It looks like the perilous relationship
between hip hop artists and writers have just gotten strained again.
The latest incident involves Blaze Magazine editor and chief
Jessie Washington and a producer out of Puff Daddy‘s
camp relationship. According to a story in The Associated Press,
Washington was attacked by 4 men who barged into his Manhattan
office and pummeled him. One of the four men accused of beaten
Washington was Derek ‘D-Dot’ Angellettie who works as a producer for
Sean Puffy Combs.
Derek ‘D-Dot’ Angellettie
Angellettie has vehemently denied his innocence-so much so that he
has volunteered to go down to police headquarters for questioning.
None of the other assailants were identified.. However, the story
that has been circulating around the music industry was D-Dot and
his crew were upset by a recent article that appeared in Blaze.
Unfortunately for Washington this incident is the second
confrontation he has had since he launched the new magazine 5
months ago. This past summer word had gotten out about Washington
having a gun pulled on him by Wyclef Jean. In this scenario, Wyclef
was upset about an editorial regarding Wyclef‘s artist Canibus.
Wyclef
Wyclef has steadfastly denied the allegations although industry
heads have maintained that Wyclef rolls with a posse of kids who
have no problem acting ill when upset about something. Washington
himself came under fire because he waited for more than a month
before publicly talking about the incident. He was accused of using
the incident as a publicity stunt for his new magazine. In addition
Washington did not involve law enforcement. When questioned about
that. Washington noted that he had been taught not to involve the
police when there is a problem between two Black men. His
contention was, the police would make matters worse.
It will be interesting to see how this whole drama plays itself out,
and whether or not Washington will call the police. In this case,
Washington was beaten bad enough that it landed him in a hospital.
This unfortunate event brings to mind the topsy-turvy relationship
between writers and artists. Many artists have maintained that hip
hop journalist have unfairly criticized their material in an attempt
to garner a reputation and make a name for themselves. They have
also contended that bad write ups have resulted in financial set
backs. Writers on the other hand, have noted that hip hop artists
have not learned the rules of the music business industry and
incidents of violence [and there have been many] have been the
result of ignorance and kids trying to bring a street mentality
into the world of business.
written by
Davey D
Hip Hop is dead. I don’t care what anyone says, it has absolutely seen its last days. There used to be a time that everyone would come out and relish in the fact that they had conquered new skills or discovered a new technique. Kids couldn’t wait to drop a new style of rhyming on their peers.
I don’t see Fat Joe owning a skyscraper in Manhattan. Master P may be the big money shot caller right now, but his country ass still has to go through Priority Records to get distributed. That means the owner of Priority is the real money maker and not Master P. Suge for all his worth and intimidation tactics is still locked away in some jail cell in California. You would think that with all the crap his Death Row affiliates talked that they would have had the whole Justice System in check for real. I guess when it comes down to it Uncle Sam has the last word.
M
L
Many claim Biggie and company had been ‘flossin’ big time [steppin’ out]..by adorning fancy ‘gangster outfits’ and showing little concern for their safety in LA. Biggie and most of his entourage had been chillin’ in LA for the past couple of weeks laying down the groundwork for the promotion of his upcoming album. From the outside looking in, Biggie’s visible presence in LA indicated that everything was squashed and there’s was no longer any more bad blood between LA based Death Row and the New York based Bad Boy record companies who had embarked on a new and more peaceful direction for hip hop. A lot of this was reinforced by the recent ‘coming together’ of Snoop Dog and Sean Puffy Combs.. on the Steve Harvey Show. Folks simply felt it was all good…Industry insiders said such was not the case.The word on the streets was there were still a number of individuals angry at Biggie.. His high visible in Los Angeles was viewed by some as a smack in the face to 2Pac. People holding such sentiments may have been small in number…but they were nevertheless dangerous enough that Biggie should’ve been concerned and aware of his surroundings…
