Joey Bada$$ made a powerful statement at the 2022 BET Hip Hop Awards ... urging rappers to stop delivering messages that lead to their demise, or the death of others.
During his performance of his "2000" album cut “Head High," Joey lined up 12 backup dancers ... each with a slain rapper's name embroidered on their hoodie.
In chronological order of their deaths, Joey honored Scott La Rock, Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Big L, Soulja Slim, XXXTENTACION, Nipsey Hussle, Pop Smoke, King Von, Young Dolph, Trouble and PnB Rock -- all who fell victim to gun violence between 1987 and last month ... when PnB was killed. 😕
Joey went on to argue rappers are spurring their own genocide, and preached the culture needs to take accountability for the message it's delivering to kids.
‘problem is we our biggest oops-done pointing fingers @ judges & cops..it’s time 2take accountability..how many more names I gotta drop’ #joeybadass #BETHipHopAwards 💥 #hiphopawards #BET pic.twitter.com/konZq04PxZ
— kat diva, PhD ♍️😈 #movieswithimpact📽🎞 (@katdiva1) October 5, 2022
He also slammed the popular slang term "op" a.k.a. enemy ... contending that war is being fought within rappers' own circles.
The New York rapper isn't the only one from his rap generation to decry the rap murder rate -- just a few weeks ago, Rich Homie Quan told us the "shoot 'em up, bang-bang music" is a problem for everyone who hears it.
Rap by the gun, die by the gun has become hip hop's motto as of late ... but now that actual content creators are speaking up, maybe the general public -- their fans -- will get the message.