Life Imitates Rap Perhaps

March 23, 2013 11:27 AM

First they did the crimes. Then they made a rap video of the crime. Then they went down for the crimes with the video used as evidence to convict them.

The Mercedes in the video was the getaway car during the crime spree.

posted by Xurando (23 comments total)

Wow...just wow.
posted by Fizz at 11:36 AM on March 23, 2013

When "Keeping It Real" Goes Wrong
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 11:47 AM on March 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Just.....words fail.
posted by nevercalm at 11:48 AM on March 23, 2013

Talk about dumbness.
posted by notreally at 11:56 AM on March 23, 2013

Paul Butler, a Georgetown University law professor and the author of “Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice.”,

“As a lawyer I’m appalled,” he said. “As a student of art history, I’m moved.

“These men have made art even when it’s against their penal interest,” he said. “Hip-hop artists frequently lament that the state’s main intervention for young black men is to lock them up. It’s sad that no other intervention happened to support these young men’s obvious talent.”

posted by Blasdelb at 11:57 AM on March 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

I didn't watch the entire video, but I did notice that the car's plates were blurred out. How do they know it's the same Mercedes?
posted by Flunkie at 12:02 PM on March 23, 2013

"Videotaping this crime spree is the best idea we've ever had!"
posted by lkc at 12:04 PM on March 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

Does anyone know what song they're playing at the beginning of the video when they're about to do the robbery? Both Shazam and google are failing me.
posted by starscream at 12:11 PM on March 23, 2013

Paul Butler, a Georgetown University law professor and the author of “Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice.”,

“As a lawyer I’m appalled,” he said. “As a student of art history, I’m moved.

While there are no hard and fast rules, as an academic I always feel compelled to try to embroider a little when I talk to the press, which I guess is why this guy managed more than 'Ha, what a bunch of dicks'.
posted by biffa at 12:14 PM on March 23, 2013 [4 favorites]

“Hip-hop artists frequently lament that the state’s main intervention for young black men is to lock them up. It’s sad that no other intervention happened to support these young men’s obvious talent.”

And here I was, feeling sorry instead for the innocent people who were robbed and stabbed. I feel like such a sap.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 12:16 PM on March 23, 2013 [9 favorites]

Reading the article... one of the perpetrators befriended a victim specifically to learn his movements so as to know the best time to attack with his friends. Not stupid (at least, not then), and actually pretty damn vicious.

I hope the book gets thrown at them.
posted by JHarris at 12:18 PM on March 23, 2013 [3 favorites]

Flunkie, the same way any car used in the commission of a crime is traced back to it's owner/operator, whom may have been one of the defendants or someone who pointed the police in the right direction. It's also possible that demonstrating that the car in the video was an exact match (year/make/model/color/etc) to the one used in the robberies and that the defendants had access to it was proof enough, beyond a reasonable doubt. It's also possible that the original, un-blurred footage was obtained through a search warrant, but if that were the case I would think that footage would have been shown in addition to the music video, and mentioned in the article. The court transcripts would probably clear up this point, but it's unlikely the blurred music video was the only evidence they had that demonstrated that the two vehicles were one and the same.
posted by bizwank at 12:26 PM on March 23, 2013

Does anyone know what song they're playing at the beginning of the video when they're about to do the robbery? Both Shazam and google are failing me.
posted by starscream at 12:11 PM

That appear to be "Life Ain't Shit" by Billboard Biggs which you can listen to here--

http://www.reverbnation.com/biggsdamayor
posted by haveanicesummer at 12:31 PM on March 23, 2013

I respect women when I'm on a date.
posted by jason's_planet at 12:35 PM on March 23, 2013

So these guys planned a robbery for six months, stabbed two people for $1300? Should stu k to rapping, they could have made more from adsense.
posted by psycho-alchemy at 12:59 PM on March 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Isn't a Mercedes a little flashy for a crime spree? Wouldn't you want something a little less distinctive? (On the other hand, if the criminals were smart...)
posted by Jahaza at 12:59 PM on March 23, 2013

I guess I'm just a left over 60s kind of hippie, but If I'd have proposed doing this -- the crime and a video about doing it -- my friends what have asked what was wrong with me and tried to get me help. I mean, they KILLED a guy and then made a video about it?

Sometimes people are so cruel I have to laugh, use black humor, and move on. But this just hurts my soul.

I can only wish for perce for the victims and their families.
posted by cccorlew at 1:09 PM on March 23, 2013 [5 favorites]

I didn't watch the entire video, but I did notice that the car's plates were blurred out. How do they know it's the same Mercedes?

I'm guessing it's not blurred out on the raw footage.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:12 PM on March 23, 2013

I didn't watch the entire video, but I did notice that the car's plates were blurred out. How do they know it's the same Mercedes?

Outside of Washington D.C. limits, what criminals use Mercedes as getaway vehicles?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:15 PM on March 23, 2013 [2 favorites]

If Curtis Mayfield were alive, he'd probably smack these fuckers in the face for sampling his music to glorify their garbage living.
posted by droplet at 3:51 PM on March 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Stabbing two people repeatedly to get $1200? Split 5 ways? Echh.
posted by bonobothegreat at 4:40 PM on March 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Three guys I went to school with killed someone in a murder-for-hire where the payment was a fucking broken snowmobile. I knew all three of them, and the guy who's now on death row, Eduardo Santiago, I once knew decently well. Certainly weren't candidates for valedictorian or anything, but never seemed like the kind of people who would ever do something like this. Who knows...
posted by rollbiz at 9:48 PM on March 23, 2013

That troubled but seemingly decent kid I knew, Eduardo, was one of only eight people on CT's death row before they repealed capitol punishment there last year.
posted by rollbiz at 9:51 PM on March 23, 2013