This Week’s Hip Hop Gun Crime Report

No, this won’t be a recurring feature. We promise. It’s just that this has been a rather eventful week when it comes to wanna-be gangstas and their interactions with the criminal justice system. First, there was the ballisticly-named rapper, Gunplay, who gave himself up to the po-po in Miami on armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and aggravated assault charges. This, after his crew had gotten into a backstage brawl at the BET Hip Hop Awards last month with the boys from 50 Cent’s posse. Kinda like going to a fight and having a hockey game break out. Then, a little farther to the west . . .

Nelly was cruising along I-10 toward his next gig with the St. Lunatics when their tour bus happened upon a Border Patrol checkpoint outside El Paso:

During a routine check of U.S. citizenship the inspecting Border Patrol agent, a canine detected the presence of concealed humans and/or controlled substances emitting from the seams of the main entrance of the vehicle and requested the driver to pull into the secondary inspection lane for further inspection, according to a Hudspeth County Sheriff’s news release.

The ultimate take: a .45, a little heroin and over ten pounds of weed. Nelly, of course, was shocked, shocked, to find that one of his crew had brought drugs and a firearm on his party barge:

Nelly claims that he had no idea these contraband items were brought onto the bus.

“It is my understanding a member of my staff made an unfortunate decision to bring unlawful materials onto our tour bus that resulted in his arrest this morning,” he said in a statement… Neither I nor anyone else on the tour bus was aware of his decision to bring these on board. Law enforcement officials did not press charges against anyone other than that individual.”

Good to know the main man wasn’t involved. We know it can be disillusioning to hear that guns, drugs and violence sometimes swirl around the otherwise wholesome hip hop scene. But we report, you deride.