Once upon a time in a universe far, far away, HipHopDX used to host blogs. Through Meka, Brillyance, Aliya Ewing and others, readers got unfiltered opinions on the most current topics in and beyond Hip Hop. After a few years, a couple redesigns and the collective vision of three different Editors-In-Chief, blogs are back. Sort of. Since our blog section went the way of two-way pagers and physical mixtapes, Twitter, Instagram and Ustream have further accelerated the pace of current events in Hip Hop. Rappers beef with each other 140 characters at a time, entire mixtapes (and their associated artwork) can be released via Instagram, and sometimes these events require a rapid reaction.
As such, we’re reserving this space for a weekly reaction to Hip Hop’s current events. Or whatever else we deem worthy. And the “we” in question this week is myself, Andre Grant, and freelance writer Ural Garrett. I serve as HipHopDX’s Features Staff. Aside from tackling stray topics, I may invite artists and other personalities in Hip Hop to join the conversation. Without further delay, here’s this week’s “Stray Shots.”
Is This The Fall Of Bobby Shmurda?
Ural: Wednesday morning felt like a huge win for Hip Hop when weekly numbers determined J. Cole’s 2014 Forest Hill Drive debuted at number one. There was a sigh of relief almost considering the climate of the culture this year. Ironically, something else happened that same morning. Bobby Shmurda found himself along with members of his GS9 in New York’s Quad City Studios and facing some serious charges. By serious that means charges of conspiracy to commit murder, assault in the first degree, possession of weapons, intent to sell and possession of narcotics and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree on two counts. This comes after getting arrested twice already this year for felony gun possession and marijuana possession.
Talk about a fast and steep fall from grace.
It was only July when Shmurda found himself signing a lucrative deal with Epic records after “Hot Nigga” went viral. Before then, everyone from Drake to Beyoncé found themselves adding to the hype by incorporating the Shmoney Dance during various appearances. The various remixes, memes and everything in-between were a perfect storm for the 20-year-old.
Meanwhile, Shmurda posted and quickly deleted a message on Instagram blasting his label in October. The next month, his debut EP Shmurda She Wrote sold an indescribably sub-par five thousand its first week. Assuming Shmurda probably signed a shitty contract, the ending of his 15-minutes of Internet fame and the fact that he wasn’t paid much, going back to that street life made every bit of sense. What other reason could someone in Shmurda’s position still partake in that lifestyle after presumably being offered the “opportunity of a lifetime?”
That’s because it wasn’t. Shmurda is a casualty of an industry that loves to swallow desperate black men in horrible situations and spit them out at the moment of irrelevance. One can’t find much confidence in their label situation if they’re still pushing narcotics and around the possession of 21 guns. Despite Epic paying his $2 million bail, one can foresee this going the way of Trinidad James and Chief Keef. Epic didn’t care much about his lifestyle outside of whatever monetary gain they could get; similar to Pitchfork and Interscope thinking it was a good idea for Keith Cozart to conduct an interview at a firing range. In an age where blacks fight problems with police brutality, discrimination and a whole bunch of other racial issues, situations like these doesn’t really help. All that dancing on tables in front of executives was all fun and games until shit got real. Here’s hoping he goes the Gucci Mane and Lil Wayne route and records enough music to get through his possible jail sentence. Lesson for struggle rappers everywhere who glorify lawlessness; better hope police don’t start over-relying on Rap Genius.
Sidenote: Somewhere in America, some idiot is printing “Free Shmurda” shirts as we speak; even more idiots are hashtagging #FreeShmurda.
Andre: I’m just going to go ahead and say that this is a kind of tragedy. The dancing man from all those playful Vines and the turbid, leaked video as studio watchers stopped and gazed has now found himself in a type of hot water reserved for bond villains, crooked cops or the mob. Everyone will wave their flag of self-righteousness now. We are those studio watchers, too. Everyone will say he was stupid or that he had it coming or, “Why would you need that many guns, anyway?” But when your favorite rapper spits something akin to “What do you think all the guns is for…” you, we, nod slightly, smile, spill our drinks and keep dancing. And, no one can say his wasn’t a meteoric rise.
