Baby Keem reflected on the rough upbringing of his Aunt Connie during a sentimental moment with Nardwuar.
The Ca$ino rapper appeared on the Monday (May 18) episode of Nardwuar’s show, where he was surprised with a 1993 photo of his aunts Connie and Tracy. The photo originally appeared in the July 27, 1993 issue of The Los Angeles Times, which Keem hadn’t seen until chatting with Nardwuar.
The photo shows Connie (LaConnie Govan), Tracy (LaTracy Govan), and another girl arriving via limo to begin a week at Camp Hollywoodland in Griffith Park. The three were among a dozen elementary school students to receive the trip due to their work in a “program to prevent fights at schools.”
“I've never seen this before. I don't even know about the story. I don't even know if they know about this,” Keem said around the 10-minute mark of the video before asking if he could have the photo. “I’ve got to make a FaceTime call right after this. This is crazy.”
Connie helped raise Keem and is a co-director of the rapper’s 3-part Ca$ino documentary, Booman, which was released in February. The Grammy winner went on to reflect on his aunts’ upbringing in South Central Los Angeles in the 1990s, where their community was surrounded by gang violence.
“That's most of the stories that I would get. How poor we were. Motel-to-motel living,” Keem said. “There was a situation [when] my aunt was around 9 years old and she was actually caught in crossfire. So the fact that she's even alive today, it just puts the whole picture on this and [she] was able to succeed in this way and still go to school and be blessed enough to have the the brains to raise somebody like me, this is a doctrine to those stories.”
Keem added that he was “excited” to talk to his aunt on the phone after seeing the photo.
As documented in Booman, Keem was co-raised by his Aunt Connie in a one-bedroom apartment in Long Beach before he relocated to Las Vegas. The film contains family home videos, interviews with close relatives, and Keem in the studio with his cousin and frequent collaborator Kendrick Lamar.
