YG is opening up about being sexually abused by an older woman at age 14, revealing that most men he confided in shared similar experiences.
The Compton rapper first revealed the assault in his single “2004” in March.
He emphasized the importance of speaking out during a raw interview with Rocsi Diaz for ABC News.
YG reflected that as a teen, he didn’t recognize his encounter with an older woman as assault and saw it as a positive experience, but as he grew older and gained perspective, he realized it was actually sexual abuse.
He explained, “I got raped.”
The deeply personal track “2004,” begins with the line: “When I was young I got raped / By a b#### that was twice my age / Picked me up from school / Took me to hers and got laid / Ever since that day I never looked at s### the same.”
YG – 2004
The song marks the first time YG publicly addressed the abuse. He admitted his own family didn’t know until they heard the lyrics.
“I kept it inside,” he continued. “My family, first time hearing about that was when the record came out.”
He said the response from those around him was eye-opening.
“90 percent of the people I played it for, the men, the males, they all got similar stories,” YG added. “That was the conversation everybody was having. It was like, ‘Yeah, like I was sexually abused.’ And it’s like, ‘Yeah, but for us, we men, so it ain’t treated the same way.’”
The rapper, known for his West Coast street anthems, said he felt compelled to speak out through music.
“Everybody got their story, and that’s why I made the record,” YG said. “To influence people to tell their stories. Especially coming from an artist, somebody like me, it’s unexpected.”
He also addressed how public perception of him as a gang-affiliated rapper often strips him of his humanity.
“People put me in the box,” YG told Diaz. “They know us as gang members and we from the streets and all this, you feel me? So they look at us like, ‘Oh, we gang members, we animals, we not human.’ You know what I’m saying? But it’s like, bro, I’m human. I go through real-life stuff outside of the street stuff.”
The feedback from “2004” has already shaped the direction of his upcoming album.
“Seeing people reaction, it’s been good for me,” YG asserted. “Because it got me going deeper on the album… I got some more stuff I can talk about.”
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