Christian Rapper Lecrae Talks about How Trauma Changed his Life

Christian rapper Lecrae visited Yale University recently to talk about mental health and social justice.

The rapper opened the conversation by telling the audience about his experience being sexually assaulted by a close family member when he was seven-years-old. He told the crowd that this assault was never dealt with and to cope with the trauma he taught himself to put it in a box and push it down.  

He goes on to say that he spent his young adulthood trying to escape the reputation of his father who walked out of his life when he was four years old. The rapper said, “I remember as a kid people saying, ‘you remind me of your father,’ ‘you act like your father.” He continued, “I didn’t take this as a compliment. Even if it was just a mere observation, I took it as an insult, cause this was a man who wasn’t consistent, cause this was a man that had taken on drug abuse… I saw that as an example of who I should not be, and so what I did at that point in time was consume myself with not being my father.” 

Lacrae goes on to say he focused so heavily on trying not to be his father, he never really stopped to think about who he was supposed to be.

This compiled with the destructive environment he grew up in and the several trauma’s he experienced throughout his life caused him to go into a downward spiral.

He said while may have appeared to be…