Is Remy’s Conviction an Indictment on Hip Hop?

This is a tragedy on all sides. First Kimberly. Then Inga. Now Remy. Hip Hop’s female hierarchy is heading to the slammer at an unprecedented ratio. Sure, dudes are getting locked up but at a ratio of one out of every twenty. Mind you there is only like 10 female emcees and at least 6 of them have been in potential penitentiary-bound circumstances. Nobody wins when there are children involved and I’m sure you’re like, ‘she should’ve thought about all that before she pulled the trigger.’ My thing is not only are you right, but the irony is that the reality of her actions are too much for us to swallow, but when its the content in her raps we don’t have any problem jammin’ out to the sh*t on our iPods.

Yet we expect some authenticity from our “stars.” If they let their thing off they are deemed to be the “real deal” the “genuine article.” How many songs have come out to applaud the “realness” of Shyne for letting his thing off in the club but yet they clown him behind his back for taking a dive for Puff? “How can he be so stupid” but “He so gangsta.” Which one is it? I was in Club New York that night and it wasn’t nothing gangsta about what went down. How many of his fans write him? Visit him? Send him bread? We abandon our own during their times of need and neglect the very relationship that was forged by us buying into their fairy tales.
But the truth is that there are human beings involved, victims who come from the ranks of “ordinary people.” These rappers are regular folk and so are their victims and its unfortunate that it takes a judge gavel to dissolve that illusion, that facade which brings them back to reality.

Hip Hop has let us down again. The judge made a point to say this isn’t about “rap” but instead he felt the heavy-handed sentence was needed to send a message because Remy is an “angry” young black woman. If we can’t protect our own from the gavel what’s the sense of frontin’ like we’re the baddest n*ggas on the planet? Classic case of “Keeping It Real Gone Wrong.”

A weeping Remy Ma, apologizing to her victim and pleading for leniency, was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday for shooting a woman outside a Manhattan nightclub.

“I feel so bad for all the physical and mental pain you’ve gone through,” the Grammy-nominated rapper told the victim. “This has taken a toll on us and both our families. I would never wish you harm and I pray the best for all of us.”