Ski Mask Way: Rap Crimes & Hip Hop Culture

Domestic Abusers Use Stop Snitchin' as Cover

In the seriously fucked up news department, Ariz. Woman's Face Branded With 'Snitch':

A woman had the word "snitch" burned into her face with a branding iron in apparent retaliation for helping police in a domestic violence case, authorities said.

The brand singed into her flesh during a June 13 attack is 4 to 6 inches long and stretches across her left cheek from lip to earlobe, Mesa police Sgt. Chuck Trapani said Friday...

The woman told police she was attacked by four people, including an acquaintance whose Mesa apartment she was visiting, Trapani said. That acquaintance, Preston L. Valdez, 21, told police the woman was smoking methamphetamine with him shortly before the attack.

The woman said the three others who attacked her were hiding in the bedroom, Trapani said. She said they came out, knocked her unconscious, then cut and shaved large swaths of her hair and branded her, Trapani said. She was treated at a hospital and released.

Two of those who attacked the woman _ James H. Standridge, 34, and, Jackie L. Getz, 26 _ were arrested in a domestic violence case in February 2006 after the woman answered officers' questions about them. The police investigation later led to the removal of a child from the home because drug paraphernalia was found there.

Trapani said a picture of the woman shows that the word on her face had scabbed over and that "snitch" was clearly legible. He said police were searching for the branding iron.

This story is more about meth and domestic abuse than hip hop, but this is the kind of nonsense you align yourself with when you say "Stop Snitchin'" like it meant something.

Yeah, I'd Snitch!

I'd snitch on George Bush, either one, I hate those guys!

I'd snitch on Ronald Reagan, that bloody bastard, if I could just figure out where they dumped his body.

I'd snitch on the Army Corps and all the rest who contributed to the death of New Orleans.

I'd snitch on those cops that pulled guns on Boots Riley for no good reason other than walking while black.

I'd snitch on that security guard over at Cameron Village that was shaking his can of mace as he followed a harmlessly noisy guy a block away.

I'd snitch on your uncle, you know, the one you told me about.

I'd snitch on my neighbor, seriously, I need some dirt on this guy, his tools of lawn beautification and home rejuvenation run day and night and I'm not sure how much longer I can take it!

I'd snitch on myself, but I gave up existentialism in my youth.

I'd snitch on Jesus, cause everybody knows I got a God complex.

I'd snitch on you, but then who'd listen to my triumphant tales of snitchery?

Yeah, I'd snitch!

~ a creative text by clyde smith ~

Slim Sellout: Slim Shady Snitches on Stan

Slim Shady snitched on his biggest stan?

So says Kyle Spratt!

Snitching by Charles Manson & illseed

it all started with Charlie.

Ethan Brown Helps Clear Up Stop Snitchin' Confusion

Wow, I have been seriously sleeping on Ethan Brown, author of Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent, and the Rise of the Hip Hop Hustler and the upcoming Snitch: Informers, Cooperators, and the Corruption of Justice.  What can I say?  When I first heard about Queens Reign Supreme I didn't know anything about Mr. Brown and I assumed that any book on such a topic would include more fairy tales, as did From Pieces to Weight.

I'm also guessing that I was in one of my "not reading hip hop blogs" phases when Queens Reign Supreme came out and when Brown's blog launched cause what I've been reading today fits the mass of evidence on view better than anybody else I've read.

In particular, I was taken by the following breakdown:
Just as hip-hop has adopted a pathetic frat boy pose it has also provided myth-laden portrayals of what goes on in streets and in the criminal justice system. I’ve written this before but it bears repeating over and over again: the sentencing guidelines for drug related crimes established during the 1980s crushed any real “code of silence” on the streets (as did the rise of the crack trade which democratized the drug business and therefore put individual hustlers out on the streets who didn’t adhere to any specific code). Yes, witness intimidation still exists but there is no iron-clad code of silence out there. And by pledging allegiance to a code of “ethics” (as Cam put it) that does not exist, rappers look extraordinarily foolish. Chuck D famously said that hip-hop is the “CNN” of the black community but rap these days is more like Fox News.

I will say that his comments about M-1 partially miss the mark.  Brown states that M-1 "didn’t make a single coherent argument" when he appeared on Fox News.

Actually, M-1's argument was quite coherent but totally in the wrong frame.  M-1 entered an argument that was inspired by pop stars not talking to cops and discussed it as if everybody was talking about the interplay of revolutionary politics, race and poverty.  Yes, it's connected and folks are trying to take it there, often in a rather superficial manner, but anyone mentioning Cop Watch in such a discussion is not in the same room with the rest of the folks on camera.

I don't know about now but, in the 90s, Copwatch was primarily an anarchist, radical leftist project that developed autonomous groups organizing citizens watches against police brutality at demonstrations and in heated community settings.  It's an amazing tale and very important to democracy but that's just not the conversation M-1 dropped in on at Fox.  He's doing more of a parallel universe type approach, though I doubt he recognizes that he's the one that set that up.

In any case, I'm glad I finally got on to Ethan Brown and I'm sure you'll be hearing more about him soon, both at Ski Mask Way and ProHipHop.

Thanks Rafi.

Dead Prez Talks Snitching on Fox News

Dead Prez's M-1 on Fox News

M-1 discusses Stop Snitchin' as a "code of the streets" and breaks down the view of sectors of the black community that feel that the police are inherently against them.  Unlike Cam'ron, who's basically a clown, M-1 puts it in a believable context grounded in a radical political perspective.

60 Minutes Investigates the Stop Snitchin' Movement, Interviews Cam'ron

60 Minutes - Stop Snitchin' Pt. 1

Pt. 1 looks at the sad case of Israel Ramirez and Busta Rhymes, the scar on Killa Cam's arm and the fact that snitching is bad for a rap star's business.

60 Minutes - Stop Snitchin' Pt. 2

Bottom line for Cam'ron, any form of communication with cops equals snitching and that's a self-serving philosophy that does nothing to address the criminal activities of the cops or the needs of the community. As Rizoh put it, a "spineless...campaign".