Tee Grizzley has revealed how his recent outreach work with at-risk youth has had an impact on him following his visit to a youth detention center in Chicago.
In a recent post shared on Instagram, Grizzley described his experience visiting the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center, where he spent time speaking with the young people detainees at the facility.
In Tee Grizzley’s address, the “Blow For Blow” rapper shared that he has been traveling from city to city throughout the Midwest, speaking to young people who are in trouble with the law, facing court cases, or dealing with the fallout of challenging home environments.
“I just want to share a real experience with y’all,” Tee Grizzley began. I’m going to city to city throughout the Midwest and other spots. Just talking to the young n###s that’s in trouble and s### like that. Fighting cases, you know what I’m saying? Being abused. That’s at homes. Kids that got incarcerated, parents, this is what I’m on. I’m just going to kick with them. Ain’t nobody paying me to do this. Ain’t nobody making me do this. I’m just doing this. I wish somebody would’ve did it for me.”
During his visit to the detention center, Grizzley specifically spoke with young men who were being charged as adults but were still too young to be transferred to county jail. He described how, on their 18th birthday, these youths would be moved from the juvenile center to the adult facility to continue fighting their cases.
“These is people who too young to go to the county, but they being charged as an adult and on they 18th birthday, on they birthday is when they get transferred to the county,” he noted.
The stark reality of these circumstances resonated with Grizzley and motivated him to implore the detainees to take full advantage of his presence with them. Grizzley said his approach ended up paying off immensely and paving the way for him to build a genuine connection with those he was visiting with.
“After I said that, they started opening up slowly but surely they started rapping everything,” he said. “We in there kicking it, laughing. I brought ’em all some Harold’s [Chicken] up there, you feel me? We eating like family. So I’m just thinking to myself like ‘damn, these little n###as cool as hell. I hope when they get out,’ you know what I’m saying?”
However, the grim reminder of the choices the detainees made to land themselves in the detention center ultimately proved to be a shocking discovery for Grizzley.
“So I’m just taking a liking to these young n###as and s##t like that, and I ended up asking him like, ‘so what y’all locked up for?’” he said. “It’s 20-30 of ’em. ‘What y’all locked up for? Y’all n###as kids? What y’all in for?’ All them little n###as in that b###h for bodies bro. All of them bodies, all of them. Not one shoplifted, not one fraud, not one fight at school, not one got caught with a gun. All of them bodies, babies 18th birthday going to the county, charges is adult came in there and they was 13, 14, 15, been in there for two years. Bodies, all of them.”
Grizzley went on to explain how the charges the youths were facing that he was visiting led him to reflect on his own experience navigating the legal system.
“And what f##ked me up, I remember when I was in the county fighting my case and I’m around a bunch of cool a## n###as,” he remarked. “I’m around a bunch of n###as I’m taking liking to. When I get out I’ll be able to f##k with you. You know what I’m saying? And the craziest part that f##ked my head up. Some of them n###as going to get found guilty bro. How they mamas feel, how they families feel? They got little brothers and little sisters. These n###as, babies bro.”
He continued, using the journey some make to become professional athletes as a metaphor for the types of odds many of the youth at the detention center face due to their charges.
“It’s like, making it to the NBA, is like beating the case,” he said. “Everybody don’t make it to the NBA bro. So if you are some praying people, put them young n###as in your prayers, man that’s in there fighting for they life bro as kids. S##t was so humbling. S##t was so real. S##t. Touched my heart, man.”
