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Why wouldn't you just fire a pistol the normal way? As police chased Raymond "Ready" Martinez through Times Square on Thursday, the street hustler and aspiring rapper fired two shots, holding the gun sideways "like a character out of a rap video."

Two Cambridge rappers are weighing in on the Gates-Crowley debacle with a verbal assault aimed at racist cops and a sellout black scholar. E’Flash and Vee Knuckles of Natural Born Spitters (NBS) say they don’t want to take sides in the protest track “CPD” (for Cambridge Police Department), their reaction to the July 16 arrest of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. by Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley. Instead, they want to offer a street analysis of longstanding problems within their community.

Buoyed by Barack Obama’s election as president, a group of hip-hop artists and other activists is taking to Capitol Hill — trying to harness the wave of support for Obama among young voters into an ongoing political force. The group, the Hip Hop Caucus, has a nine-member Washington office — but its real reach comes from its ability to harness the power of hip-hop artists to put a famous face on issues and draw in their young, multicultural fans. In the next few weeks, the caucus will see a bill it fashioned with Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) be introduced —...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The home of a rapper under house arrest while awaiting trial on a murder charge will be the setting for an anti-crime news conference at 11 a.m. today. The Rev. Toris Young, who heads the "Louisiana Ministerial Alliance Of Churches For All People," says rapper Corey Miller is among a new group joining forces to fight violent crime in the New Orleans area. Tuesday's news conference will take place at the Kenner home of Miller's grandmother, where he is being detained.

LOS ANGELES — Rapper and hip-hop producer Dr. Dre's 20-year-old son has died, a spokesperson for Dr. Dre said in a statement on Tuesday.

Black boys 'need role models not rappers' By Sarah Womack, Social Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 2:13am BST 10/08/2007 Black youngsters need a new generation of role models, drawn from the legal profession, business and education, to counter under-achievement and involvement in crime, a Government-funded report has said. Uanu Seshmi: boys need self-confidence to reject gangs Too often the role models for young black men are celebrities and rappers who glamorise crime, guns or gangs, the independent Reach report said. It came as a charity boss claimed that Britain's inner cities were starting to resemble American ghettos and that a lack...

All the breathless debates about Michael Vick are missing the point. The bigger issue has nothing to do with whether or not he deserves the right of due process, or whether NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell should suspend him, or whether Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank should enable him or give him tough love. It's not even about whether ... Nike should be launching another designer shoe with his name on it. All of those are minor distractions from ...: How did someone like Michael Vick ever come to exist? Are we really ready to have that conversation? Do we dare...

FReep This Poll! Do you think the NAACP's funeral for the 'N-word' will reduce its use? Yes No Not sure

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — The $25,000 a month in child support and household expenses that rapper 50 Cent pays to the mother of his 10-year-old son is not enough, says the boy's mother, Shaniqua Tompkins. The rapper is "worth tens and tens of millions of dollars," said her attorney, Raoul Felder. The parents of young Marquise Jackson are wrangling over the issue in family court in this Long Island community, where 50 Cent arrived Friday in an armored SUV equipped with a satellite dish. 50 Cent no longer needs to worry about the choice he famously expressed on a 2004...

FLORENCE, S.C. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) on Friday questioned the way some rappers talk about women in songs, saying the lyrics are similar to the derogatory language used by embattled radio host Don Imus. They are "degrading their sisters. That doesn't inspire me," Obama said of some hip-hop artists when a man in a crowd of about 1,000 questioned him. The Illinois senator was responding to a question of what inspired him, and said God and civil rights activists. Earlier this week, Obama criticized Imus, who was fired Thursday for labeling the Rutgers women's...

In the wake of the Imus affair, MSNBC is airing an all-day discussion on the theme "What's OK to say?" Poet Maya Angelou appeared at 11:05 AM EDT, and in the course of her interview with MSNBC's Peter Alexander, had this exchange: ALEXANDER: Dr. Angelou, you're an author and an artist. I guess the question is, is there a need for more censorship of our media and of our arts, are you comfortable with that? And if that happens, when does it end? What is OK to say? ANGELOU: Exactly. I agree with that. I think the society decides...

I've been getting slammed by my more libertarian friends since I suggested major media corporations like NBC and CBS should have the good sense and decency to fire Don Imus' old, flabby, white posterior. "We'll have to appoint you minister of culture for the Clinton presidency," writes Conrad Carter. "Last time I checked, we had freedom of speech, and I presume you have the sense to turn the dial." Ahhh, but notice I didn't suggest Imus should be arrested. Notice I didn't suggest he should be gagged and bound. Notice I didn't suggest the Federal Communication Commission should dispatch speech...