This is the America that does not indict police officers when their targets are, well, Bobby Shmurda. And this is the America where they roll out looking like video game end bosses when people are peacefully trying to protest. But, I digress. Bill Bratton, the resident watchman of New York City’s boys in blue had this to say about (Ackquille Pollard) Bobby and his GS9 compatriots, “These are bad people,” Bratton said at a press conference. “They shouldn’t be celebrated.” This according to the New York Daily News.
Let’s talk about Bill Bratton. He’s the kind of person you’d find in a Scorsese film. Hard-nosed and sardonic, Bill thinks he and Guliani were the one’s who cleaned up NYC in the early to mid 90s. He’s from Boston, and he even has a paper you can find online called “Zero Tolerance: Policing A Free Society.” Sounds like an oxymoron to me. Whatever. De Blasio picked him up to gain support from the elite quacks that really run New York City. It’s a mistake he has already come to regret.
This is bigger than Bobby Shmurda. It’s bigger than the lame duck single that was “Bobby Bitch” or the fact that his rise was fueled by social media. It’s the refusal to see. An article about how Al Capone could have escaped Alcatraz was written two days ago! There’s a mythology to the “gangster.” The guy or guys or woman or women or whoever who step outside of the bounds of normal law abiding citizens and do what they feel they must. The one’s who are celebrated wear suits, not G-Raw, though, right? And maybe these are bad people doing all sorts of misdeeds. But, like Bobby’s oversized lawyer (Howard Greenberg) had to say to the press last night, “My guy has the world in the palm of his hands. He needs to commit crimes like I need to fly the space shuttle.”
Sidenote: Everything was all good just a week ago.
Ural Garrett is an Los Angeles-based writer and photographer. For the past several years, he’s written for numerous publications ranging from HipHopDX to SoulTrain. When not covering music, video games, films and the community at large, he’s in the kitchen baking like Anita. Follow him on Twitter @Uralg.
Andre Grant is an NYC native turned L.A. transplant that has contributed to a few different properties on the web and is now the Features Editor for HipHopDX. He’s also trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot. Follow him on Twitter @drejones•
You do it to yourself, you do / And that’s what really hurts / Is that you do it to yourself / Just you, you and no one else / You do it to yourself / You do it to yourself
Well written and poignant topic first off, thank you.
I’d like to say this off top… I have no business assuming he and his compadres are guilty of any of the charges, especially conspiracy.
That’s always a suspicious charge, conspiracy?! Really?!
Anyway, this is a perfect counterpoint for a police department that faced protest about their use of deadly force in a situation that presumably and visibly did not require it.
Based on the charges, it appears someone died, obviously that’s serious.
What may be more serious is a huge agenda to silence our(so called blacks) concerns with mistreatment at the hands of bias and defensive minded individuals o.k.a the people in charge of governing.
This is definitely about that. Because to bring all those charges against 14 people, there must have been an ongoing investigation on the entire GS9 outfit, hip hop police. Otherwise, racial and cultural profiling.
Honestly, if you profiled Eminem around the time Fifty was there and they was beefing with Ja Rule and Suge Knight (Young Buck stabbing the dude that punched Dre), law enforcement would likely have found all the same shit they found on Bobby and nem.
But that wouldn’t be good media.
It’s definitely bias and definitely part of a propaganda agenda.
And if that seems like a “conspiracy” on my part, then goddamn, I guess I should have been arrested with Bobby.
SO DUMBBBBBB
The charge conspiracy implys that the police had C.I.’s planted either in his crew or someone from his crew got flipped by police and used to inform. Conspiracy by definition means:two or more of his crew agreed to kill and it happened. In any case some those charges are considered federal which means lawyer or not Shurdma will likely do prison time, at this point the question is. How much???
Please stop wit the copouts (police brutality, no indictments, bad record deal, etc.). None of that shit has anything to do with what these bums were involved wit. Let them all rot in jail, and give artists with real talent an opportunity to shine. #KeepShmurda
If you understand how law enforcement works, you can’t just arrest 14 people on all these charges from a phone call or complaint.
Has to be an ongoing investigation. But that means nothing to u.
