews and documentary footage, that Rivers suffered abuse, he did not proclaim that the artistic video was a depiction of actual incidents in the Rios household. In its reporting, Ambrosia For Heads was careful not to make such assertions. Now, Chris Rivers makes a video statement confirming that the video is not intended to be a representation of his father or family.

“I want to first say that I’m super thankful for all of the positive feedback on all the people telling me [how much ‘Fear Of My Crown’] helped them. Really, we just wanted to raise awareness for domestic violence and other things like that: people that’s felt oppressed and people that felt like they couldn’t talk about this. This is why we do that. I always speak from a personal place, but I want to tell y’all that the video itself was not a depiction of my life. It wasn’t a depiction of my father. It wasn’t a depiction of my family. It was a depiction of abuse itself, and we’re trying to raise this awareness and we’re trying to bring it up. It’s been kind of marginalized, it’s been taken out of context, so I just wanted to clear the air real quick,” said Chris Rivers in a video uploaded yesterday (November 9).

The clarification from Rivers was also shared online by Domingo. The Brooklyn, New York producer not only worked closely with Pun (in addition to KRS-One, Kool G Rap, and Masta Ace), he and his That’s Hip Hop imprint are behind the release of Delorean.

In 2013, Rivers opened up about his father and why, as a fellow MC, he stopped rhyming under “Baby Pun.” “I had the name ‘Baby Pun’ when I was younger and as I started to become my own artist. It’s like now I’m really doing it heavy, I [figured out I] wanted my own identity,” Rivers told Real Late With Peter Rosenberg on New York City’s HOT 97. “It’s different ’cause like I get proud when people tell me I’m like my father, but his good side. ‘Cause he had two sides. There’s one side that nobody really knew. So, I get proud when people tell me that, but when people call me ‘Baby Pun’ I don’t really want it ’cause it’s like I don’t wanna be like my father at all. I wanna be a better man than him or take all his good qualities and amplify it. I don’t wanna be that man, and I’m not that man.”

The 22-year-old Rivers was born ahead of Big Pun’s late ’90s rise to stardom. He is a guest on Wu-Tang Clan’s newly-released The Saga Continues, Slaine & Termanology’s Anti-Hero, and Talib Kweli & Styles P’s The Seven.