Last Thursday, Lil Wayne, the most popular and successful rapper currently active, plead guilty to gun possession. His court appearance, with his business partners Cash Money Records CEOs Ronald "Slim" Williams and Bryan "Baby" Williams by his side in court in New York City brought a close to the first part of a questionable targeting of the performer on the part of New York's finest.
Lil Wayne
As far as I'm concerned, New York law enforcement has a golden opportunity to make an out-of-the-box example of Lil Wayne.
According to a must see bio called "Behind The Music" on Lil Wayne on VH1 today, New York police boarded his tour bus looking specifically for Wayne and searching for a gun but the lead officer didn't even know what he looked like.
Moreover, Lil Wayne told his audience that night that the NYPD had made repeated threats> and told him not to perform in New York again.
According to various reports, Lil Wayne faces one-year in jail due to a plea deal. Sentencing is to be set February 2010. As far as I'm concerned placing the most popular rapper in jail for a gun he may not have owned and takes DNA testing to prove is a stupid waste of tax dollars as well as a missed opportunity to have his voice leading the charge against wanton gun possession.
Lil Wayne is not just anyone. He's a master perfomer who's sold as many as 1.5 million downloads of his work Tha Carter III in one week.
A record number.
Why not make Lil Wayne the focus of creative sentencing reflective of his unusual talent and incredible fan base? The sentence should be for Lil Wayne to make a special album that counsels America on the dangers of gun use and possession and the harmful consequences of drug addiction. If there's anyone who can take a boring lecture on does and don't and turn it into a hit, it's Lil Wayne.
And let's go a step beyond that and have the revenue from those downloads given to drug treatment programs in New York City. In a recession, with non-profit programs fighting for funds and donations, that revenue would be like a welcome rain during a drought.
It's time for New York's law enforcement system to think out of the box and set an example for the rest of America, and a future course for Hip Hop.
Moreover, this unique form of punishment would give Lil Wayne a new lease on life at a time when some wonder if his sales and influence will decrease because of this low point in his storied life.
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