G Herbo Gets Candid About How Going to Therapy Inspired New ‘PTSD’ Album
Written by SOURCE on February 24, 2020
Later this week, G Herbo will release his new project PTSD, which boasts a title and artwork that the Chicago artist has explained was inspired by a realization he had regarding his experiences as a child.
Speaking with HipHopDX over the weekend, Herbo revealed that his 2018 gun-related arrest ultimately pushed him toward that realization after he received the suggestion from an attorney of entering therapy.
“When the lawyer told me to go see the therapist, it was really just me embracing it,” he said. “I think I was already aware of the issue, and why I even had to get arrested, or have to carry a gun in the first place.”
Initially, Herbo conceded, he wasn’t fully convinced of the benefits of therapy. However, he soon changed his view of the crucial practice, ultimately coming away from the experience with a greater understanding of his own PTSD and the related effects of what he witnessed when he was younger.
“That was probably my first introduction to me embracing my PTSD, but we’re so immune to a lot of this stuff that go on in the inner city with, like, violence, going to jail, and all that kind of shit,” he said. “It’s like, we kind of don’t know that we suffer from these mental health issues.”
Herbo added that he’s “a product of” that way of thinking, pointing out that he witnessed a murder when he was nine years old. Seeing this on a daily basis, he further explained, can normalize the experiences to the point of ignoring their mental impact.
“I feel like in the poverty-stricken neighborhoods, a lot of us are suffering from PTSD,” he said. “I thought it was important for me because I know it’s a lot of people who are like me.”
Read the full G Herbo interview here. PTSD, featuring the 21 Savage collab “By Any Means,” is out this Friday on all major streaming services.
