Hip-hop is one tough racket. Not only do you have to be exceptionally good at delivering rhymes with a classical sensibility, but you have a constant lingering worry that bullets might somehow get inside you.
And then there's the po-po. Yes, the police present quite a problem to the everyday rapper, as they're always sticking their nose in trying to solve the murder of hip hop bodyguards, or not letting performers carry various sorts of weaponry onto public air-transports.
The smart rapper, however, knows how to take negative police attention and turn it into a nice golden necklace. It's a simple process really, a process that includes selling filmed copies of your arrest in a video format, and not cutting in the arresting officers for a nice thick slice of the earnings.
That's 'The Game' method, so named after its rapping master and creator. And it almost worked for The Game too, but now the police involved in the scuffle are suing him for defamation of character.
Jayceon 'The Game' Taylor is the greatest rapper of our time. We know because we read as much on his stomach tattoo – assuming he has one. But even Taylor's assured legendary status couldn't keep him from getting arrested last year while trying to buy a hot dog on a stick in a mall food court. Or something.
Taylor was arrested in a mall after a brief scuffle with police. A member of his entourage filmed the fiasco, and the piece has since been made available as part of a DVD. In fact, for promotional purposes, the incident was described as The Game "being wrongfully arrested and brutalised by the police in North Carolina".
Taylor also mentioned in an interview that his treatment was akin to that of Rodney King. Well, the cops involved aren't taking this laying down and getting kicked and clubbed. No – they're taking it to court. The five police officers involved (off-duty police officers, mind you, they were raking in some extra cash working mall security) are prepared to sue Taylor for $10,000 a piece. They claim they were libelled, slandered, had their images misappropriated and not a single person asked them how they were doing that day.
We just threw in that last one, but it's probably true.
Read more: