S. Samuel
Southern rapper Chamillionaire recently talked about the presence of hip-hop police and why rappers have a tendency to unknowingly expose their criminal activities through music.
From Cham’s eyes, the number of rapper incarcerations today proves his point.
“It’s amazing how much people say on raps,” Cham said in an interview. “People say it’s just your imagination; but at the end of the day it does paint a picture about you, and whether it’s true or false, I’m sure there are people watching. How many rappers are in jail now? I think the music only reflects the lifestyle. I don’t think there’d be a lot of police looking to find crack on me, but if it’s somebody who talks about that and guns all day, they might try to catch a burner on them.” (Spinner)
Mobb Deep producer Alchemist previously talked about the impact hip-hop police have had on the rap game.
“They profile rappers,” Al said in an interview. “They are knowledgable of who is in the rap game…They know who Alchemist is. They know who Prodigy is so when they drive around New York they see ’em, they follow where they’re going, they take pictures, they put together a book…cause they know all the rappers are friends with people in the street, they come from the street…They wanna make connections now so when somebody gets shot or some drug deal goes down, they got all the info…They wanna know the guys in the streets that hang out with the artists. If you listen to rap, nine times outta ten we’re snitching on ourselves…Like Supreme who was connected with Ja Rule…They start saying f*ck that, we’re gonna start watching all these rappers and see who they’re friends with.” (Vod Pod)
Prior to Prodigy’s current incarceration, Al spoke with SOHH about police trying to use artists against one another.
“They were asking me a lot of questions about 50 Cent and a lot of rappers,” Alchemist said. “They were doing a lot of things but I wasn’t speaking on that. I don’t talk to the police. So I just left it at that.” (SOHH)
Prodigy has also voiced his opinions on the “Hip-Hop Police” in past interviews.
“F*ck the hip-hop cops, that’s my opinion,” Prodigy said in an interview prior to his jail bid. “Undercover cops, basically the hip-hop task force. They harrass rappers because they on some racist, foul sh*t and that’s how they get down….All they do is illegal sh*t, film you, take picture of you, all that is illegal…that’s called profiling…they tried to say 50 [Cent] had me set up and all that bullsh*t….They foul.” (Media Gasface)
Check out Alchemist speaking on the hip-hop police below:
AAAALCHEMIST from Gasface on Vimeo.