Because u don’t think.
exactly. it was an ongoing investigation you idiot! the gang unit been up on them for months maybe even more than a year! snitching on his whole hood in songs didnt help the case.
Good Read.
While I do not know the exact lifestyle Bobby had prior to making it “big”, I do believe it. He was RECENTLY discovered, and has been arrested 2x before this big arrest. This can ALSO be a ploy by the record label to get the public to believe his rapping mentioned lifestyle. But who really knows.
It sucks that he has worked so hard, and then this happens, and the possibility of him just going back to the block again can happen.
Bratton and Guiliani did clean up NY, no doubt about it.
This is a damn Shame and also not so surprising. Epic paying the $2 million in bail, just means that they really own him now.
Misguided youngings like Shmurda need guidance to navigate through the whole process of the music industry as it relates to contracts and just how to move in general. He and his crew were easy targets for the NYPD….. it’s not looking to good!!
if he wasnt a slave to epic before this hes definitely one now! how will they recoup that money if he can only sell 4000 copies with all that buzz. epic should just cut their losses.
THANKS FOR POSTING UR LAME FUCK COMMENT FURTHER REVEALING THAT UVE NEVER BEEN IN ANY KIND OF TROUBLE IN UR KEYBOARD WARRIOR LIFESTLYE….WHEN U GET LOCKED UP AND GET BAIL…..YOUR BAIL IS RETURNED TO U AT UR TRIAL. BUT U WOULDNT KNOW THAT BECAUSE UR A PRIVELAGED DOUCHEBAG WHO WANTS TO BLAME SOMEBODY AND MAKE A RACIAL ARGUMENT FOR A CLEARLY GREAT COLLAR FROM THE POLICE. EPIC DOSENT “OWN” SHIT NOW. THEY ARE JUST LENDING THE MONEY FOR A YEAR OR SO. THEY WILL GET THEIR MONEY BACK AT THE TRIAL NUMBNUTS….BUT IM SURE U ALREADY KNEW THAT. GO COMMENT ON A FRANK OCEAN ARTICLE DICKHEAD. U OBVIOUSLY KNOW NOTHING ABOUT REAL LIFE SITUATIONS.
YOU ARE DISMISSED
Shmurda is sweet, he’ll like it in the joint, I know I did. Big niggas with big dicks who like to ream that ass all day and all night. God damn I’m hard just thinking about it.
depending on where he gets sent he might get to reunite with his pops, thought it seems too late for some fatherly advice
People read into stuff too much. I doubt there is a political motive. When people start getting killed, law enforcement hopefully finds out who is involved. He’s innocent until proven guilty- or at least should be, but it looks like they have a lot of evidence against him.
Bottom line, don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
“People read into stuff too much.” Really?
Did Jeezy just get arrested and held on $1 million dollar bond for a gun that police knew for fact wasn’t his.
He missed how many shows, which probably net him six figures each. But that reading too much into it I guess.
Truth obviously hurts. Y’all simple minded muhafuckas want it to be simple so you can keep living yo simple lives and believing that law is a substitute for morals.
I can go cop drugs and guns from white boys and European immigrants in
NY right now. So don’t dare say politics ain’t involved when they targeted that outfit and not another.
Plenty of outfits they could have arrested with WAY more charges. This one is politcal based BIG TIME!
Political? Them guns them had were a political matter? Cause I’m pretty sure it’s the cops job to keep those off the street. The cops do plenty wrong but in the end they’re suppose to go after criminals. And shmurda and them wanted to be criminals so bad that it happened the way it does. They were attracting so much attention to themselves it’s really no wonder. Just a dumbass situation, but I do feel sorry for you for feeling sorry for them. Hopefully you develop a brain one day.
LMFAO there’s no conspiracy here, just another dumb, no skills “rapper” with his stupid song and dance shminstrel show who likely posted a lot of his illicit activities on social media and is now paying out in spades. Bobby Shmurda will make a good girlfriend for someone on Rikers. Fuck this Chiraq dickrider—listen to Astro or Papoose instead.
