New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton is on the hot seat for calling rappers thugs after a rapper shot up a T.I. concert, killing 1 man and wounding 2 others on Wednesday.
Rapper Troy Ave, of Brownsville, was arrested early Thursday at NYU Hospital, where he was being treated for a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his leg.
Troy Ave was set to perform at Irving Plaza in Union Square, along with headliner T.I. and rappers Maino and Uncle Murda. Police say the rapper was gunning for someone in Maino’s crew when he fired the fatal shots.
The 30-year-old rapper, whose real name is Roland Collins, was charged with attempted murder and weapon possession. His charges will be upgraded to murder if ballistic tests prove he fired the shot that killed his close friend Ronald McPhatter, 33.
In a radio interview on Thursday, Bratton said rappers in general were thugs disguised as artists.
“The background of a lot of these young people, they are significant artists in that world … but unfortunately the lifestyles that they lived … oftentime follows them into the entertainment world and the success they have in it,” Bratton said on “The Len Berman and Todd Schnitt Show” on 710 WOR radio.
“The music celebrates violence, celebrates the degradation of women, it celebrates the drug culture,” Bratton added.
But rap legend Darryl (DMC) McDaniels of Run DMC said Bratton misspoke when he categorized all rappers as thugs.
“He should have known better,” McDaniels told the NY Daily News.
“He should have kept it specific to what happened. All rappers ain’t gangsters. I went to St. John’s University, so I took it personally.”
McDaniels blamed cable TV networks for only showing the seedy side of hip hop.
“When you turn on Hot97 or MTV,” he said, “you only see the dark, stupid ignorant side of us.”
