Lil Durk voices his commitment to ending violence in his hometown Chicago, enlisting city officials and more.
During an appearance on the Big Facts Podcast, the “Old Days” rapper was questioned about his approach to “cleaning the streets of Chicago” and utilizing his music to resolve conflicts.
“That’s the number one goal, to stop it,” he said in a clip of the episode, recorded on last week. “But, the number one priority for us in the streets and politician-wise, is to stop the violence and slow it down as much as possible. It starts with everybody just coming together.”
Acknowledging it’s no simple task, he added: “But, like I said, it’s hard because you probably got him other here thinking he that, but his young n****s don’t even respect him,” he added. “So, even if he be like, ‘Come on. Let’s come together.’ They’d look at him like, ‘Get the fuck on.’”
In April, Lil Durk took to his Instagram Story to announce plans to organize a festival, enlisting artists from far and wide, in an effort to combat violence in The Windy City.
“I’ma do a Smurkchella next year at the bears stadium in Chicago,” he wrote, unveiling the name of the festival. “it’s gone be a stop the violence event and we gone split half the money with different non profits from big to small. I need help I need every artist who locked in with me to help save these kids.”
Tagging his non-profit organization he added: “@neighborhoodheroesfoundation will help put it together let’s go this my way of giving back without saying it to look cool.”
Lil Durk wants to host a Smurckchella in Chicago next year 👀🔥 pic.twitter.com/qEPQ0wXuCp
— Wave Check🌊 (@thewavecheckk) April 10, 2024
Lil Durk initiated his non-profit, Neighborhood Heroes, in 2020, consistently supporting his community since. In 2022, the organization teamed up with Chicago Votes to provide 29,000 bottles of hand sanitizer to inmates and staff at Illinois Department of Correction facilities, addressing the challenge of clean water scarcity during the COVID-19 pandemic.