Before you ball, you gotta bail.
http://www.freeshmurda.com
STUPID ASS YOUNG NIGGAZ HAVE NO CLUE ITS NOT THE POLICE FAULT THESE RETARDS WANNA POST PICS OF ILLEGAL GUNS AND DRUGS ON INSTAGRAM LIKE IT MAKES THEM COOL… ALL ITS DOES IS INVITE UNWANTED ATTENTION… IN THE WORDS OF HOV… “WHEN WE WAS TALKIN INSTAGRAM LAST THING YOU WANTED WAS YA PICTURE SNAPPED”!!!! BYE BYE BOBBY YOU WACK AS FUCK ANYWAY… SAD TO SAY BUT HIPHOP IS BETTER OFF WITHOUT YOU DUMB NIGGAZ!!!! OUR BLACK YOUTH NEED SERIOUS SERIOUS HELP IMMEDIATELY ITS NOT THEIR FAULT ON A DEEPER LEVEL BUT THATS A WHOLE OTHER CAN OF WORMS AS TO WHY INNER CITY BLACK YOUTH IS SUFFERING SO SO SEVERELY!!!!!
63 page indictment. enough with the conspiracy theories and corupt police. these guys were selling crack, dropping bodies and then dumb enough to rap about it.
Faggot ass wanna be gangstas. Guess it is gay (pun intended) to be locked in a cell, that is what that dance was about. Dumb ass.
OH YEAH… I WOULDNT EXACTLY CALL HIS RISE METEORIC…. BOBBY SCHMURDER METEORIC RISE… IN THE DAYS OF ALL THIS SOCIAL MEDIA??? HE HAD A HOT RECORD THAT PEOPLE PARTIED TOO FOR SUMMER AND FALL… IF YOU DIDNT SEE ONE HIT WONDER WRITTEN ALL OVER THIS THEN YOU NEED TO STEP UP YOUR MUSIC IQ. NOT SURE WHERE YOU BEEN BUT WITH ALL THE DUMB ASS KIDS OUT HERE ITS NOTHIN THESE DAYS TO MAKE A VIDEO ON YOUTUBE AND BE HOT FOR A MONTH OR 2 and NOBODY LISTENS TO YO ASS EVER AGAIN AFTER… DONT KNOW WHERE YOU BEEN BUT THIS HAS BEEN GOIN ON FOR THE PAST 10 YEARS NOW IF NOT LONGER WACK NIGGAZ COME AND GO… METEORIC???? NIGGA PLEASE… YOU DAMN RIGHT METEORIC CAME AND WENT BEFORE HE COULD MAKE A WISH WITH THE 6 FIGURES HE WAS ADVANCED!!!!!
All CAPS actually make it hard for me to read. I get it, you’re upset and Bobby Shmurda is trash like a lot of us new as soon as he got hot off of a Lloyd Banks track from 2011 or 2012 called JackPot.
Is the Author actually trying to Defend This rapper and yell “foul play” on how black criminals are shown as opposed to what-Members of the Mafias? This is what’s wrong with our community-More than Police Brutality, and Racism, we never hold our own people accountable..He caught a body a week ago right?..His music speaks of his demeanor and his activities. He was not on the rise..He does not have the World in His Palm. Stop Endorsing Murderous Behavior and crying foul when Police really do their job-Shut down Gangs that bring down Property Value and increase homicide among blacks while creating more addicts among their own people..This is not a Tragedy-but a fitting ending to someone who rap they been selling crack since like the 5th grade..
Classic case of “when freedom of speech goes wrong”.
His song was so hot that hating ass Babylon had to bust the lil yungin’s balls. That’s all it really is tho: they hate you because they can’t be you. Now I bet they will fill his shoes with some lil sucka rapper.
Tragedy? His crew is facing 2 counts of murder and 16 counts of attempted murder. I’m sure the victimes families wouldn’t call this a tragedy.
They had the manpower and the team to get these guys, but can get away with choking people out.
