Chicagoan G Herbo, who was born Herbert Randall Wright III, ignited social media with a remarkable assertion:
“All of the projects in Chicago had snipers on the roof.”
Posted prolifically on sites like X and TikTok, the utterance originated from an interview in which he reminisced about the city’s since-condemned public housing projects, such as Cabrini-Green and Robert Taylor Homes. Famous for his gritty drill beats as well as his efforts in community empowerment, for example his mental health efforts for Black youth, Herbo’s words must be taken seriously, stemming from having lived his youth in proximity to Chicago’s notorious O Block.
Herbo’s case paints a scary picture: all of Chicago’s projects, from Cabrini-Green to Stateway Gardens, had rooftop-gun-bearing gang members ready to shoot police or rivals. For non-knowledgeable audiences about American public housing, this calls to mind scenes of battlefields, where trained or untrained high-rise buildings served as strategic vantage points for snipers. The accusation sounds farfetched, a city under siege with violence an everyday norm that dictated daily life, even rap song video shoots. Herbo emphasized,
“Niggas would really shoot at the police coming down there, for real,”
highlighting a militarized atmosphere.
Herbo’s words resonate because they reflect a collective memory of trauma in Chicago’s Black communities. Growing up near the projects, he witnessed gang violence and systemic neglect, themes central to his music, like the album PTSD. Oral histories from residents often describe rooftops as gang strongholds, used to control territory or deter police.
“Every project in Chicago, they had snipers on the roof,”
Herbo said, possibly using hyperbole to convey the constant threat of violence. Exaggeration in such narratives doesn’t equate to falsehood; it’s a way to process and share a community’s pain, where fear of gunfire shaped daily life.
Herbo’s claim taps into universal themes: urban poverty, systemic inequality, and communities left to fend for themselves. Chicago’s projects, built to house the poor, became symbols of failure, plagued by gang control and disinvestment. By the 1990s, 11 of the U.S.’s 15 poorest census tracts were Chicago housing projects. This story echoes globally in neglected urban areas, from Rio’s favelas to London’s council estates, where communities craft their own truths amid violence and abandonment. Herbo’s music amplifies these voices, making his claim a cultural touchstone.
A tweet from X.
G Herbo’s assertion about Chicago project rooftop shooters blends lived experiences with drama. While instances of the 1970 and 1992 Cabrini-Green shootings prove rooftop violence, this argument of each project having a sniper takes us beyond historical evidence.
