Shoot 'em up bang-bang.

T.I., born Clifford Harris, is a Grammy-winning rapper.  He is also trying to establish himself as an award winning actor,  most recently starring alongside Academy Award winners, Denzel Washington and Russel Crowe in the upcoming film, American Gangster.  It will appear in theaters next month.  While I'm running down his bio, I may as well include that he is also a known felon.  And that's no secret, he did his crimes and time and in many of his lyrics he candidly details his rough beginnings, exploits with the law, and morally dead but very profitable crack-dealing capers, etc. etc. 

Upon the release of his second album, the Atlanta-based rapper informed his listeners that T.I. the nice-guy, go-getter was "no longer in power."  Instead, his small-frame had been taken over by his alter ego, T.I.P. (his worser half.)  T.I.P. is also the person who made all the criminal infractions that  he raps about.  Well, true to his word, T.I.P. is definitely in the building, seeing as how he was arrested last weekend in Atlanta just hours before his scheduled performance at the BET Awards. He was arrested in a parking lot where, according to federal agents, he was planning to pick up machine guns and silencers, said to have been purchased by his body guard.

The arrest was the result of a month-long investigation.  A federal firearms dealer informed ATF that a man was inquiring about buying a machine gun (under the table).  Well unfortunately that man was T.I.P's bodyguard.  And the bodyguard wasn't that into guarding T.I.P's body when it came down to cooperating with federal agents.  He cooperated and informed them that he was buying the guns and silencers for T.I.P.  He also added that to date he had bought nine other firearms for T.I.P., who is on parole.  Newsflash genius: Yes it is illegal to purchase hot firearms.  It is also illegal to give somebody else the cash to purchase them for you.  You are too smart for your own good.  But I digress...

T.I.P. worked his gun deals through the bodyguard because the rapper is a convicted felon, the complaint alleged. This past Saturday, T.I.P. was all set to meet his bodyguard to hand over cash for the weapons.  (I can only hope he wasn't planning on using them at the awards show...teeheehee). He was arrested in a shopping center parking lot not far from the awards show.  At the time of his arrest he had three firearms in the vehicle he was driving, including a loaded firearm between the driver's seat and center console, according to the report.

So while everyone else was at the awards show kicking it, wondering where in the hell was T.I.P., his home was being ransacked by federal authorities.  He lives in East Point just outside of the city.  The messed up part is that they video taped the search and seizure and the only thing they blocked out for privacy, was the last two digits of his four-digit address.  So any groupies, enemies, long lost money hungry cousins, etc. now know exactly what block he lives on and the video feed of the search is going to make the house easy to point out.  I'm sure he won't be living there any longer. Well, I'm sure he is going to be living in a cell for a while anyway, but when he gets out...you know what I mean.

So drum roll please.......during the search agents found:

Six guns located in the closet, including the weapons allegedly purchased by the bodyguard (so much for your word against his.) Five out of the six guns were loaded.  

• T.I. had been expected to perform at the BET show, which will broadcast Wednesday.
• He was nominated in nine categories.
• His nominations included:
  • CD of the Year
  • Lyricist of the Year
  • MVP of the Year.
• His sixth album, "T.I. vs. T.I.P.," was released July 3 and debuted at No. 1.
• He won two Grammys in 2006, including:
  • best rap/song collaboration for "My Love" with Justin Timberlake.
• He also hit the big screen in "ATL" that same year.
• T.I.P. most recent acting role is opposite Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in "American Gangster," set for release Nov. 2.
• He also appeared in a commercial for Chevrolet, which debut during the 2007 Superbowl XLI.
  

---

This past weekend Academy Award winners George Clooney and Cate Blanchett couldn't hold a match to "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?" Perry's cast included Perry, Janet Jackson, Malik Yoba, and my all-time favorite–Jill Scott! The movie raked in $21.5 million, miles ahead of Clooney's "Michael Clayton" and Blanchett's "Elizabeth:The Golden Age" (honestly I'm tired of movies about the queen.  I believe the movie guru reported that to date there are 13 feature films about Queen Elizabeth, isn't that enough.  But back to Perry, this man is a mogul.  He is a genius in his own right.  Check the stats below.  And big ups to my girl Jill.  Your talent is endless... Now the question everyone is asking is does this movie has legs, or did everyone go out and see it during the premiere?  Will it continue to bring in money?  I don't know about legs, I think it has a Hemi and it's just getting revved up!  I'm a living example.  I haven't seen it yet.  Me and my sis are going to check it out this week.  You make sure you check it out too.