Two men who were asked to rap to get out of a ticket are seeking large amounts of money for what they believe was a violation of their civil rights. One of the men has filed a claim against the city of Tempe for $50,000 and the other filed a claim for half a million dollars. A claim is the first legal step toward a lawsuit against a government entity. James Baker and Robert Tarvin, who are black, were shown rapping on a segment of the police-produced cable-TV show "Tempe StreetBeat" after Tempe police Sgt. Chuck Schoville pulled them over...

The 800-pound gorilla is back, and as usual folks are pretending the critter ain't in the room. We'll call this particular 800-pound gorilla Joey, in tribute to that 1940s film about the giant ape called Mighty Joe Young. I think it's time Joey got his props. I think it's time we acknowledge Joey. Joey, meet the guys. Guys, shake hands with Joey. "The guys" in this case are those Baltimoreans who, for the past week, have expressed angst and dismay about the appalling way some young black men in this city, addicted to the thug life, dispatch each other with...

Like many urban teenagers, Ted Robertson doesn't mind spending more than he can afford to emulate his favorite rappers. He wears $500 Japanese designer jeans and $200 Air Jordan sneakers. A 17-year-old junior at NOVA, (Northwest Opportunities Vocational Academy), an alternative school-to-work transition program for at-risk students, Robertson is more concerned with keeping up with the latest hip-hop fashions than getting into college. "I try to dress like my favorite rappers, T.I. and Little Wayne," he says. "I want to save for a car, but I want a pair of Red Monkey Jeans that cost $1,000. I'm going to get...

     Convicted fanatic ... Mostafa    EXCLUSIVE  Hook son's job on Tube By NICK PARKEROctober 31, 2006           THE terrorist son of hook-handed Abu Hamza has been working on London’s Tube, The Sun can reveal.  Mohammed Kamel Mostafa, 25 — a convicted fanatic who has glorified suicide attacks like the 7/7 slaughter — was rumbled by Underground workmates when they saw his picture in The Sun.  They went straight to bosses, who told Mohammed Kamel Mostafa, 25, to sling his hook.But last night fury erupted over the security shambles that led to the convicted terrorist being...

THE son of the jailed Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri declared yesterday that he was proud to be a British citizen. Mohammad Mostafa Kamel, 25, who was jailed for terrorist offences in Yemen in 1999, said that it was wrong to associate him with his father’s views. “Everybody has their own beliefs and it doesn’t mean that if my dad believes something that I believe the same,” he told the BBC World Service Outlook programme. “I don’t agree with everything my dad says.” Mr Kamel, who was dismissed from a part-time maintenance job on the London Underground after his bosses...

LONDON, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- A U.S. intelligence analyst is accusing rap artists in Britain of moving young Muslims toward extremism through lyrics about the Iraq war. The Times of London reported Saturday that New York Police Department analyst Madeleine Gruen said the music of some groups is "very persuasive because it is giving young people ideas and those ideas are what might motivate someone to become a jihadi."

UNITED NATIONS - Jay-Z boycotted premium champagne Cristal at his clubs after the brand's owner made some remarks he didn't like. Now the rap superstar has a new favorite drink: water. - - - - - Snip - - - - "I figure that once I stumbled upon that, if the information was out and young people knew that these problems exist while we're having Poland Springs at Cipriani and things like that, that we'll get involved," said the 36-year-old rapper, referring to the high-class restaurant chain.

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Rapper and Def Jam Records President Jay-Z's much-hyped boycott of Cristal isn't likely to cost the vintage champagne brand any dead presidents, according to beverage industry experts. But it could give Cristal's competitors a reason to pop a few corks of their own. Music mogul Jay-Z is unhappy with the public comments of Frederic Rouzaud, managing director of Cristal parent Louis Roederer. The tempest in a champagne flute kicked off when Frederic Rouzaud, managing director of Cristal parent Louis Roederer, told The Economist that he viewed his brand's ubiquity in hip-hop lyrics and videos -- such as...

NEW YORK - He usually saves his beefs for other rappers; this time, 50 Cent is going after Oprah Winfrey. In an interview with The Associated Press, 50 complained that Winfrey rarely invites rappers on her talk show: "I think she caters to older white women." "Oprah's audience is my audience's parents," the 29-year-old rapper said. "So, I could care less about Oprah or her show."

