Beanie Arrested . . . Again

Even in court, trouble finds Beanie Sigel. The rapper showed up in a Philadelphia courtroom on July 9th for a hearing on an assault case and was arrested by federal authorities for an unrelated illegal weapons charge. The new charge stems from an April 20th arrest when the rapper (a.k.a. Dwight Grant) was accused of throwing a handgun from his car after he was pulled over by police. Sigel, 29, was initially charged with illegal possession of a firearm, but this week that charge drew additional heat, as federal authorities claim it violated his probation from a 1995 drug-trafficking charge.

Were those numerous legal tangles not sufficient, Sigel was also arrested last week and charged with attempted murder for a July 1st shooting outside a Philadelphia nightclub. He is expected in court for a preliminary hearing on those charges later this month.

Perhaps the only silver lining thus far for Sigel was that his attorney was able to get the aggravated assault charge (from a January skirmish) reduced to simple assault, a misdemeanor. But no sooner had the rapper won that small victory than Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agents handcuffed him and brought him before a federal judge to answer to his probation violation. Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge James R. Melinson agreed to the prosecutor's request that Sigel be held without bail until a hearing on July 14th.

Sigel's legal tangles will continue to interfere with his participation in Jay-Z's Roc the Mic tour, which travels to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, tonight, and might begin to halt his promotion for the second album by his State Property collective, due next month.

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Song Stories

“1999”

Prince | 1982

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.

More Song Stories entries »

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