And that was actually an ode to Juelz Santana's “Dipset Anthem” video where he got bagged up, and we did the same thing of him wearing the bandana in front of the hood rapping, getting bagged up, and me feeling still in that same experience, but just do like, "No matter what I do, it doesn't matter if I'm giving back to my community," or, "It doesn't matter if I'm undocumented," or, "It doesn't matter if I'm finally getting to a place where I could take care of sh*t, and move through my city, and be able to flex and flaunt." By the end of the day, I'm still this number. You know what I'm saying? I'm still this alien number and I'm still being surveilled even within my successes.

SM: Yeah. What do you have to say about someone who could watch this video and say, "Well, this is a form of cultural appropriation, because the criminal justice system disproportionately impacts Black Americans, and you can't just like put it in your video and act like now you're down with that”.

AK: For sure. I think when I do things like that, and especially when it comes to appropriation, it's about being intentional, and it's about being able to back up your sh*t. So if somebody does ask me about you being able to talk about the justice system and what's going on within incarceration, I can say that I've done my research; I've done my due diligence. We have to separate the conversation first and not just between Black and Brown, but within neighborhoods and policing within blocks and what happens. Because I have been through those experiences. And I will never ever experience the same thing African Americans go through, and that is the first thing I say, no matter what.

So I will never compare my plight to theirs because it is 100 percent completely different. But that doesn't take away the South Asians I've seen within the jail system. And that doesn't take away that if you look any kind of edgy, or if your hair is curlier than the straighter hair, and if you don't wear the J.Crew clothes and you wear the baggier sh*t or look any kind of influential or quote-unquote dangerous, that that sh*t can't happen to you. And so for me, it was being able to show it in a metaphor, and that's why in the video it shows ICE first, because that's something I think targets Brown Americans more than the police, and then sewing the police part second for those specific South Asian narratives that did grow up in low-income housing that did grow up within those blocks of policing, constant policing, that did grow up not understanding what their identity should be or not knowing how to live in that world and how to articulate in that world.

Because my mother did watch me get bagged, and it was the most hurtful thing that I've ever let her see me experience. I don't speak about it a lot, because I didn't do time the way I know certain people did time. So I don't necessarily count mine as real time in it. But at the same time, my mother still saw me get handcuffed right in front of a police car and then pull me into a goddamn car, and then I rode away, and she was outside sitting on the street watching me drive away in the back of this car, and I know what that does to her.

So for me, that appropriation sh*t is real. And I'm completely open to the conversation and I'm completely open to learning. But at the same time, I feel like I have an experience, and I have an education there for me to be able to back up what I'm trying to express, and then my intention gets spoken clearly, which I think makes it easier for people to take it in instead of thinking, "Oh, he's just doing this shit to look cool.”