Crack Rap

mms

sometimes
Someone told me an interesting story, they went to a studio in detroit and the guy there records hip hop, apparently he gets alot of crack dealers going in to record music, as its a way of justifying their earnings if they're caught, if they say they've recorded and released. Apparently you can tell the crack rappers as they're usually totally talentless, i wonder if any of the mcs have ever got big though?
anyone know anything more about this sort of thing. Obv crack and hip hop have links, but this is an interesting one i didn't know about.
 
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Poisonous Dart

Lone Swordsman
Anyone that does illegal activity does this....

The old school rap group Live Squad were actually hit men before becoming emcees/producers. Stretch of Live Squad was killed supposedly by on old competitor (who really knows what happened). The Wu Tang Clan sold drugs previously as did a large number of famous emcees, Notorious B.I.G, Jay-Z, etc. For that same token, quite a few emcees worked at convenience stores, graduated from colleges, were teachers (J-Live, Defari, Random, etc.) and the list goes on and on.

This is not a new phenomenon at all and it it isn't uncommon for people to think that they could get a cover for their illegal money/activities inside the music industry. Think of how many indie labels from every genre of music was funded by dirty money.

One.
 

mms

sometimes
true that, yeah so many people dealt drugs to start making records, grime vinyls were dealt with like drugs, i know tons of people who funded releases through dealing a bit of weed, but i wonder how many of these acts saw themselves with a career once the album was done, there is this whole world of crime/laundering/ shit rappers and great rappers and the arguements within hip hop that make it interesting, also the perception of crack dealers when they do cut something, i guess alot of this shit is so local anyway, you're obviously gonna know more about it than me dart, and i was hoping you would respond.
 

claphands

Poorly-known member
Just go to a place like http://bottomofthemap.blogspot.com/ and check out thousands of obscure gangsta tapes and eps coming out of the south. Odds are some of those discs were dirty money funded.

Ostensibly, the reason that Fat Pat is dead is that he still had a foot in the game (or at least was close with those who did):

http://governmentnames.blogspot.com/2005/06/ten-screw-tapes-every-south-rapper.html (check the second screw tape review)
http://governmentnames.blogspot.com/2005/08/dj-screw-austin-concert-if-you-heard.html
 
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mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Just go to a place like http://bottomofthemap.blogspot.com/ and check out thousands of obscure gangsta tapes and eps coming out of the south. Odds are some of those discs were dirty money funded.

Ostensibly, the reason that Fat Pat and H.A.W.K. are dead is that they were still had a foot in the game (or at least were close with those who did):

http://governmentnames.blogspot.com/2005/06/ten-screw-tapes-every-south-rapper.html (check the second screw tape review)
http://governmentnames.blogspot.com/2005/08/dj-screw-austin-concert-if-you-heard.html

wow these sites are brilliant thank you
 

mms

sometimes
Just go to a place like http://bottomofthemap.blogspot.com/ and check out thousands of obscure gangsta tapes and eps coming out of the south. Odds are some of those discs were dirty money funded.

Ostensibly, the reason that Fat Pat is dead is that he still had a foot in the game (or at least was close with those who did):

http://governmentnames.blogspot.com/2005/06/ten-screw-tapes-every-south-rapper.html (check the second screw tape review)
http://governmentnames.blogspot.com/2005/08/dj-screw-austin-concert-if-you-heard.html

yeah there are loads of tracks about leaving the game etc, im not necessarily talking about dirty money funding mcs who want to mc, im talking about hip hop being used as a cover for illegal stuff, you know there are tonsof famous mcs with histories in drugs, i'm talking about the reception to crack dealers who record for cover, wonder how that goes.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
depending on who you speak to, theres a lot of theories about how the influx of crack dealers getting into hip hop has had a lot to do with the direction the genre has gone down in the last ten years, in the sense of rappers talking about stuff that dealers would want to hear, as well as being bankrolled by them obviously, and treating music as simply an extension of the drug trade (just another hustle, etc etc). im sure the guys who started ruff ryders for example used to deal drugs before they set up the label.
 

