Wale always tries to stay up to date with what’s going on in the world, and the #BaltimoreUprising certainly hits very close to home for him.

The MMG rapper, along with Rev. Jamal Bryant, surprised the students of Fredrick Douglas High School in the Maryland city earlier today, where he spoke to them about facing police harassment himself, coming together as a community, and to even search for answers from them.

A few in attendance caught raw footage of Wale getting riled up during his speech to them, and it’s clear that all of the events occurring in Baltimore right now are certainly causing high emotions.

He told the crowd of students and faculty, “We need our community leaders to come step forward and we need these kids to understand that somebody believes in them. I believe in them, Jamal believes in them and there’s a lot of people in this community that believe in these kids.”

See him speak to the students on the following page, and the rest of the footage here.