---

St. Louis City still putting out fires?

There is more drama surrounding the St. Louis fire department surrounding their testing procedures.  Still attempting to rebound from the recent demotion of Fire Chief Sherman George, St. Louis is now freezing the hiring of all new firefighters.  In tune with their previous departmental conflicts, this latest issue again involves fire department exams. 

Two months ago results from the standardized firefighters' entrance exam were thrown out at the city personnel director's request.  News channel 4 reported Mayor Francis Slay's office informed the station that 70% of 13,000 applicants failed the test.  It has been decided that the test was flawed.  At that time, the personnel director, Richard R. Frank, confidently told the public that the decision to throw out the test results had nothing to do with race. He was quoted as saying the high failure rate, and not the race of those who did poorly, was the reason. (It better not be about race seeing how you just fired the black fire chief b/c he stood firm that the city's firefighter exams were racially biased and you disagreed and he paid the price (a $20,000 demotion) in order to stand by his beliefs.) 

Well, since the personnel director's statement regarding race not being a factor, it has been publicly confirmed that the director did feel that in addition to the failing scores, race too was a huge factor in his decision to cancel the test.  Private email correspondence from Frank and other officials in the mayor's office show that Frank was dishonest in his public statement. 

On August 21, 2007 Frank emailed the mayor's chief of staff as well as St. Louis city's legal counsel saying:
"There were also very serious concerns over potential adverse impact since minority candidates appeared to do disproportionately poorly on the exam." 

On September 5, 2007 another email to the chief of staff and the mayor's press secretary revealed Frank 's disdain when dealing with publicly discussing race as an aspect of the exam:
"I am not sure it is productive to discuss the decision to cancel the exam in any detail," Frank wrote.

When asked about the discrepancies between his public and private comments, Frank said last week that "perhaps I should have been more direct and said race is going to be a problem here. I was very sensitive to the fact that racial tension was so high in the city," Frank said. "We did not want to make that more combustible."    

My Message to Richard Frank:

PERHAPS!....Perhaps you should have been more direct my azz.  That's a bunch of bull.  Even when caught in a lie, you can't man up and say, I wasn't honest.  You got me red handed.  And to add insult to injury, your reasoning is that racial tension was already high.  So I guess you felt the need to continue to support the idea that everything is a rose garden that race issues really aren't happening in this city.  You said you didn't want to add more fuel to the fire.  You idiot, congratulations, you have done a good job of making racial tension more combustible, just what you claim you were trying to avoid.  In the end, your true opinion still came out and it makes you look very deceptive. It definitely shows that your first priority is upholding a facade of what St. Louis city is, instead of attacking the problems and trying to fix them so the city can really start to mirror that pretty picture you like to paint it as.  Oh, Frank-y that work email thing will get you every time.  You should know better. 

FYI: 

• Less than one out of 10 black candidates who took the test passed.
• 670 of the 833 candidates who took the test failed.
• Frank said the city is in negotiation to administer another entrance exam next month. It will cost about $160,000

That work email thing will get you every time.  I wonder if this will trickle over into the Chief George situation or if they will keep it separate.  Do you think Chief George should get his job back?  I mean either way it's not going to happen, but I'm still interested in knowing your thoughts.  I'm still trying to decide if an exam can be racially biased.  One of my fellow bloggers gave a good example of a racially biased question involving an international student at a U.S. university.  Me personally, I'm black (I know you already know that, since my pic is on here, hahaha) and I think that I can answer any question that my caucasion counterpart can.  But maybe I just haven't experienced it first hand.  Who knows? 

---

My people, Mocha Latte, sent this breaking news to my inbox today. Got Lyrics is back in effect. If you haven't checked this event out, you need to.  She doesn't disappoint. Peep the flyer, peep the new venue, check the time and admission cost and make plans to attend.

---

Quote of the week:

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you imagine.

-Thoreau