S. Samuel
Grammy-winning rapper T.I. has taken personal offense to media reporting a connection between hip-hop and the suspects responsible for this week's Boston bombings.
T.I. lashed out against media dragging hip-hop into the bombing coverage and spoke up for the genre.
T.I. is pissed … telling TMZ he has no connection to the hip hop website frequented by dead Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev … a site that prominently featured the rapper’s mug. T.I. had no idea his pictures were posted — he’d never even HEARD of Real-HipHop.com — and he’s upset that the hip hop genre is now connected to the bombers. “Hip hop narrates the activity and conditions of our culture,” he tells us. “It doesn’t create them.” T.I. is frustrated: “Hip hop ain’t never been about hurting innocent people,” T.I. said. He feels Boston “was a horrible tragedy and my prayers go out to the families involved.” (TMZ)
One of the slain suspects reportedly had a heavy interest in hip-hop.
The older brother who was killed and suspected in the Boston bombings was deep into hip hop, and it appears he belonged to a fan website that touted that genre of music. Tamerlan Tsarnaev has an email associated with the website, “Real-hiphop.com.” The site provides information about hip hop artists and upcoming DVD releases. What’s interesting … hip hop lyrics are notoriously violent and often degrading to women. Tamerlan Tsarnaev has a boxing profile in which he says he doesn’t take his shirt off much because he doesn’t want women to get bad ideas, adding, “I’m very religious.” This statement is significantly more conservative than the hip hop genre. (TMZ)
Prior to going on the run from police, younger brother Dzhokar quoted a Jay-Z lyric on his Twitter page this week.
Boston bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev has tweeted since the Boston Marathon bombings on what friends of his tell CNN is his Twitter account. His tweets included one at 1:43 a.m. Wednesday that said, “I’m a stress free kind of guy.” On Monday at 8:04 p.m. — hours after the bombings — he tweeted a quote from rapper Jay-Z, “Ain’t no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people.” On Tuesday shortly after midnight he tweeted, “There are people that know the truth but stay silent & there are people that speak the truth but we don’t hear them cuz they’re the minority.” (WPTV)
The latest reports claim suspect Dzhokar is in police custody after a widespread manhunt went down yesterday.
The teenage bombing suspect who was captured Friday night hiding in a boat in the Watertown neighborhood near Boston reportedly attended a party at two nights after the incident, The Boston Globe reported. “He was just relaxed,” said a student from Umass Dartmouth who saw the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, mingling with friends from intramural soccer. Tsarnaev is registered at the school and the campus sent out an alert on its website Friday saying, “The campus is closed. Individuals on campus should shelter in place unless instructed otherwise.” (Fox News)
