Yeah but it's not the hip-hop culture you know. This is typical of how most, not all, but a very healthy portion of this "community" thinks. Having grown up in the inner city, the "Don't Snitch" (Boston T-shirts)attitude is legitimate and sad.





PLATINUM SELLING RAPPER TELLS '60 MINUTES': WOULDN'T HELP POLICE CATCH EVEN A SERIAL KILLER BECAUSE IT WOULD HURT HIS BUSINESS AND VIOLATE HIS 'CODE OF ETHICS'

Thu Apr 19 2007 12:47:1 ET

Rap star Cam'ron says there's no situation -- including a serial killer living next door -- that would cause him to help police in any way, because to do so would hurt his music sales and violate his "code of ethics." Cam'ron, whose real name is Cameron Giles, talks to Anderson Cooper for a report on how the hip-hop culture's message to shun the police has undermined efforts to solve murders across the country. Cooper's report will be broadcast on 60 MINUTES Sunday, April 22 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.

"If I knew the serial killer was living next door to me?" Giles responds to a hypothetical question posed by Cooper. "I wouldn't call and tell anybody on him -- but I'd probably move," says Giles. "But I'm not going to call and be like, ÔThe serial killer's in 4E.' " ( For an excerpt of Giles' interview, click here

Giles' "code of ethics" also extends to crimes committed against him. After being shot and wounded by gunmen, Giles refused to cooperate with police. Why? "Because...it would definitely hurt my business, and the way I was raised, I just don't do that," says Giles. Pressed by Cooper, who says had he been the victim, he would want his attacker to be caught, Giles explains further: "But then again, you're not going to be on the stage tonight in the middle of, say, Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, with people with gold and platinum teeth and dreadlocks jumping up and down singing your songs, either," says Giles. "We're in two different lines of business."

"So for you, it's really about business?" Cooper asks.

"It's about business," Giles says, "but it's still also a code of ethics."

Rappers appear to be concerned about damaging what's known as their "street credibility," says Geoffrey Canada, an anti-violence advocate and educator from New York City's Harlem neighborhood. "It's one of those things that sells music and no one really quite understands why," says Canada. Their fans look up to artists if they come from the "meanest streets of the urban ghetto," he tells Cooper. For that reason, Canada says, they do not cooperate with the police.

Canada says in the poor New York City neighborhood he grew up in, only the criminals didn't talk to the police, but within today's hip-hop culture, that's changed. "It is now a cultural norm that is being preached in poor communities....It's like you can't be a black person if you have a set of values that say ÔI will not watch a crime happen in my community without getting involved to stop it,'" Canada tells Cooper.

Young people from some of New York's toughest neighborhoods echo Canada's assessment, calling the message not to help police "the rules" and helping the police "a crime" in their neighborhoods. These "rules" are contributing to a much lower percentage of arrests in homicide cases -- a statistic known as the "clearance rate" -- in largely poor, minority neighborhoods throughout the country, according to Prof. David Kennedy of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "I work in communities where the clearance rate for homicides has gone into the single digits," says Kennedy. The national rate for homicide clearance is 60 percent. "In these neighborhoods, we are on the verge of -- or maybe we have already lost -- the rule of law," he tells Cooper.

Says Canada, "It's like we're saying to the criminals, ÔYou can have our community....Do anything you want and we will either deal with it ourselves or we'll simply ignore it.' "

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm

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"A theory that explains everything, explains nothing"

All I have to say to a POS like "Cam'ron" is ..."Please take the time to go f-ck yourself and give us a call when you want to join the real culture that matters. There is no such thing as a "hip-hop culture". The terms are mutually exclusive.

The Sicilian mafia has a similar "code of ethics", they call it omerta. It's not hip-hop culture, it's the culture of anyone who stands to profit from crime or has another reason to distrust the police. I'm not justifying it - it's wrong, but I wouldn't want people to get the impression that everyone who listens to hip-hop is like this guy.

His line of thinking epitomizes the ideology of his listeners. Having grown up in, and still living in Chelsea, I can tell you first hand that this is how alot of the kids think.

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"A theory that explains everything, explains nothing"

You mean poor black kids don't trust the police? It's been that way all along, tell me something new.

Hello foolios....Cam'ron isn't the voice of hip hop and has never been.....

This man does NOT speak for the hip hop nation, infact hip hop block parties and the movement itself is against violence. The culture itself was founded to stop gang violence. Check Africa Bambaataa and the Zulu Nation.

The Universal Zulu Nation stands for: KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, UNDERSTANDING, FREEDOM, JUSTICE, EQUALITY, PEACE, UNITY, LOVE, RESPECT, WORK, FUN, OVERCOMING THE NEGATIVE TO THE POSITIVE, ECONOMICS, MATHEMATICS, SCIENCE, LIFE, TRUTH, FACTS, FAITH, AND THE ONENESS OF GOD.

http://www.zulunation.com/beliefs.html

Taking these words and interviews by a rapper who sticks to a gangster code, then apply it to the entire genre of hip hop, and the black youth in general is rediculous.

I mean that the inner city, i.e hip-hop ideology is about "your boys" & "keeping it real". This isn't a black thing, it's an inner city ideology. Chelsea is not predominantly black, infact, it's majority hispanic. My friends growing up were black, white, hispanic, and asian. What we all listened to, mostly anyway, was rap and hip-hop. Street cred, like this guy talks about, is exactly how most of my friends followed. Some of us grew up, some didn't.

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"A theory that explains everything, explains nothing"

Please, the Police love the Hip Hop culture for many reasons including....


1.)The Pants!- I can't tell you how many more idoits are caught now because they simpley can not run in those ridiculous pants hanging off their hips. They have to run holding up their pants and will eventually trip, it is a godsend to some of us, older, less fleet officers.

2.) The Hit lists! Rappers now routinely compile "hit lists" of people who are to be killed if they are killed. One rapper here in Savannah, left such a list and his "boyz" effectively lowered the future crime rate of the city by wiping out the first seven or eight names on the list, before eventually getting shot themsleves. I can only hope that each one shot, left his own list.

I say keep up the good work!

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Manchester by the Sea

Chelsea by the Smell

Sorry RW...just had to do it

I know, he doesn't speak for everybody, as no single person does. My point is that his music, his style, and his message are iconic to a large portion of the genre's followers. Remember now, the people who listen to this music, are not all black. Hip hop is very popular to all walks of life. Citing specific groups who promote peaceful qualities is great, but it doesn't take away from the reality of the overall message most rappers send. I'm not saying that rap is 100% evil, or 100% like the man quoted above. All I'm saying is that a healthy portion in the music industry, and the "community" think along the lines of this maroon above.

I'm 32, and I grew up on this stuff. This was one of my favorites way back then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiX7GTelTPM

I reccomend this version for those of you who might find the above upsetting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-TToJwQwXg

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"A theory that explains everything, explains nothing"