ProHipHop

July 14, 2011

DMX and Drugs Behind Bars

Instead of becoming a freeman, rapper DMX (born Earl Simmons) was ordered to stay in prison for another week after authorities allegedly caught him with drugs. DMX was scheduled to be released from prison yesterday, July 13th but apparently he might get locked up longer. Aside from the drug possession, the rapper has been reportedly breaking in-house rules since January such as failing or refusing a drug test, smoking in an unauthorized area, acting disrespectfully to the staff and engaging in disorderly or disruptive conduct. Of the seven alleged disciplinary infractions since January, four have come since June 12, with two more in April for alleged drug possession and disorderly conduct, and another in January for unauthorized smoking.

DMX was sentenced to a year in prison back in December last year, due to his lack of report to his probation officer and his refusal to undergo drug treatment. Before this incarceration, DMX has been arrested six times in Maricopa County, Arizona… and according to AllHipHop.com, the rapper has been arrested at least once every year since 1999.

The rapper is originally scheduled to drop his new single “Y’all Don’t Know” featuring Busta Rhymes in the coming two or three weeks.

Posted by yodee on July 14, 2011 in Drugs | Permalink

February 04, 2011

Juelz Santana Arrested For Drug Dealing, Guns – Held on $125,000 Bail

LaRon Louis James, a Dipset rapper who is better known with his stage name, Juelz Santana is being charged with multiple offenses that include possession of a firearm and a controlled dangerous substance, possession of a handgun without having a permit, possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, and possession with intent to distribute a controlled dangerous substance within 1,000 feet of a school zone.

Authorities suspected Santana as a member of the Bloods street gang, so officials decided to raid his New Jersey studio, Santana’s World on January 20. The raid turned up two fully loaded handguns, drug paraphernalia and 17 Ziploc bags containing “a greenish brown vegetation, consistent with the appearance of Marijuana.”

Juelz Santana is currently being held at the Bergen County jail on $125,000 bail.

Due to the said raid, Santana missed a performance in Chicago this past Sunday. “I definitely want to apologize. It’s some legal issues, man. I know it’s been all over the Internet, police been up in my studio. I had to deal with that, so a couple days, just checking myself,” said Santana. “Stayed doing a couple things. I managed to miss the show in Chicago, but Chi-town, you already know I love y’all, man.”, he explained.

Posted by yodee on February 04, 2011 in Drugs | Permalink

January 18, 2010

Why I’ve Always Avoided Cokeheads

I was reminded last night of my early impressions of cokeheads that saved me from ever going down that disgusting road.  Since this is a music industry related blog and since crack is the focus of a variety of increasingly tired rap subgenres, I figure it's right on topic!

Back in my early twenties, when I was starting to hang out in party circles, I knew a great little household of folks who experimented with various hard drugs to a degree that I only discovered in later years when one of their former members started telling me tales of driving to Durham, NC from Raleigh to buy heroin off the street in black neighborhoods.  These kids were all white, by the way.

But one member of their group, a flamboyant young man who has never been able to hold an extended conversation that didn't focus on himself, was quite visibly a cokehead.  The ungrounded egocentric behavior of this young man fits the profile to a tee but an anecdote from his brother has always stuck with me as a symbol of that depraved set.

I was told that early one morning, this guy came home while it was still dark outside and, because of the shared domicile, he didn't turn on the lights as he came in and stumbled to his bed.  The next day they discovered one of the kittens from a recent litter squashed to death in the entryway.  Homie stepped on him, killed him and didn't even have a clue.

And that's how I think of cokeheads.  As egocentric, clueless, f*ckups who'll squash a kitten without even knowing what they've done.  Which is one of many reasons why, if I find out you're a cokehead, that's the end of that, loser.

I just thank my lucky stars I didn't go to San Francisco until I was 29.  By the time I got out there, all my peers were either in 12 step programs or fully committed to their addictions.  Neither path looked the least bit fun to me though it did raise the final temptations on that front.

I've made so many other mistakes but that's one area where I never faltered.  I'd tell you the tale of how I almost bought my first gun near the end of those years in San Francisco but that comes under the category of "crazy things men will do for women when they're in love" so I'll save that for another day!

Posted by Clyde Smith on January 18, 2010 in Community, Drugs | Permalink

April 29, 2009

Monetizing Pill Poppin’: Eminem on VIBE Real Rap Cover, Relapse Album Art, Popsomp Hills Rehab “Viral”


Eminem on Cover of VIBE's Real Rap 2 Issue

Eminem on Cover of VIBE's Real Rap 2 Issue

So Eminem makes the cover of VIBE's Real Rap 2 issue cause he keeps it so real.

Note the cover text telling the tale of pills and rehab drugs, near death and the return from addiction. But that doesn't mean he'll be rapping about being clean. No, like most rappers hung up on keeping it real, he'll mostly be rapping about his sordid past, cause that's what the market likes, while interviewing about his journey through hell to redemption, cause that's what the media needs to monetize what the market likes.


Eminem - Relapse album cover art

Eminem – Relapse Album Cover

The album cover art for Relapse is a portrait made of pills with a related "prescription".

Though the cover focuses on relapse with no reference to recovery, MTV's Gil Kaufman makes it clear that, for his analytical purposes, this is an edgy reference to the past:

"The not-at-all-veiled nod to the rapper's struggle with addiction to prescription medication is in keeping with Em's career-long habit of putting his personal struggles on display in his art, from his problems with twice-ex-wife Kimberley Mathers to his disputes with his mother and beating at the hands of a bully in high school."

Which makes it ok to monetize.


Popsomp Hills Rehabilitation Center

Popsomp Hills Rehabilitation Center

The use of Twitter to announce and link out to graphics included not only the album cover art but also a link to the above graphic introducing the
Popsomp Hills Rehabilitation Center "viral" campaign. The site itself was revealed via an indirect route from Eminem's MySpace page, an example of Eminem "embracing the Web like never before."

Wow!!!

This aspect of the overall Relapse campaign is referred to as "viral", not because it's spread all over the web without requiring advertising, because that's true of everything shown above, but because it takes an indirect route and marketers need a cutting edge term to justify their billing.

And "viral" is easier to monetize than "indirect".

The Popsomp Hills site combines tongue in cheek text about doing drugs with links to useful resources about getting off drugs because everybody wants to make it clear that this is a responsible use of addiction to make money.

And that makes it sophisticated and not cynical cause Americans are savvy consumers of media and pills, right?

Posted by Clyde Smith on April 29, 2009 in Album Cover Artwork, Books Magazines Websites, Community, Drugs, Magazine Covers, Online Marketing | Permalink