DETROIT - Proof, a member of rap group D12 and a close friend of Eminem, was shot to death early Tuesday at a nightclub along Eight Mile, the road made famous by the 2002 film that starred Eminem and in which Proof had a bit part. The death of Proof _ real name Deshaun Holton _ was confirmed by Dennis Dennehy, the publicist for D12's label, Interscope Records, as well as by Detroit police spokesman James Tate. "Memorial service arrangements are still being made, and his friends and family would appreciate privacy during this difficult time," Dennehy said in a...

New York, New York (AHN) - Three people were stabbed Wednesday at a party celebrating a new record featuring murdered rapper Notorious B.I.G.About 3:10 a.m., police officers heard gunfire at a parking garage close to the club. They found three men inside with gunshot wounds. They are in stable condition at the hospital.A short time later, a 911 call was made about a stabbing at a Manhattan club called Exit. Police found two men who were cut in the face and one who was stabbed in the stomach. They were all hospitalized.Detectives are unclear whether the two incidents are connected....

Four young men were gunned down in a rap music studio massacre in the basement of a Dorchester house last night, pushing the city’s murder rate to a 10-year high.

(snip)In recent weeks, celebrities such as Jamie Foxx and Danny Glover argued that Williams, on death row for 24 years, deserved clemency for his antigang activism, which has included several books aimed at children and teenagers denouncing gang violence. Among the most prominent voices has been rapper Snoop Dogg, himself a former Crip. ''He inspired me to want to do something positive with my life and to go and touch the kids," the platinum-selling rap star said at a pro-Williams rally outside San Quentin last month. (snip) Still, Snoop has been the only rapper to speak out on Williams's behalf....

A man who was shot to death and set on fire early yesterday morning in a quiet Mount Airy neighborhood was identified as the stepfather of rap star Beanie Sigel, who was acquitted last week of attempted-murder charges. Officials said family members identified the victim as Samuel Derry, 46, of the 2200 block of Mifflin Street in South Philadelphia. Police Inspector William Colarulo declined to corroborate the report. Police said they were called to the 8100 block of Forrest Avenue in the Cedarbrook section shortly after 4 a.m. and found a body that had been engulfed in flames. The victim...

Rapper Master P has questioned Kanye West's controversial Hurricane Katrina telethon comments, because he fears the Jesus Walks hitmaker was merely hying his new album.New Orleans, Louisiana, native Master P-real name Percy Miller-has lost family in the disaster and urges celebrities making passionate speeches about the tragedy to be sincere, because it's the wrong time to promote albums and movies.

EMINEM has bowed out of public life completely-after suddenly cancelling a string of UK tour dates.The hip-hop star, 32, yesterday axed his European Anger Management Tour, claiming "exhaustion."

LOS ANGELES - A mistrial in the Notorious B.I.G. wrongful death case means his family won't get any immediate answers about his slaying but can file a new lawsuit seeking to link the unsolved 1997 killing to the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart corruption scandal. U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper declared a mistrial Wednesday after she expressed concern at a hearing Tuesday that the LAPD had deliberately withheld evidence. Her clerk and attorneys on both sides confirmed the ruling, and a written order was to be issued Thursday. There were only three days of testimony in the trial, which began...

SO, WHICH image of black folks does more damage to the race? The one of Memin Pinguin, the little guy on the Mexican postage stamp who looks like he was yanked off the screen of a cartoon in the 1930s or 1940s? Or the image of rappers 50 Cent and Tony Yayo on the cover of XXL magazine that its editors proclaimed "The Jail Issue" and dedicated to "hip-hop's incarcerated soldiers"? Before you make up your mind -- although you've probably guessed where I'm going with this -- allow me to give a few more details about that XXL cover.

It was as plain as black and white. It was a hate crime. When 30 black teenagers from Marine Park Middle School, most of them girls, chased five white girls from St. Edmund's off a Marine Park basketball court and across a Brooklyn street - punching, kicking, slapping, pulling hair and screaming, "honky bitches," "black power" and "white crackers" - it was a racial attack. It was about hate. Police officers who responded to the scene on March 30, at approximately 4 p.m., arrested five blacks. They were charged with simple assault. Two of the white girls were treated at...

Mich. Court Tosses Lawsuit Against Eminem LANSING, Mich. - A man who admits picking on Eminem when they were schoolmates cannot sue the rapper over a song that depicts his bullying as a brain-jarring attack, the state appeals court said. "Brain Damage," released on 1999's "The Slim Shady LP," was not intended to be taken literally, a three-judge panel said in an opinion released Friday, dismissing a lawsuit filed by sanitation worker Deangelo Bailey. Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, says in the song Bailey beat him up in a school bathroom, banging his head on a urinal...

