New Music Tuesday #24
Slum Village, Rapsody and Hip Hop Cops
There is still a Tanya Morgan show happening on 6/8 at C’mon Everybody in Brooklyn and my anxiety would appreciate it if you bought a ticket or two. Aside from spinning at Weeksville for their Spring Benefit on 5/9 there are no other gigs to promote.
I hope you didn’t open this email looking for updates on Drake and Kendrick’s beef because I have none but if you want a very journalistic breakdown of the beef Rob Markman’s Youtube channel has got you covered. I on the other hand am doing that thing where I lean away from the topic of the day to bring you something that I think is of interest which is…
HIP HOP COPS
When the NYPD aren’t hanging out in the subways, using their billion dollar toys to break up peaceful protests or damaging property and they are mostly on local news trying to be likeable.
Like that time the NYPD Dance Team went on Pix11 to show off their moves.
As you can imagine this was met with all kinds of backlash online and in a classic NYPD move they came up to Pix11 to defund themselves defend themselves.
For those of you who don’t live in NYC PIX11 is the CW news affiliate and they are kinda bootleg. They make a lot of mistakes on air like misspelling ‘reacts’ in the above segment which I’ve screenshotted below for your convenience.
Man I wish I could get News NY1…
They also act as a defacto police blotter and most of their stories are just the police fluff pieces or things that make New York seem way scarier than it actually is. I’m not saying that NYC is crime free but the levels of copaganda over there are astounding. Like them giving cops the chance to ‘clapback at the haters’ is just comedy kinda sad.
And speaking of the NYPD the Top Cop Eric Adams went on Drink Champs which is insane on so many levels but the main one being the optics of it all. He calls himself the hip hop mayor so I guess this is just part of his term? Shit I’m shocked his mixxy ass ain’t got a podcast of his own.
I have always felt like he wishes that he was a rapper so him going on a podcast to drink and possibly smoke is the par the course. Aside from the fact that he is a terrible mayor he is also a cop which yes, I know that not all cops are bad but while I don’t know him personally I do know him politically and he is a fucking awful person in that respect. But what do I know? He might be fun to party with and I’d assume you could do a myriad of illegal shit and get away with it if that is your cup of tea.
Furthermore there is just something interesting about the role of the Hip Hop Cops and how they have surveilled these dudes and now the guys on the watch list are just kickin it with the cops. I don’t know man, just kinda makes my head hurt.
I could go on and on about him but that is aside the point because Eric’s Breakfast Club stop made me look into the cops in other cities and wouldn’t you know it there are actual police officers that rap.
The first one I found was this dude in Baltimore who goes by Saint the Rapping Cop.
If you don’t want to watch the segment (which was produced by the Baltimore Police) the one memorable quote is “being a rapper helps me as a police officer and being a police officer helps me to be a better rapper” which sounds like oxymoronic until you remember that Rick Ross exists so maybe?
I also found this guy named Filmore Graham who is a Grammy nominated Christian rap artist that is using his missionary powers to make recruitment rap videos for the Sacramento Police Department.
I didn’t want to dig too deep but if you want to listen to him rap here’s a video and if you want to listen to him talk about his journey for an hour he made an appearance on a podcast called Black In Blue which is a podcast where a cop interviews other cops about being cops. As a naturally curious person I did play the first few minutes of an episode and he talks about how he heard a Nipsey Hussle interview where he was describing how he finds his opps and says “if I heard a cop say the exact same thing I would think he was being racist”
I shared these findings with my friend Timm and he reminded me about a pretty obscure rap group named 5ive-O. They were a rap group put together by Chuck D (yes, THAT Chuck D) and the concept of the group was that they were police officers
A long time ago Chuck D fabricated this rap group comprised of fake police officers
The first comment on the video is from one of the guys in the group. I screenshotted it for you below. You’re welcome
If you know me you know that I IMMEDIATELY googled to see what he has been up to. and he is alive and well posting on IG about how he fought Brian Pumper and then ended up training him.
There is no way for me to mention Brian Pumper without bringing up his rap career because LMAO WHUT!? Talk about some terrible ass rapping… I won’t post a video but if you want to hear it you can by clicking this link. Instead look at him dance and imagine what that sounds like rapping.
My bad…
They only had one album if I’m not mistaken and you can hear it in it’s entirety on Youtube. The opening lyrics are ‘close your eyes and imagine a place/ where there are no cops and people do as they please/ all the time your life is on the line/ cus all it takes is for one fool to wave his gun and then your dead’…
From Fuck The Police to rappers asking for more police, rap got crazy range.
I really wish that the big reveal here was that Eric Adams was in the fake cop rap group that Chuck D put together but alas he was just in the police force.
Okay enough of my rabbithole ramblings. Here is the new music that you may have missed while paying attention to the saga of Drake and Kendrick.
VIDEOS
Roc Marciano let one fly.
Suede Jury popped out with a cool joint.
ALBUMS
This album is very appropriately titled because it is FUN AS HELL and FUNky too!
Jharis is part of Jose James’ camp and this album blew my mind.
I haven’t gotten a chance to listen to this yet but I’ve got it cued up for my next microdose session.
I haven’t heard this yet but she got my attention with b i g f e e l i n g s so I am itching to hit play.
SINGLES
Mutant academy link up means you should be listening.
DROP THE ALBUM.
DROP THE ALBUM
Always gotta support Melanie
This is a no brainer
FUNKY!
PJ don’t miss.
Coast Contra and Jansport J? OKAY DEN!
That’s all I’ve got for this week. RIP Dallas Penn. It don’t stop!
So much interesting & entertaining stuff in here. Well-written, witty & insightful. Thank you!
Great one...I LOL'd for real several times in the intro. Sad to hear about Dallas Penn...RIP indeed.