If you could confront your absentee parent, what would you say? Compton, Calif., musician Garren had a lot of questions for his father and used a familiar video format to get some answers.
In the tone of the viral #HurtBae video, Garren confronts his father in a video titled “#FatherlessBae,” an emotional video of reconciliation and questions. The rapper simply wants to know why his father chose a life of being a gangbanger and jail.
“I grew up that way. My friends was in it. We were all buddies, so we all stuck together,” Garren’s father tells his son. “It was fun. It was exciting. I just kept going with it.”
As a child, even when his father was released from jail, Garren says, he and his siblings were the last to know.
“You chose the streets as a priority, in our eyes,” Garren says in the video. “On the times that we did find out that you were out [of prison] we was knowing after your homies. You were on the block hangin’ out. You weren’t coming straight home when you got it.
“Even on my birthday, I remember seeing you. You know, it was my birthday; I’m looking for you and you should be looking for me, or at least calling for me.” Garren adds.
Garren’s father says that he didn’t realize he wasn’t being a good father. Garren says he wanted to let his father know that he almost walked in his gangbanger shoes, just because he looked up to him—even though he knew that the lifestyle wasn’t something he should be involved in.
“I was going to commit to a Blood neighborhood. I was going to do it because I looked up to you and I knew I would get some stripes like, ‘Yo, I’m a gangbanger too! Just like my pops,’” Garren says.
Watch the video below: