Update #2: Two members of Migos have been released on bond.
Update : According to NBC affiliate WSAV News 3 reports that Migos members Quavious Marshall, Kirschnick Ball, Kiari Cephus were all denied bail following their arrest over the weekend. source:
I, along with millions of others watched Noisey/Vice Media do a bunch of documentaries on Atlanta’s trap music scene (with a nerdy white guy as host and at one point even smoking a PCP laced blunt) that they seem so enamored with in the Vices offices in Williamsburg.
In particular in the Meet the Migos episode, was the proliferation of illegal drugs and firearms on display with no context as to whether these firearms were legal for these young black males to possess. We only can gather that these weapons are for protection of the Migos clan from ‘fuck ni*ggas’. I have no idea what the open carry gun laws are in Georgia, but I am gonna jump out the window and say the artillery these guys were carrying at this local suburban trap houses were illegal.
News has just broken that the Migos were arrested for drug and felony firearm possession by authorities. Now what role does Vice Media actually play in this situation? The fact they are so willing to put these young black males on camera with potentially illegal firearms shows me that clicks, views, and ad dollars are more important than the actual lives of these young men who by massive popularity and fame are forced to carry automatic weapons where ever they go.
Troubled has followed the Migos throughout their short career and this latest arrest illustrates that in volumes.
Were the police tipped off by these documentaries to search these guys knowing that there is a good chance they could be in possession of drugs or armed to the teeth? The fact that rap artists have been criminalized over the last 2 decades and that two of the biggest stars of the culture were gunned down and their murderers never brought to justice prove that the honchos over at Vice could careless about hip hop culture and are quite possibly the ‘culture vultures’ Damon Dash so vehemently speaks about. Let’s not forget one of his primary targets Lyor Cohen, who is in business with the Migos and Young Thug with his new 300 Entertainment label.
Are young white artists criminalized the same way Migos are in these Noisey Docs? I seriously doubt it. The fact these guys get a such hard on getting that close to some aspects of black culture and not actually feel the direct consequences, is far worst that any future albums by Macklemore. Vice Media is showing that young black men with guns is okay until their targets become the police, or God forbid any white males in society who don’t love rap music. We have proof of that with the recent uproar of a music video by Maino and Uncle Murda. Would Vice be so eager to film an anti-American revolutionary Migos who advocated the killing of police officers in response to the murders of Mike Brown, Eric Garner or Walter Scott and the countless other black males at the hand of police? F*ck no.
At the end of the day the Migos are young men who have to make smarter decisions. Allegedly bringing guns and drugs on the campus of Georgia State University is probably the most idiotic thing in the history of dumb idiotic things. This latest incident amongst many others is just a sign of how young talented young black males are the pawns in the eyes of these executives. Lyor Cohen and Shane Smith are multi-millionaires who have exploited black culture for personal gain and will not come to the rescue of these young men publicly.
We have seen this play out with Bobby Shmurda who is still languishing behind bars with a relatively low bail compared to how much money they probably grossed off of his break out single ‘Hot Nigga’.Epic Records CEO LA Reid has been pretty much mum on the subject and has not with a simple ‘flick of the wrist’ bailed out Bobby.
Based on recent reports 2 group members will make bail after initially being denied by a furious judge who subsequently denied member Offset according to DJ Akademiks “because he is a Convicted Felon who is Charged with Carrying Loaded Gun on School Grounds.”
If Shane Smith and Lyor Cohen are not directly responsible for the trials and tribulations of the Migos, they are certainly complicit in the trouble that follows them. The fact these executives fade into obscurity when these rappers get into legal trouble shows that the theories floating around that corporate rap musoc is used to criminalize young black males is not so crazy after all.
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