Beanie Sigel: Bad Guy Gone Good?
I couldn’t believe it when I saw this today: Beanie Sigel, alongside Philadelphia activist and social critic Bill Cosby, marching in North Philly to raise awareness of the city’s ridiculous and surreal crime rate. If anyone can talk to these kids’ areas like this, where the rate of gun crime stands out in comparison to other parts in the city, it’s Beans. But if you look at the “character” that Sigel was — well, it’s hard not to call someone a hypocrite when you see one.
Come on, have you seen State Property? Released in 2002, it starred Sigel as the leader of the ABM, a group destined to take over the streets of Philly. It’s easy to forget the overused storyline, but the movie stands out for how violent it was: Someone was shot every five minutes, Sigel’s girl was kidnapped, and all the while he tries to balance a family life and a street life. It’s not Menace II Society violent, but it’s pretty damn close.
And that’s the character Sigel morphed into. The Broad Street Bully I listened to as a teen was raw and uncut, a representation of the streets he grew up in plus the “lifestyle” that many glamorize. The Beans that told you to get down or lay down. If Roc-A-Fella, Sigel’s label, was the mafia, he would be the hit man. But the hit man can never survive as the boss, a dual role that Sigel is trying to live. He wants us to believe that he’s pulling a complete 180: A guy who made his career off of violence and now wants you to believe that he’s changed. We all know the percent rule in hip-hop music: 75 percent of what most rappers say is false. But Sigel, who beat a murder charge and a victim of gun violence himself, has nothing to lie about: He lived it.
I want to believe that he’s changed a corner: people first, rapper second. But when you’ve personified this murder rate for so long, how can anybody? — Ciara Todd
City anticrime march draws unlikely recruit [Daily News]
PHOTO: Daily News
January 10th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
If we can allow a guy with a D.U.I. who is been accused of using Cocaine at the family ranch to run the Country …..one foul mouthed music artist should be accepted just as easily