Yasmin Shiraz

In perusing the internet, I came across the artwork for rapper, Gucci Mane’s upcoming album. It’s aptly titled “The State vs. Radric Davis.” Radric Davis, of course, being his government name. I dislike his artwork because it shows this artist in a prison jumpsuit, wearing handcuffs. I dislike this artwork because to a young person it sends the message that “I’m a cool artist and I’m on the cover of my rap album even though I’ve been to prison.”

I dislike the artwork because it AGAIN associates rappers with going to jail–an association I’ve been long tired of.

I dislike the artwork because some young person will think prison has become a rite of passage in becoming an artist. Am I by myself?

After looking at Gucci’s artwork, I decided to look up his legal history on line. From my research, I understand why he felt the need to do an album cover in a prison jumpsuit. Its a look he’s not unfamiliar with…. According to Wikipedia:

On May 10, 2005, Davis was attacked by a group of men who were trying to steal his trademark “So Icey” chain. Davis’ companions shot at the group, killing at least one. The corpse of one of the attackers, Henry Lee Clark III, was found at a middle school. Davis turned himself in to police investigators on May 19, 2005 and was subsequently charged with murder. Davis claimed that the shots fired by his party were in self-defense. The DeKalb County district attorney’s office dropped the murder charge in January 2006 due to insufficient evidence.

The previous October, in an unrelated matter, Davis had pleaded no contest to a charge of assault for assaulting a nightclub promoter the previous June; at the time the murder charge was dropped, he was serving a six-month prison sentence for this. Davis was released from prison in late January 2006.

In September 2008, Gucci Mane was arrested for parole violation for completing only 25 out of 600 community service hours following his 2005 arrest for assault. He was sentenced to a year in prison but was released after six months.

On November 12, 2009, Gucci Mane was sentenced to 12 months in prison for probation violation and taken away to prison in handcuffs.

So Gucci is in prison right now as his album is preparing to drop in 14 days. Right now, he’s “arguably” one of the hottest rappers guest starring on singles and he’s in prison. So like I said, I wish he didn’t have a record as in a prison record and maybe, just maybe, I wish he didn’t have an album either.

More people are going to focus on the fact that he’s in prison than the fact that he started writing poetry when he was 14. SMH.

Gucci. Gucci. Gucci. I hope that you get your life together after this stint in prison.

What do you think? Will his being in prison become more important than his music? Let me know your thoughts.

A colleague of mine, Mwaalkebu-Ian Akil, recently shared the video below with me. It was so good that I had to share it with you. You probably have heard that Morehouse University recently implemented a new dress code that bans among other things, sagging pants. So I wanted to write this post that details the history of the sagging pants, Morehouse’s policy and hey a picture of Lil Wayne and Jay-Z.
Morehouse’s new policy details 11 expectations of students, including:

* no caps, do-rags and/or hoods in classrooms, the cafeteria, or other indoor venues

* no sun glasses worn in class or at formal programs

* no jeans at major programs, as well as no sagging pants on campus

* no clothing with derogatory or lewd messages either in words or pictures

* no wearing of clothing usually worn by women (dresses, tops, tunics, purses, pumps, etc.) on the Morehouse campus or at college-sponsored events.

And since the media has been talking about this dress code, I thought it’d be a great thing to share the history of the sagging pants. So here’s a video. The first 2 minutes the inmate explains what sagging pants indicates in prison.

My attorney, Excel Sharrieff, is a Morehouse man so I asked him about how he felt about Morehouse’s new dress code. He said:
“For a private institution such as Morehouse I think that it is extremely fair and necessary. The Morehouse tradition and mission is bigger than five students or even the current student body. Its about building certain type of leaders for tomorrow. Morehouse is about business and leadership I have no problems with anyone’s lifestyle but Morehouse is a PRIVATE institution like a private club and its members MUST abide by the rules or attend a public institution.”

What do you think about the sagging pants? Why are we still rocking them? Now when I look at Lil Wayne and Jay-z with their pants half around their knees, I don’t like it. Shouldn’t the history of the sagging pants make a difference?

17 year old, Daniel Petric was sentenced to 23 years in prison for killing his mother after she tried to take away his Halo 3 video game. Video games are popular, but dag-on, killing one’s mother? That’s simply outrageous. Apparently Daniel shot both his parents, but only his father survived. What do you think should have been his punishment for killing his mother over a video game? His father spoke to the court and said that Daniel was sorry for killing his mother. No matter how sorry he is, his mother is still dead. What do you think about it? Is 23 years an adequate sentence for killing one’s mother over a video game? If you believe in God and that the mother made it to heaven. What do you think she feels about her son being sentenced to 23 years. He’ll be 40 by the times he gets out of jail. Will it be time enough to start his life anew? It’s sad, but I’d like to hear your thoughts. Also, could Daniel’s dad sue the makers of Halo 3 for creating a game so addictive that it possibly ‘encouraged’ his son to kill? Who knows? Are the makers of the video game responsible? It’s something to think about.

Peace…