Rapper Chamillionaire had hoped to privately help the family of a recently deported man but instead, his kind act has gone viral. The rapper was moved to help after reading a Detroit Free Press story about 39-year-old Jorge Garcia’s deportation to Mexico. He reached out to the writer, Niraj Warikoo, in hopes of getting in touch with the wife and two children Garcia tearfully left behind.
“I’m a musician and tech investor and I’m looking to talk to them to see how I can help with financial support in Jorge’s absence,” the email signed “Chamillionaire” read. “It would be great if you could possibly point me in the right direction.”
Warikoo tweeted the email on Thursday, Jan. 17 and it went viral.
“This is not a joke,” the reporter said. “I actually got an email yesterday from rapper Chamillionaire (of Ridin’ Dirty fame, the song that goes, They see me rollin,’ they hatin’) after he read my story on Jorge Garcia being deported. He wants to help him.”
“The email address this came from has the same address as Chamillionaire’s website, so it appears to be real,” he said in a follow-up tweet.
Yet for all the traction the tweet garnered, Chamillionaire said he never got in touch with the family like he had hoped.
By Thursday night, the rapper posted a video giving more details about his expectations, saying that he never got a response from Warikoo as the story took off.
“Let me know if I’m overthinking it by thinking that it’s strange that I never got a response from the journalist,” Chamillionare says. “But the email that I sent to the journalist is all over social media. I never got connected to the family and now, there are a lot of people prematurely praising me and wanting to interview me for caring.”
“Honestly, I was under the impression that we were gonna have a private communication about it because my intention was not to put the attention on me but I guess I was wrong and now we’re here talking about it. Maybe the silver lining is that me talking about it now is creating more awareness. I don’t know.”
“And for those asking for an interview, you’re looking at it,” he added.
Hey Everyone. I honestly didn’t expect to be having this convo in public, but here are my thoughts. Hopefully we can help this family. pic.twitter.com/AcFU5eq1bZ
— Chamillionaire (@chamillionaire) January 19, 2018