Since hip-hop began climbing the charts in the late 1980s, the music born from the belly of urban America has been swollen with controversy. In the late 1980s, the Miami-rap group 2 Live Crew were the poster boys for nasty as their hits "Me So Horny" and their 1989 album "As Nasty as They Want to Be" put them in front of the U.S. Supreme Court on obscenity charges. Then in the 1990s, Tipper Gore, the wife of former vice president Al Gore, led congressional hearings bashing gangster rap. SnipFast-forward to today and the debate over rap music continues, this...

Rappers and bad behavior A criminal record is counting for less in hip-hop world NEW YORK (AP) -- In the rap world, a criminal background is the ultimate resume. The former drug dealer Beanie Sigel, who spent years bucking the law before getting his big break as a Jay-Z protege, has never lacked for street cred. With his menacing glare and criminal-minded rhymes, the Philadelphia native positioned himself as one of the most authentic gangstas on the rap scene. But last year he was sentenced to a year in prison on a weapons charge, and still faces a retrial on...

Rapper C-Murder to change his stage name By DOUG SIMPSON Rapper C-Murder, in jail after a murder conviction in the 2002 killing of a teenager, has changed his stage name because he thinks he's been misunderstood. "I am not a murderer," the rapper, whose real name is Corey Miller, said in a statement released Tuesday. He will now go by C Miller, said his publicist, Giovanni Melchiorre of New York-based Koch Records. Miller's statement said people had misinterpreted the C-Murder name, which he intended as a reflection of his upbringing in one of New Orleans' most violent housing projects. "From...

McDonalds is hoping to lure US hip hop artists to name drop the Big Mac into lyrics, it was reported today. The fast-food chain will not pay money upfront but will instead offer rappers up to $US2.80 ($A3.63) every time their song is played on the radio, according to the Advertising Age magazine. Its goal is to have the signature sandwich featured in several songs by June, the US magazine said. McDonald's has reportedly hired marketing firm Maven Strategies to help encourage rappers artists to integrate the Big Mac into new tracks. Tony Rome, Maven president, said his aim was...

Rap feud in 50 Cent's G-Unit crew US rap star 50 Cent has said he has thrown protege The Game out of his G-Unit gang in a feud that has apparently involved two shootings. In a radio interview on Monday, 50 Cent said the newcomer was disloyal in conflicts with other rappers. A man was shot in the thigh outside New York's Hot 97 studios while 50 Cent was on air. More shots were fired outside his management offices two hours later. 50 Cent appeared on The Game's debut album, which was number one in the US. 50 Cent, whose...

A man accused of scamming businesses up and down the East Coast as well as in Buffalo while passing himself off as a rapper was arrested Friday in Georgia. Police and the U.S. Marshals Service apprehended Walker Washington, 36, of Augusta, Ga., who identified himself as the rapper Da' Franchise. Washington racked up large bills for catering, studio recording sessions and other services, then left town without paying them, police and business owners said. About a dozen companies in Western New York say they were scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars when Washington came to this area last...

As often happens in the hip-hop world, two rappers became embroiled in a dispute over who owned the rights to a song that utilized a popular phrase. And it took the musical ear of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to settle the matter. Positive Black Talk Inc., et al. v. Cash Money Records, et al. plunged the conservative appellate court into the world of booming bass lines and popular street slang. Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King, who wrote the opinion, boiled the case down to a dispute between Louisiana rappers Juvenile and D.J. Jubilee over who owned the...

US reports artists for death threats Carin Pettersson 29.10.04 12:24 The American embassy in Norway has filed an official complaint against the Norwegian rap group Gatas Parlament for death threats against President George W. Bush.   The group has established the website killhim.nu where the goal is to collect money for a bounty on the American president. The American embassy has reacted by reporting the artists to the police. «There has been filed a formal complaint against Gatas Palament for threatening to shoot George W. Bush,» said Pål Kraby, police prosecutor at Oslo police district to NRK.no. «They have...

By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer MILWAUKEE - An 11-year-old boy was charged Wednesday with raping a 76-year-old neighborhood woman in her home as three of his friends stood watch.   Police said that for a week before the attack, the boys had been "terrorizing" the woman in her house, repeatedly breaking in and taking cash and other items. The woman, who lived alone, told police she was taking a sponge bath in the kitchen Friday when the 11-year-old walked in, demanded money and then ordered her to take off her clothes and go into the bedroom, according to court...

