Art imitates life and in some rappers cases the pictures they paint on record are becoming a cold reality they are living with. Many of todays top hip hop artists are being targeted by police and are facing jail time more than ever. Is it a catch 22 for an artists knowing they are targets by both the streets and the system. Here is another perspective.
VIA FLYPAPERNEWS.COM
Written by M. Michelle –
For celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Martha Steward, life after incarceration brings more income, more opportunities, and more publicity. Media outlets are just dying to hear about the people they befriended or the special treatment during time spent. But for an African American artist such as Da Brat, Lil Kim, Remy Ma, and actors such as De’aundre Bonds (Stacy), Wesley Snipes, and DMX it’s another story.
I personally wrote a letter to Da Brat expressing my concerns for her release back into society. I wondered if she had written any new material, if she has kept up with the new rap artists, or if she’s holding a grudge toward her So So Def family for not visiting her. When we think of celebrity incarceration, we think of something now apart of a vicious cycle that comes along with the fame.
As you may or may not know, Lil’ Kim’s Countdown to Lock Down displayed the first inside look at a celebrity on their road to serve jail time. Countdown to Lockdown was a television series which premiered on March 9, 2006 on BET. The show followed Kimberly Jones’s last 14 days of freedom before she entered the Federal Detention Center in City Center, Philadelphia for a 366 day sentence. Before she began her sentence, she released The Naked Truth. A record that earned her a 5 mic rating by The Source magazine, but sold less then 400,000 copies. After her release, she was featured on Dancing with the Starts eighth season in 2009. Since Lil’ Kim time spent in prison, she has kept a low profile and has been unsuccessful at matching her old record numbers. READ MORE
