“People are going to judge you, before they even know who you are and what you represent.”
Last week it was announced that Yungblud was set to play a show and hold a Q&A at a US high school, in conjunction with the school receiving a $10,000 grant for music education.
However, following concerns from members of their community, it’s been reported that the school announced they would request another artist to visit instead – citing “Concerns about how the performer YUNGBLUD chooses to use his music to deliver his message.”
Yungblud has responded to the situation with a video statement.
“People are going to judge you, before they even know who you are and what you represent,” he commented.
“But don’t let that stop you being who you are. let it be their ignorance. hanford high school i will be there. even if i gotta play outside the fookin gates.”
people are going to judge you, before they even know who you are and what you represent. but don’t let that stop you being who you are. let it be their ignorance. hanford high school i will be there. even if i gotta play outside the fookin gates �� pic.twitter.com/hsZQuhbxs6
— YUNGBLUD (@yungblud) November 26, 2019
The full statement is as follows:
“What’s going on? So, some of you may or may not know that I partnered with Chegg to go and perform at a high school in America. And what Chegg does is they give opportunities to school and colleges to vote and if they win they get a 10,000 dollar grant for their school and an artist comes and performs at their school and I was that artist this year.”
“And Hanford school in California won this year, but some of the local community and the news petitioned against me coming because they believe that my community and my songs are insensitive, especially ‘Kill Somebody’ towards gun violence and school shootings.”
“And I just want to do a video message just to say, that, just to ask people to look beyond the surface of things because if anybody actually knows my community and knows me, what we pride ourselves on is bringing people together and unifying people and allowing people to be themselves.”
“We are activists against hate, against guns, against gun violence, against school shootings. We are shouting every single day to get closer to making that become totally obsolete. I just ask you, if you don’t know something, please do not judge it on surface level. Please be informed and please learn about things.”
“I can’t wait to come and play Hanford. I will be there, I love you, I’ll see you soon. Fucking love you so much. Rock ‘n’ roll.”