claphands

Poorly-known member
Oh yeah. I see what you mean. Still I wonder how many of those obscure Jackson, Mississippi or Nashville, Tennessee (or whatever city) tapes from the mid 1990s were one offs by drug dealers just using it to launder money
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Anyone ever heard "Crack It Up" by Funkmaster Wizard Wiz? Amazing tune, with a chorus that sounds like it's celebrating the drug. Ran into a lot of trouble because of this apparently. I think of this as one of the first "adult" hp hop records I heard - ie. one that deals with adult themes and sounds like music for grownups as opposed to music for teenagers.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
as far as actual crack/coke rap, young jeezy is prob the most famous hip hop artist of the last few years who used to be a dope dealer and raps about it pretty much non stop (though the newest album represents a bit of a change in tack and actually talks about current financial woes!) and even said he only started rapping cos he needed to do something with all his cash (its easy to wonder how true this all is but he does seem pretty for-real in interviews). but then you also have TI and a million other guys claiming to have done it too. who knows, maybe they all did.
 

luka

Well-known member
seems unlikely. rick ross claimed to be a millionaire off cocaine. turned out he was an ex-prison officer.
 

gumdrops

Well-known member
yeah i know it seems unlikely - i keep waiting for some info about jeezy to come out saying he was a dustbinman or bouncer or something. hes prob just gotten the act down to such a science that hes even playing the role in interviews. being so tightlipped and imposing is prob a good idea - gives people less to pull your image apart with.
 

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
seems unlikely. rick ross claimed to be a millionaire off cocaine. turned out he was an ex-prison officer.

If Rick Ross ever did deal coke I doubt he made millions off it (if you say that out loud isn't that just baiting the IRS?), and even more unlikely the real Noreaga "owes him a hundred favours."

Jeezy is a safe bet though. He is very close with the Black Mafia Family, an entertainment company and reputed criminal organization, and has for the last year been implicated in a federal drug case aimed at them for cocaine trafficking. His cousins were reportedly some of the main drug dealers in Atlanta in the 80's before being sent to prison on drug charges. Jeezy himself has spent 9-months in a bootcamp in Savannah for possession.

T.I. was arrested in 1997 for the manufacturing and distributing of cocaine, and providing a false name to authorities. He was later given a three-year sentence in prison when he violated his parole on those charges, and was hit simulateneously with seperate counts of possession of a firearm and of a controlled substance.
 
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sodiumnightlife

Sweet Virginia
I always wondered about pulling rapper's criminal records, seeing how many of them really did the time they say they did. I don't even know if people's criminal records are available to the public though.
 

Poisonous Dart

Lone Swordsman
What?

Anyone ever heard "Crack It Up" by Funkmaster Wizard Wiz? Amazing tune, with a chorus that sounds like it's celebrating the drug. Ran into a lot of trouble because of this apparently. I think of this as one of the first "adult" hp hop records I heard - ie. one that deals with adult themes and sounds like music for grownups as opposed to music for teenagers.

He used to perform that song with an actually crackhead lighting up and smoking it onstage! Hence the problem. The music wasn't really made for teenagers, it's just that pre 86 few emcees were technically or lyrically advanced enough to make more advanced songs or complicated rhymes. FMWW also made utter nonsense like "Bellevue Patient". I had his album on tape as a kid. He was a nut for real.

One.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
I used to have that album as well! I used to really like it, largely cos he was so insane - IIRC his first track single was "I stink 'cos I'm funky".
 

petergunn

plywood violin
He used to perform that song with an actually crackhead lighting up and smoking it onstage! Hence the problem. The music wasn't really made for teenagers, it's just that pre 86 few emcees were technically or lyrically advanced enough to make more advanced songs or complicated rhymes. FMWW also made utter nonsense like "Bellevue Patient". I had his album on tape as a kid. He was a nut for real.

One.

yeah, i read an interview with w./ him in the Source like 4 years ago and he said that... gave some dude a pipe w/ a rock in it and went out there like "there's new high, yo" and shined the spotlight on dude as he piped up and then went right into the song...

bellvue patient has my one of my fav couplet's ever:

"all the kids used to say "yo wiz is sick"
cause i used to make snowballs out of dogshit"

HA!

also, he beat Kool Keith in the "i'm sick, mental" stakes, as i THINK the crack it up/belluvue patient 12" came out b4 any of the Ultra songs w/ headcase references,,,

i have ANOTHER rap 12" called Crack It Up:
http://www.discogs.com/Sundance-Kids-Crack-It-Up-Free-Basing/release/817611

IIRC it's more of an electro thing... guess i'll give it a listen when i get home...
 
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