9/28/10
Tommy Hill Is Back & He Aint No Snitch
Not the drug-dealing, street hustler, associate of mobsters and kingpins rep. But the street-smart, stand-up for yourself, never turn against a friend rep.
"I'm not a rat," Hill, whose given name is John Wilson, said over lunch one day earlier this month during a visit to Philadelphia.
Once a major player in the local rap music scene and now a convicted felon, Hill, 34, is looking to reestablish roots in his North Philadelphia community and clear up any misunderstanding about who he is and what he's done.
Those misunderstandings, the street-savvy former leader of the rap group RAM Squad knows, can be fatal.
"I need to let the city know that I'm not a creep," he said. "When you cooperate with the government, your life changes. I need to have a piece of my life back."
Hill, who grew up in the Richard Allen Homes public housing project, is a product of the tough streets of North Philadelphia.
His mother was killed when he was 13. His father has been in jail for most of his life. In the mid-1990s, he and a group of friends formed RAM Squad, using an acronym for "Richard Allen Mob."
They called it a rap group. The feds called it a drug gang. In fact, time would show, it was both.
Through the late 1990s, Tommy Hill was a "playa," with one foot in the drug underworld and the other in the city's rap scene.
He dealt with record executives and promoters, and he came in contact with kingpins and mobsters, like jailed Philadelphia crime boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, controversial West Philadelphia Imam Shamsud-din Ali, and North Philadelphia drug trafficker Kaboni Savage.
Now, he says, he's put the drug life behind him, but he wants to get back into the Philadelphia music scene.
He knows it's a risky proposition. (Several law enforcement sources, who asked not to be identified, agree. Hill would be better off not coming back to the city, they say.)
Which is why, during a visit from his home near Atlanta, Hill agreed to talk about his past while touting his future.
His comments offer a seldom-heard, street-level analysis of life on the corner.
Hill makes a distinction between being a witness in one drug case - which he was - and being a "snitch," a "rat," or an "informant." He was never, he says, someone who set up friends for drug busts, never someone who secretly recorded conversations, never a "confidential informant" for the police or the FBI.
Investigators are not sure those who operate in the drug world, which frequently overlaps with the rap scene here and in other cities, would make that distinction.
Despite rumors on the street and reports in the media, Hill said he never testified about Merlino, Ali, or Savage.
Now, four years after being released from prison on a drug-dealing charge, Tommy Hill wants to come home.
But in a move that says as much about the city's music business as it does about the drug underworld, he knows he has to "set the record straight" in order to survive.
Bronx Elementary Teacher Reveals Her Former Proffession - A Craigslist Prostitute
Meet Melissa Petro -- the teacher who gives a new twist to "sex ed."
The tattooed former hooker and stripper has been teaching art in a Bronx elementary school for three years, The Post has learned.
Calling herself a "former sex worker," the well-liked teacher has been shockingly up front about her past -- posting online accounts of her sexcapades in Mexico and London.
But in her boldest move, the 30-year-old posted an essay this month claiming she also had been a prostitute.
"From October 2006 to January 2007, I accepted money in exchange for sexual services I provided to men I met online in what was then called the 'erotic services' section of Craigslist.org," wrote Petro on The Huffington Post, using her real name and picture.
LL Cool J Gets Hall Of Fame Nod
Last year, LL was snubbed from the Rock-N-Roll Hall of Fame. But now, The G.O.A.T. has been nominated for a second time. Inductees will be announced in December followed by the ceremony on March 14th in NYC. Among the other nominees are The Beastie Boys, Kiss and Neil Diamond. Winners are selected by a panel of over 500 music experts.
9/24/10
9/23/10
Jay Z - Decoded
“When I first started working on this book, I told my editor that I wanted it to do three important things. The first was to make the case that hip-hop lyrics — not just my lyrics, but those of every great MC — are poetry if you look at them closely enough. The second was I wanted the book to tell a little bit of the story of my generation, to show the context for the choices we made at a violent and chaotic crossroads in recent history. And the third piece was that I wanted the book to show how hip-hop created a way to take a very specific and powerful experience and turn it into a story that everyone in the world could feel and relate to.”