D.J., a hulking 25-year-old Chicago construction worker, has six new gold teeth in his mouth. No, make that eight teeth --- six gold and two platinum ones. Cost: $1,300. In hip hop parlance, they are called "grills" and "fronts" --- a fashion statement and a state of mind where the more the merrier and the gaudier the better. From Birmingham, Ala., to the Bay Area in California, multiple gold teeth are popping up in the nation's mouths --- to the delight of some, the dismay of others and the confusion of many. Once the province of moneyed rappers like Master...

Law enforcement conflates gangs and hip-hop because young black men are at the core of both. “Police Secretly Watching Hip-Hop Artists” read the headline of the Miami Herald article that put the spotlight on a practice that has grown more ominous at the same time that hip-hop has grown more popular. As Nichole White and Evelyn McDonnell reported on March 9, “Miami and Miami Beach police are secretly watching and keeping dossiers on hip-hop celebrities like P. Diddy and DMX and their entourages when they come to South Florida.” Police officials told the Herald they photographed rappers as they arrived...

50 CENT SLAMS 'FAGGOTS' 50 CENT is risking the wrath of gay rights supporters following a controversial interview with PLAYBOY magazine. The rapper is likely to follow in the footsteps of his mentors Dr Dre and Eminem, who have both come under fire in the past for anti-homosexual comments. In the interview, 50 Cent is quoted as saying: "I ain't into faggots, I don't like gay people around me, because I'm not comfortable with what their thoughts are. I'm not prejudiced. I just don't go with gay people and kick it - we don't have that much in common. I'd...

ITHACA--A white female student assaulted Sunday night leaving the Nappy Roots and Ludacris concert at Cornell's Barton Hall told The Sun that she was the victim of a hate-crime, which left her with a ruptured ear drum and thirteen stiches on her face. The Cornell Police morning report noted that the police received a "complaint from a student that was physically assaulted by an unkown individual." The report indicated that the assault occurred at 11:47 p.m. and that the investigation is continuing. The incident, as described by the victim, began when the student had a minor altercation with another girl...

Gutter-lyric rap star Ludacris has fired back at his cable news nemesis, Bill O'Reilly, for getting Pepsi to stop using him in their commercials last year - by apparently insulting the top talker in his latest musical endeavor, "Hoes in My Room." We say "apparently" because the song in question is so vulgarity-laden it's hard to tell what the gangsta rapper is trying to say. In a verse sung with that other poet of the streets, Snoop-Doggy-Dog, Ludacris waxes indelicately about several "hoes" who evidently appeared in his dressing room one day. "Now, these chicks wouldn't leave, they was...

All of the excesses of rap music are coming home to roost with a vengeance. In his book, Hip Hoptionary: The Dictionary of Hip Hop Terminology, author Alonzo Westbrook argues that rap music has great social and cultural significance and redeeming value. But he and other commentators who see only the positive in rap have unwittingly given birth to antirap products, such as the board game Ghettopoly. I will return to Ghettopoly shortly. "Through catchy tunes, inventive phrases, and expressive voices," Westbrook writes, "rappers address the concerns and hopes of America in ways "intellectuals' have not or cannot because they...

Soldiers of an Islamist New World OrderBy Joe KaufmanFrontPageMagazine.com | August 18, 2003 “We Muslims do not recognize any law or system but the Islamic one. Any system other than Islam is null and void.” -   Soldiers of AllahSoldiers of Allah (SOA), a Los Angeles-based rap group that now goes under the name Muslim Studio, was the brainchild of Ali Ardekani.  Ardekani got the idea about Muslim rap, when he was attending an Islamic camp and a “brother from [sic] east coast” showed him a song he had written.  He liked it so much, he wrote and recorded his own. ...

Soldiers of an Islamist New World OrderBy Joe KaufmanFrontPageMagazine.com | August 18, 2003 “We Muslims do not recognize any law or system but the Islamic one. Any system other than Islam is null and void.” -   Soldiers of AllahSoldiers of Allah (SOA), a Los Angeles-based rap group that now goes under the name Muslim Studio, was the brainchild of Ali Ardekani.  Ardekani got the idea about Muslim rap, when he was attending an Islamic camp and a “brother from [sic] east coast” showed him a song he had written.  He liked it so much, he wrote and recorded his...

LOS ANGELES--Rap mogul Marion ''Suge'' Knight was given 10 months in prison after a parole board found that he struck a Hollywood nightclub valet. Knight, who has been jailed since June 27, faced a maximum sentence of a year in prison for the parole violation. He has been credited for time spent behind bars, said Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the Board of Prison Terms. The parole board heard compelling testimony during a closed hearing from the arresting officer and a witness, Sessa said. Knight's attorney, Rose Kogeman, declined to comment after the Thursday hearing. As the head of Death...