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In his latest interview, rapper Waka Flocka Flame opened up about what was going through his head when his stepdaughter Charlie asked him and her mother Tammy Rivera if her date to her quinceañera could be a girl during last night’s premiere of Waka and Tammy: What The Flocka.
Speaking to the hosts of Fox Soul’s In The Mix, the rapper said he wasn’t sure why people had any commentary surrounding his calm and uneventful response to Charlie’s question. Explaining his approach, Waka shared that he felt reacting in a volatile way would have only created distance within the close relationship he shares with her.
“I don’t see the problem,” he said to the hosts about his simple and supportive “Okay” to Charlie when she asked about her date. Unpacking his feelings surrounding her sexuality, he added, “I don’t have expectations because the stuff you’re expecting is never going to be 100%. I don’t believe in 100% — I believe in experience. So I can’t say I don’t like something that I’ve never experienced. If I approach it like a strong-minded male it’ll run her away — you get what I’m saying? So I follow in my wife’s footsteps. She’s like ‘Baby just chill, just listen to her,’ but I guess — I don’t know. Charlie probably thought I was going to act like King Kong. I don’t know, but it’s cool.”
When one host praised the rapper’s accepting response and said Charlie’s presence on the show serves as representation for other young girls who might be experiencing the same things and feelings she’s going through, Waka abruptly interrupted him to clarify that Charlie wasn’t “going through” anything because he and Tammy have always made an effort to allow the child to be “heard.”
“Oh nah, not to cut you off but Charlie ain’t going through sh*t,” Waka interjected. Explaining how Charlie’s never had to “hide” who she is or what she likes, the rapper continued, “And I’m not gonna make a stand like a model for that, [but] she’s heard. Like I made sure Charlie’s heard. At the end of the day, her happiness is everything. So before I even let her stand on something or ‘come out’ — like she ain’t have to come out cause she was never hiding.”
“If we were hiding it would have never been on television,” he also pointed out. “Let’s make that extremely clear.”
“We from the hood, we from the struggle, but our kids are privileged,” he said of the difference in his upbringing from her’s. In terms of how that’s impacted his view on parenting, he went on, “So nobody taught us how to raise privileged Black kids. So right now, you just gotta be a father. You can’t think about what a blog will say or what a person’s going to say because at the end of the day that’s your child — that’s your child’s feelings. Before I even let somebody play with mines I better make sure she’s happy.”
Waka and Tammy have been married since 2014, and in the past he’s been quite open about the special bond he and Charlie share. Referring to her as “the apple of my eye” earlier in the interview, no one can deny that his continuous support and love for her is super genuine. See him talking about being a father to her down below, and the discussion about Charlie’s date starts around the 5:38 mark.