Please don’t even attempt to compare the two…..one deals with the fight for people’s rights and against police corruption…..the other (this bobby shmurda bs) is people who wanted to act like criminals being treated like criminals do…..don’t put the Michael Browns of this world in the same category as Bobby Shmurdas
irreverence does not = irrelevance
besides i think he’s not a good rapper if he’s a real life gangster his place is behind bars
bobby was shmurda is not a star. he is a star on the rise only by modern standards. people will say that if he committed those crimes he should be punished. but the whole thing about the lyrics being so full of information, all these youths posting instagrams with guns, it bothers me more than anything to see the level of ignorance that some of that generation is stuck on. and i say some, because i know a lot of very brilliant kids. but the bobby shmurdas and chief keefs, the ones whose image is cash money for any industry that perpetuates the negative stereotypes of black men in america, a lot of these kids have been failed and abandoned by their own elders. we should admit that much. although bobby will be tried as an adult, he isn’t much more than a child. one who was raised by rap music and taught by whoever he had to look up to, while his biological father was himself a number in the penal system.
Best news ive heard all day. Humans like this dont deserve their melanin and are a horrible plague on black people who care about their life and well being. Ignorance needs to be removed and this is a good start.
record labels dont care about people period,it has nothing to do with skin color
Exactly. Artist’s of all races, genders, sexualities, etc. have been getting fucked over by record labels. No artist is worth 100’s of millions off just albums sold but record labels are. And Epic is in my mind just bailing Bobby out under the condition that he makes one or two albums while on bail. Figure the albums then are owned 100% by Epic. Then when he gets time Epic can release those and recoup some of their losses. That’s just a theory/opinion so don’t get up in arms about it but they assign this clown lawyer to the kid and you can’t expect not one of those charges to stick.
how is it a tradegy that a fkin ‘ive been sellin crack since the 5th grade’ ass nigga is getting locked up? fuck this guy lol have fun in jail dumb ass
“Rap snitches, tellin all their business
Sit in the court and be they own star witness
Do you see the perpetrator, yeah I’m right here
Fuck around and get the whole label sent up for years”
MMFood
Dude sold 5k albums because nobody wants to hear that gun and murder BS anymore. Especially when it comes from a tiny skinny fool you could blow away with a fart. If 50 cent rapped songs like that now it would be big because he walked that life and has the bullet wounds to prove it but Bobby whats his face SMH.
GS9 and Bobby Shmurda are good causes to get behind until you live next to them or similar groups. They rapped about dumb shit and lived that dumb shit…No reason to start painting them as victims.
IT NOT A TRAGEDY WHEN THIS DUDE CHOSE TO DO THESE ACTIVITIES!!!
don’t care fuck this bobby clown zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Kanye West notoriously danced on tables too.
Have you ever considered that maybe, just maybe, Bobby is guilty of these charges? I mean, listen to his music, its not surprising to me that he might try to kill someone in real life when all of his songs are about shooting people. Its why I couldn’t really hop onto the whole “we love Schmurda” bandwagon because its really hard to love someone who glorifies violence like he does.
All this shit about “he’s guilty” ya’ll are missing the point. The record labels wanted him to be guilty to sell more records. Politicians and executives conspire to commit murder and have guns far bigger than Bobby Shmurda’s but he gets jammed because he is poor and black. Iran-Contra…the US government has sold more drugs than Bobby Shmurda’s dumbass. Meanwhile he made a cultural product which people made money on, plenty of people other than him. They chew him up and spit him out. We live in a violent world so him rapping about killing people is no different than Hollywood movies with white actors. The difference is he is in the ghetto, so there are special standards about him.
even the most basic Google search and also um common sense reveals the charges were for incidents months before his label signing. You guys are terrible at “news”
thank you Jesus
people are saying the lable wanted to him to be guilty and maybe they did, But none of them told him to carry guns or sell drugs or be in on murder plots thats him. I also don’t believe in the sob story he had no choice to go to the streets Well everyone has a choice and that’s the one he made. I’ve been been Living on my own and fending for myself since I was 16 as a a black man. I worked two jobs to pay for my appartment and still went to school and got my education. I’m 32 now graduated and works full time and never spent a day in jail in my life or have been charged, or needed the streets to survive. Its about time that ppl stop feeling sorry for themselves and man up and make something of themselves because this ghetto story is getting old.