Kodak Black’s comments about actress Lauren London following the death of her long-time boyfriend Nipsey Hussle have brought general outrage inside and outside of hip-hop culture and rapper T.I. was no exception.
But the Atlanta M.C. is now explaining why he has been caping for London against Black for nearly a week over his remarks, which have been widely criticized as tasteless, Complex reports.
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“I see myself in this. And I only wanna handle him the way I feel that he would handle me,” T.I. said. “That’s it … If a motherf***a were to speak out and say something out of line about my old lady after my untimely demise, I feel like he ain’t just gonna speak up, he gonna pull up. I owe [Nipsey] that same respect. I owe him that exact same respect, so I’ma go hard.”
Several days after Hussle’s shooting death on March 31, a video surfaced of Kodak remarking about London, calling her a “whole widow” and continuing to say that he would gladly step up to be “the best man I can be for her.
“I’ll give her a whole year,” he continued in the footage. “She might need a whole year to be crying and sh** for [Nipsey].”
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T.I. was one of the first to come out in response against Kodak’s comments.
“Hey, Kodak Black: You outta pocket, n***a. Fix that shit—quickly, expeditiously,” he said in an Instagram response. “[…] If I see you, I’ma say it to your face. You outta pocket, n***a. Get your motherf***in’ self together.”
After intense backlash, Kodak went on to issue a thinly veiled apology for his comments, yet the apology itself only seemed to get the rapper into more trouble. In the apology, he suggested that T.I., who co-starred with London in the film “ATL”, was only criticizing him because he wanted her for himself, something T.I. denies.
READ MORE: Kodak Black trolls T.I. by accusing him of wanting Lauren London