YG’s non-profit foundation 4Hundred Waze organized a back-to-school event for the children in the city of Gardena and neighboring areas (South Los Angeles, Compton, Watts). The event included a school supply giveaway, free food donated by Fat Burger, entertainment from local youth programs, booths representing El Camino Community College, UCLA, and USC, as well as other booths with information regarding youth and family organizations. Also included in the event was a panel discussion where YG, Nipsey Hu$$le, and others in the music industry spoke to the children about the importance of education and focusing on business. When asked by a young person in the crowd if they should go to college or begin working on their career, YG replied “Do both. There are 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week.”

Reality is Real sat down with Shonee Jackson, YG’s mother and the executive director of 4Hundred Waze about the foundation and future of the organization.

Reality is Real: How did your organization, 4 Hundred Waze, get started?

Shonee Jackson: We got started when he dropped his first single, “Toot it and Boot it.” We were living in a gated community and one of the next-door neighbors came and asked me if it was OK and how he would feel about speaking to the teen clubs. The foster home and group home kids have a teen club twice a month and I thought that would be great and he said “ Yeah, I think the kids are all his fans and stuff for him to come out and talk to.” So we went out and did some teen club talks and I did some cooking and we’re feeding the kids and we were talking and one time turned into like every month that we were doing something with the teens and these are the group home and foster home kids. So that turned into like 3 years of us working with them. And then last year he wanted to do a Christmas event he just sprung it on me like literally six weeks before Christmas “Mama let’s get all the group home kids and foster home kids and take them shopping. I want to take them to the mall”. I’m like “What? We don’t have time!” He said “Well yeah let’s do an essay. They gotta write essays. Just make it happen, make it happen!” So I got in contact with the Department of Children and Family Services which we already had the contacts of some head people to try to make this work. And we made it happen. Last year we had like 65 kids we took shopping . And that got so much attention when January came around, my phone was ringing off the hook about how the Department of Children and Family Services really appreciated us doing this. And it was on a very small scale, 65 kids. But they appreciated what we did and said that no rapper or no one has ever done that for the foster home and group home kids, those kids are often forgot about. So when we took on some meetings and I was going to meetings and going home I was thinking “If this is something he wants to do, I need it to let it make sense and make a difference.” And that’s what sparked me to start this organization, 4Hundred Waze. After that, we started it in March and we just started planning. What’s going to be our launch event? What’s going to be our kick-off event? Which was this back-to-school event. It was a very good turn out. We had great people supporting us. The sponsors and donors. We had Wells Fargo, Sam’s Club, Costco, Champion, Crooks and Castles, Diamond, Hundreds, Torrance Memorial Medical Center, Little Company of Mary [Hospital]. We plan on just doing bigger… getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

RisR: How important was it for you to collaborate with other hip hop communities, including hip hop clothing lines such as Crooks and Castles and Diamond?

SJ: That was very important due to the fact that my son has a relationship with them. All the relationships that he has we just used them. And everybody was so great and thankful that he’s doing this for the community. They wanted to get on board. “Tell us what you need. What you need us to do. You need products? You need money?” And everybody was just giving. Everybody was so excited that he was doing this. We actually did this [back-to-school event] for the community but our main focus is really foster home and group home kids. Those kids are forgotten about and we don’t want to forget those kids.

RisR: Since you’ve started, and really before you started when you guys were speaking to the group home youth and foster youth, what are some issues that you saw come up that you knew you wanted to address with your organization?

SJ: Staying in school.

RisR: Because they have the number one dropout rate?

SJ: Right, they have the highest dropout rate. Staying school is the biggest issue. Then we have a lot of health issues.

RiR: I noticed you have the [mobile] health clinic here.

SJ: Right! We have the clinic here because of the health issues. So it’s a lot of different things we want to target within that. As we grow everyone is going to know about the different programs that we’re going to have under our organization.

RisR: And because of the dropout rates, that’s why you felt the back-to-school kickoff event was really important?

SJ: Yes, really important. Even with our panel of speakers talking to the kids about education and that they can do anything. And if my son can do it — and I know everything he’s put me through — if he can do it, then any of us can do it.

RisR: Do you feel that the work of YG, and not just YG, other rap artists as well and Nipsey Hussle is here too, do you feel that the work that they do in the community gets enough coverage? We know that they negative stuff spreads all over the internet and we hear about it all of the time.

SJ: You know it’s a sad thing. It doesn’t get enough coverage. When I launched this, I was able to get this on [Fox] Channel 11. This is the first time my son has been on any news channel for somethingpositive.

RisR: And you reached out to them?

SJ: We did reach out to them but for them to even accept it was something big. They could have turned it down because normally it’s negative stuff. But this was something real big. And there are other artists doing positive stuff but it doesn’t get the attention.

RisR: Do you think the youth in our community, and I’m saying our community because we are a part of these same communities, do you think youth in our communities have a fair chance at success without out these types of programs to support them?

SJ: I really don’t. We need as many programs, after school programs and other organizations, to help because we aren’t getting enough help. The kids are not getting enough help.

RisR: Is supporting the community and giving back to the community part of the legacy that YG wants to leave even outside of his music?

SJ: Yes he does. He even spoke about that on stage. He wants to be remembered in a positive way giving back to the community. In his career, when he started making money, it was time for him to give back. A lot of artists don’t do this so early in their career. They wait until later. But God just put it on my heart that we needed to do this now and we are already making an impact and that’s really big. We can’t change everybody’s lives, but if we change a few lives that’s something big to us. The more the merrier, but if we can change a few and keep a few more in school graduating and going to college, that’s the blessing that we’re looking for to come out of this.

RisR: How can people support the work you guys are doing with this organization? Do you need more donors?

SJ: We need more donors and sponsors just go to YG4hundredwaze.org and donate. Help us help the community. Donate.

RisR: What are some of the long-term goals you guys have?

SJ: Under our organization we want to start engineering programs. We want to watch these kids become the next DJ Mustards and the next DJ Carismas, you know, the next YGs. So we are going to help them. We’re going to guide them and give them the tools to do it.

RisR: So you’re talking about a total investment?

SJ: Yes we’re talking about a total investment. YG is investing in it big time with his own label. And we are going to pull some kids. We got some kids out there that we may can even pull up. They may not have to go through all the changes. If they are good we can pull them up and we’re going to get them going.

RisR: Are there any projects that are going on currently or projects that are going to be coming up soon?

SJ: We are going to be doing a bowling fundraiser for our organization and we’re going to be doing a Christmas event. Our Christmas essay,“Nothing Can Stop Me” Christmas event. Last year it was 65 kids, this year we hope… we’re praying that we get 265 kids this year.

RisR: Are you reaching out to the local schools?

SJ: We are just gearing toward staying with the foster home and group home kids. We have two events that are open to the community but our main focus is really to work with these group home and foster home kids.

RisR: So you are targeting foster homes and group homes specifically.

SJ: Specifically. Yeah.

RisR: Some of those kids might not even be in school.

SJ: Yeah some of them might not be in school. We have drop outs and we are going to help them drop back in.