Vince Staples Defends Random Mom's Rant About Him

This definitely isn't the first time a mom has gotten upset about the kind of music that plays on the radio, and it definitely won't be the last, but a clip of a certain upset mom is making a huge impact. This week, a video of a mom upset about the lyrics of "Norf Norf" by Vince Staples went viral, and the reaction has been pretty negative. But the rapper behind the song wants the negativity to stop, and his reason it is actually kind of cool. In an interview with The Independent, Staples defended the woman from the "Norf Norf" rant, and it just proves how awesome this guy really is.

Basically, this all started when a video surfaced of a Christian mother of four — who, so far, has remained unidentified — who heard "Norf Norf" on a local radio station and was pretty horrified by the lyrics. In the video (which you can watch here), she's brought to tears just talking about the kind of music her young daughters have been exposed to, and then she proceeds to read out the lyrics of the entire song, profanity and all. She mispronounces a lot of words and is obviously very out of her element, but it's clear she's legitimately upset — aka she's not doing this for the laughs.

The woman takes issue with a lot of themes in the song: abortions, skipping class, and drug use, to name a few. And while dark topics like these are present in a lot of rap about the harsh realities of gang life, it's shocking to her, especially since she admittedly usually listens to Christian music. And since this song was reportedly played on a station that she says normally sticks to vanilla top hits, it caught her off guard when it started playing with her children in the car.

So far, there are articles everywhere mocking the woman — like this one from Funny or Die — but when Staples was asked about the rant, his response was pretty impressive, especially since he believes she misinterpreted the lyrics. He said:

"I don’t really have much to say about the video — I don’t think it’s funny at all. It’s not right to attack someone over their stance, their opinions, and their religion. I think that’s very immature. It’s just not right that’s she’s being attacked. It’s not okay.”​

While it totally would have made sense for him to be angry that she was offended, it's awesome to hear that Staples decided to point out how wrong it is to attack someone for her opinion. However, he does think that she took his lyrics out of context, since he was rapping about his own experiences growing up in Long Beach. He added:

“We already have a lot of issues between black and white relations in this country based on misunderstandings. In my eyes, she doesn’t look like a racist. She doesn’t look like a mean person. But it’s not very responsible for people to try to take that and jump, looking for some sort of commentary on these issues."

Obviously, Staples and the woman from the video come from two totally different walks of life, so it'd be hard for her to understand what his experiences are that made sharing those lyrics important to him. But good for Staples for defending her anyway. What a beautiful world we'd live in if everyone respected each other's opinions the way he respects hers, right?

But whether or not you agree with what this woman is saying, there are far worse things than a mother taking an active role in the things that influence her children, whether it's music, TV, or something else. Maybe she and Staples can sit down and hash this whole thing out? If that ever happens, I hope it makes its way to YouTube, too.