Over the weekend (May 31), rising rapper Chika shared details surrounding a recent experience in which she was detained by the police at a Los Angeles event while protesting the killing of George Floyd. In a nearly 35-minute video posted to her Instagram page, she explains how, in her attempt to de-escalate a situation between protestors and the police, cops detained and handcuffed her with zip ties for seven hours. According to Chika's video post, she was not properly arrested and was not read her Miranda Rights, Pitchfork reports.
In the lengthy video, she goes into detail about how she attempted to calmly confront the police officers after they told protestors to leave an area because the gathering was deemed an "unlawful protest." The police officers, who Chika described as "extra aggressive," cited a nearby incident in which protestors set a police car on fire as the reason why the protest was being shut down, the rapper explains.
The police officers then grabbed Chika's manager, who was recording the protest as she was trying to leave the gathering, and began to detain her. The cops then escorted the rapper and her manager to an area where a group of other protesters were being detained.
In a separate Instagram post shared in real-time while she was being detained, Chika explains how the police put her and several other detainees on a bus while they were getting cited.
"Nobody in this bus did anything wrong," she says in the clip. "Every single person in here is in here unlawfully."
Chika, who was released from detainment the same day, has since posted several photos and videos to her Instagram in support of the protests.
In a post shared June 2, she addressed the music-industry-wide blackout this week, which saw many major music companies and entertainment corporations shut down business for the day "in observance of the long-standing racism and inequality that exists from the boardroom to the boulevard," according to the initiative's website.
"I appreciate the industry blackout. However, I will not be blacking out today or tomorrow, not that I don't support those who are," she said in the clip. "I understand, and I think it's a great gesture that needs to be in conjunction with some other sh*t … I think that I have the responsibility to share information when it comes to protesting, when it comes to the images that are being hidden from us by the media, when it comes to literal fighting—be that protesting or any other means. I think that it's super important for people like me … with this influence to use it for something."
Chika, who attended another protest Tuesday (June 2), this week (June 3) addressed the upgrade of charges, from third-degree murder to second-degree murder, of Derek Chauvin, one of the police officers charged with killing George Floyd after he kept his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes. Floyd's death last month, as well as the recent killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and other black U.S. citizens, has sparked nationwide protests.
Chika, a vocal proponent for social justice, is widely known for her thought-provoking lyrics and personal songs. Her major-label debut EP, Industry Games, released in March, tells her story as a queer female rapper.
"I think that I fleshed out a lot more about myself with this project," she told the Recording Academy about Industry Games in March. "You get more of my thought process, and the way my brain actually works––I get to share how crazy and hectic it gets in my brain sometimes. [Laughs.] You hear me versus my ego on it, and what that sounds like for me to be this soft-spoken person, but having a bigger ego, and having to defend certain words."
Chika Confronts Music 'Industry Games' With Candor & Confidence On Her Major-Label Debut
