Rap Cesspool Investigation
Published January 05, 2003
Hard core rap has a bad name - it's about to get worse:
- Money laundering and drug dealing on the road are at the heart of a federal probe into hot-rising rap label Murder Inc. - home to such stars as Ashanti and Ja Rule - law-enforcement sources said.
A federal raid of the record label's Manhattan offices Friday morning was the tip of the iceberg of an exhaustive, year-long investigation focusing on murder, money-laundering, gun charges and a variety of strong-arm tactics, according to law-enforcement officials.
Not only are the agencies involved trying to establish a cash connection between convicted Queens drug lord Kenneth McGriff and Murder Inc. mogul Irv Gotti, but they are probing to see how much of the multimillion-dollar music operation is financed with drug money, sources said.
....The raid and investigation are likely to cause a stir in the competitive rap industry, as finger-pointing begins over who leaked information to the cops, said one industry insider.
"This can create a lot of venom within the rap community," said Ronnie Goodman, a production-company vice president who represents several hip-hop artists. "It's going to be a black eye."
- Rap Cesspool Investigation
- Published: January 05, 2003
- Type:
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: News, Music: Rap
- Writer: Eric Olsen
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Urias, This would appear to be a little more systematic than taking a little money from a few friends - "murder, money-laundering, gun charges and a variety of strong-arm tactics" seems a little more serious than questionable funds. And balck and white have nothing to do with it - there have ben plenty of Wall Street indictments lately also.
Urias, so investigating murder and violent crime is racist persecution? I think that says more about you than anything else. If the investigators had left the whle thing alone, wouldn't you have been wondering why nobody was bothering to investigate murder and violent crime against minorities?
Sorry, pal, but this is one case where the stereotypical response you gave has no standing whatsoever. As Eric pointed out, the rich white men have been on the run a bit lately themselves, not that insider trading compares to murder on any day.
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The spoils of war. What a cliche. People did not expect a few young men from a rough part of NYC to succeed, that is evident. The shocking part of this all is the ignorance of the public to understand a simple word used in everyday language; family. To many young men growing up your family are the individuals you trust and are loyal to, most of the time outside of your immediate family. If Irv took money to finacnce a few ventures from a friend a close buddy, why the confusion. Consider how many illegal trades occur in a days time on the floor of the NYSE. But then again those guys are white. So I guess we must reconsider.