ATLANTA — It’s not hip-hop music leading to violence, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said this week. But there are too many guns ending up in the wrong hands, he said.
“I do not believe that hip-hop equals violence. I grew up on the music. I’m still into the music,” Dickens said in an Instagram post. “Guns plus people being mad equals bad outcomes.”
Dickens said he waited to speak publicly about the death of recording artist Takeoff, whose real name was Kirsnick Khari Bell, until he had spoken to others about the shooting. Takeoff, one-third of the Atlanta group Migos, was killed outside a Houston bowling alley earlier this week, but investigators don’t believe he was the intended target.