- Jay-Z
Jay-Z’s, “Decoded,” will go on sale November 16th and contains a breakdown of 36 of Jay-’s songs
Lyfe Jennings Set To Serve Jail Sentence
Apparently, old habits die hard. Earlier today, an Atlanta court sentenced Lyfe Jennings to three and half years in jail. The decision stems from a 2008 domestic dispute where the R&B singer discharged a gun in public and evaded police. Lyfe, a convicted felon, previously served 10 years in prison for arson. Below, is a message he posted to his fans via his Twitter account. Lyfe’s latest album, I Still Believe was released last month.
This will be my last post. To everyone who gave me a chance I am forever in your debt. I have had a fabulous career because of you. All I can say in parting is that I have been honest with yaw. I didn’t sugarcoat a word didn’t hold back a single syllable of my life from yaw. I’ve lived a hundred lives in these 6 yrs so I not only won’t, i don’t have the right to complain. I would like to think that I’ve changed lives by changing my own, tho I can’t be sure. But one thing I am sure of is God gives and takes away in measure. He is fair, just and forever. Amen from aman… Smile, its contageous:)
9/21/10
9/20/10
9/18/10
9/17/10
Kid Cudi Talks Cocaine & Wale
Kid Cudi covers the front of Complex’s October/November 2010 issue. In the excerpt below, he discusses his with affiliation with that white girl and Wale.
Complex: How heavy did the drug use get?
Kid Cudi: I started doing cocaine to get through interviews, ’cause people wanted to know a lot about my personal life and I wasn’t prepared for a 60 Minutes interview every time. Doing bumps I was able to get through the day, but then I would smoke weed to calm me down—it was the only way I could get through the day without people noticing I was doing it.
Did you ever feel like you had a problem?
Kid Cudi: I never thought it was a problem, but I was definitely high-fiving death a couple of times. It took a lot for me to talk about shit like this on the album. I don’t feel like I need to explain myself to anyone besides the fans. My fans don’t believe shit until they hear me say it. And those are true Kid Cudi fans. I want them to know the story.…Speaking of Wale, when you hit that fan at your show last December, he came out with a line about it ["Throwin' 'round wallets like the dude that Kid Cudi hit," from "Thank You Freestyle"].
Kid Cudi: It wasn’t a shot, it’s just a simple-ass rhyme by a simple-ass rapper. You can’t let that shit faze you. That’s one of those raps that just shows the world that you wack. Why would you even use that as a metaphor? Everybody think they Hov. Niggas ain’t got the magic like they think they do; there’s only a couple of wizards in this game. I’m a wizard and I know it.Are your peers not seeing that?
The last album, I let people dis me, throw out those jabs in their verses and have their little slick remarks. This time around, I’m not fucking around. I have no time to think about other niggas. These other motherfuckers like feeding off another nigga’s energy, so they mention their name. You hear me talk about niggas? I don’t even talk about Kanye, and that’s my homeboy! They talk about Kanye like they’re bosom buddies with this nigga. Talking about “I be in Hawaii”—man, shut the fuck up, why you got to tell everybody everything? Then people like Wale get mad that ‘Ye ain’t give him no beats—’Ye ain’t give you no beats because we ain’t fucking with your raps. It’s not a conspiracy theory. We don’t fuck with you musically, so we’re not going to provide music for you. The shit is a service, it’s a quality of a certain standard. Niggas are just so thirsty it’s ridiculous. I’ve been eating humble pie forever, and people still call me an asshole. These people don’t know my fucking life—now I’m going to give them something to talk about.
9/15/10
9/13/10
9/11/10
9/10/10
The Mens Warehouse National Suit Drive
The National Suit Drive, held at the more than 1,000 Men’s Wearhouse locations throughout the country, collects men’s and women’s suits, shirts, jackets, ties, belts, and shoes to donate to approximately 200 local charities that support those in transition looking for work. For a complete list of store locations and charities involved, visit www.nationalsuitdrive.com.
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