Lahteef Barry
Photo by Chris Facey
Ho-ho-ho, the holidays are upon us, and somehow we already find ourselves looking back at 2025. Let’s be honest: plenty has gone spectacularly sideways. Trump’s re-election dragged the world’s standards to a new low, and in times this bleak, we instinctively turn to young creatives—the people who somehow keep hope alive even when the rest of us are squinting to find it. So we caught up with local rapper Lahteef Barry, better known as Sacredd919. It was refreshing to hear he’s “chasing his dreams”, and, as it turns out, quite a bit more:
If politics is just content now, does voting make us fans, critics, or unwilling extras?
Getting your politics through content is power to the people, but that power comes with a lot of responsibility. Anybody can broadcast their ideas, opinions and experiences to the world for anyone to see. It has the ability to rally folks together to stand for a good cause, or crowd people together that spew the same hateful rhetoric. You can exist purely in an echo chamber of your own creation or go out of your way to engage with the other side of a particular issue. There are pages posting videos of war atrocities, oppression of minorities, the lower class staring the struggles of poverty in the face, actual assassinations, all free to share and comment on as long as it’s not “violating” Terms and Conditions. What you post has real life consequences too, from your job being lost to someone straight up catching a bullet. I think you are what you make yourself in this case. You can be a thought leader, a critic, a spectator, a grifter, whatever. It’s cool in a way, but you gotta use extreme care.
If you had billions and feared the future, would you build a bunker or buy a record label or what?
If I have BILLIONS with a B, I’d spend it all on whatever I could to do right my people and security to protect me and mines. That’s enough munyun to stand square with our oppressors. I’m all in on that.
What’s one thing you wish you knew about your future?
I wish I could really know it’ll all be alright in the future. The times we’re in are so terrifying and it seems like the only thing that unifies all of us together is that terror itself. I always have hope that our future will be better, but some of my peers have a more bleak outlook. I can’t count on my fingers how many people I’ve talked to who dream of leaving the US for good. All I’m certain of nowadays is that I’m staying and fighting.
Durham’s changing fast. What’s one thing from the old Durham you wish could stay forever?
So many cool locally owned restaurants, music venues, vinyl stores, housing communities, and small businesses are being pushed out by people trying to bring new money to my city. This city is so scrappy and I see the folks that really care doing good stuff to keep the culture alive, but our local government doesn’t seem to care too much. Much less caring are there various startups taking up space. We need it to stop.
If you had the budget, what’s one project you’d launch to protect local culture in Durham?
If I/WHEN I get some bread to put up for the city, I want to make a community center that’s based around the arts. I’d promise food and shelter for the homeless and underprivileged, medicine and tools for safer drug use for those affected by addiction, and counseling for those who need it. I’d cycle through offering classes and workshops for visual arts, music production, film, martial arts, culinary arts, all of that good stuff. I’d want to invite important figures in different creative disciplines to teach. My only condition would be that you HAVE to be making something to be there. If you come around the building, you gotta exercise your creativity. Even if it’s just a 15 minute jam session or a doodle on a paper, you gotta go for it. The creative ventures and the people that have something to say with it IS the culture around the Bull. Fostering that will keep it alive and well.
What’s your take on rappers acting and actors rapping? Who’s done it best?
I like it WAAAAY more when rappers act. Think Joey Badass with On My Block or Kendrick on Power as that funny ass crackhead bouncing perfectly off 50 in Power. Pac in Poetic Justice. Lil Wayne doing VA work for The Boondocks. Even Lil Dicky in Dave making a sitcom/drama about him just playing up the theatrics of his awkwardness. It only makes sense that these natural born storytellers can bring you into a character and make you forget you’re watching someone on your playlist. And seeing cameos of my favorite artists in stuff line Atlanta is always a good time. Actors rapping is much more hit and miss. Those guys come with a lot of quirks. Think Childish Gambino or Drake. Talented individuals of course, but some of the controversy surrounding them makes me cringe a bit. Hands down my favorite in this category is Kendrick on Power. He’s funny, but it’s real and it’s raw.
Is clout the new currency in pop culture, or are people starting to crave something real again?
I’d like to think this whole time people have craved the real art. The artists and creators that truly have staying power are people making things that resonate deeper than a trend. We’ve seen so many flashes in the pan. Our collective short attention spans break so many would-be careers. Songs, sounds, dances, fashion, and ideas that were inescapable just earlier this year are ancient history to us now. And it’s so unpredictable what/who will cut through the noise and be the next big whatever. Through all of that, if someone makes something authentic and timeless, all the while adapting to the new environment creatives exist in, you’re gonna keep hearing about them. As the counterculture is redefined in this turning point of our internet age, I feel like it’s gonna get more and more real. I’m excited for it.
What’s the best basketball play of all time?
McGrady turning on some final boss music and putting up 13 points in 33 seconds is some of the most ridiculous hoop I have ever seen in my life. Legendary. I wanna rap like T-Mac plays ball.
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