Free Republic

Rapper Andre Johnson severed his penis and jumped from a Los Angeles apartment building early Wednesday, police said. Johnson was seriously injured, but survived the fall from the second level of the building in North Hollywood, Los Angeles Police Sgt. William Mann said. Johnson, along with his recovered penis, was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he was being treated, Mann said. Details about what triggered the incident were not available. Johnson has been a member of Northstar, a Long Beach, California, hip hop group that was part of the Wu-Tang Clan family, according to the Wu-Tang Clan website. He...

Film producer Spike Lee believes Barack Obama has a secret weapon that will be a big asset to his campaign: rappers. Yes, in Spike Lee's opinion hip-hop music will be a key element in getting Obama elected. Lee expounded upon the importance of hip-hoppers in this election in the New York Times The Caucus: Mr. Lee, who has often uses hip-hop music and casts hip-hop stars in his films, said that rappers should, well, feel free to mince their too-hot words at such a crucial time in American politics. Of course, allowing hip-hoppers to play a part in a political...

December 15, 2006 Havana Journal Cuba’s Rap Vanguard Reaches Beyond the Party Line By MARC LACEY HAVANA — In a country like Cuba, where the state has its hand in just about everything, it is perhaps not surprising that there is a governmental body that concerns itself with rap music. Alarmed by the number of young people in baggy clothing and ill-aligned baseball caps rapping around the island, the government created the Cuban Rap Agency four years ago to bring rebellious rhymers into the fold. The person chosen to lead the agency was Susana García Amaros, 46, who studied Latin...

SHREVEPORT, La. - It was billed as "Super Safe Sunday," a concert to promote nonviolence, but as people were leaving, gunfire erupted, killing one and wounding four others. The shootings happened around 9:40 p.m. near the entrance to the Louisiana State Fairgrounds, where the rap concert, which drew an estimated 5,000 people, took place. The event was closing when someone in a group of people walking away from the fairgrounds threw a bottle at a passing car. Witnesses told police that three of four occupants of the car got guns from the trunk and began shooting, sending people diving and...

A man accused of scamming businesses up and down the East Coast as well as in Buffalo while passing himself off as a rapper was arrested Friday in Georgia. Police and the U.S. Marshals Service apprehended Walker Washington, 36, of Augusta, Ga., who identified himself as the rapper Da' Franchise. Washington racked up large bills for catering, studio recording sessions and other services, then left town without paying them, police and business owners said. About a dozen companies in Western New York say they were scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars when Washington came to this area last...