After a Thursday show in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Rakim gave an statement about the #BlackLivesMatter movement and social media activism.

“If you’re conscious of where we’re at in life right now, with democracy, rights, and racism, and all these things, you’ll have an opinion like myself. I don’t feel that what’s going on is necessary.”

“I feel that, it’s a corny word, but the first thing is we’re being stereotyped. If you look a certain way, you’re gonna get handled a certain way. It stems back to stereotyping and racism. So we gotta understand what’s going on, and avoid it as much as we can. You know, I got kids. I got sons, and I try to tell them, ‘Look, man, when you in the car and you get pulled over, hands on the steering wheel. Yes, sir. No sir. Your job is to either wind up in jail, so I can come get you, or be able to pull off. That’s your job. I’d rather come get you from the precinct, for whatever happened, instead of mouthing off or giving them any reason to use that physical abuse. So we have to be smart, but still, what they’re doing is uncalled for, and unfair, man. The laws are gonna have to change. And it’s 2016. We can’t keep using all the laws that was made back in the 1700s. We’re gonna have to understand that times have changed.”