Posted on 05/25/2009 5:30:05 AM PDT by Schnucki
As a rapper, T.I. is as big as they come. A Grammy Award-winning, gangsta-style singer, songwriter and mogul, his company Grand Hustle Records earns over $20 million (£12.5 million) a year.
He is also a convicted criminal who under normal circumstances would be starting a 30-year stretch in a federal "Supermax" prison this week, following his prosecution for multiple illegal gun charges.
But in the age of Barack Obama, T.I., aka Clifford Harris Jr, will serve less than a year behind bars, thanks in no small measure to the bad boy rapper's political connections.
Provided he surrenders at a prison in Alabama by noon on Tuesday, and remains on good behaviour, he should be rapping again about "gangstas, pimps and ho's" by next April.
Rap and hip-hop culture have suddenly become more respectable in Washington circles. Where American presidents would once condemn the likes of Sistah Soulja and vice presidents' wives demand warning stickers on records with dodgy lyrics, now rap poets are invited to the White House - and their observations on inner cities are studied attentively by politicians of all hues.
When T.I., 29, from Atlanta, Georgia, is released in 10 months' time, there will be a quiet celebration at the Hip Hop Caucus, a lobby group that is unlike any other in Washington.
Led by a retired air force chaplain, Rev Lennox Yearwood Jr, the Caucus is situated a few blocks from the White House and it unites high-profile rappers with activists in ways not seen before.
Its staff are becoming familiar faces in the West Wing and on Capitol Hill, lobbying on behalf of deprived inner city communities and deploying stars like T.I. to prise open doors to the corridors of power, where politicians fall over themselves to be photographed alongside a celebrity. Even a rapper
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
I just threw up a little in my mouth.
And the struggle was over...T.I. loved Big Brother.
If you want free and unbiased news these days, you have to read the foreign press. The US media are dead along with what was left of their credibility.
So, this article from England is an example of free and unbiased news?
“the gulag of the American penal system.” That’s free and unbiased?
The Bible said the world cannot last once the fools become the kings.......
He will now have to opportunity to become a good little muzzie so that when he gets out he can join other muzzies in the destruction of our country.
I guess the “hip-hop” caucus replaced the “country & western” caucus that was so powerful during the Bush years?
The Telegraph is turning into the best paper in the US.
These are the time we live in!
Well the Brits know all about gulags. Just ask the IRA members they have in their prisons.
That and farmers who dare to defend their lives and property.
No gang members or thugs, though. Can’t send them to prison.
Poor IRA. Poor Rappers.
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