Drake, Wiz Khafila, Chris Brown and More Reportedly Added to NYPD 'Hip Hop Police' Watch List
Some of the most popular rappers in the game are now on a police watch list. Although they did not do anything wrong, a task force in the New York Police Department will watch their movements while in the city.
The "Hip Hop Police" was initially formed a decade earlier monitoring artists including Jay Z, 50 Cent, Diddy and Nas to avoid crowds getting out of hand wherever the rappers went.
According to a Page Six report, the list of rappers on the list has been updated to include Drake, Chris Brown, Wiz Khalifa, Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne, Fat Joe and Jim Jones.
"All New York club owners are required to inform the Hip-Hop Police in advance if anyone on the watch list is coming in," a source told Page Six. "They want to be there to monitor the crowd and in case any trouble starts. ... They don't want any situations like the Suge Knight shooting. If something does go down, they want to already be on the scene."
The intense focus on rap musicians seems a bit misguided as similar security measures are not taken for other genres of music such as pop or rock. Spin magazine writes that the stereotypical audience of hip-hop acts may be behind the police interest.
"Is this some kind of proof you've made it? Like XXL's Freshman Class but with racism and arrest warrants?" Colin Stutz wrote Friday.
Another source told Page Six that the plainclothes cops are known within the industry, in which they monitor set times and club venues as well as go to clubs and shows with full access to keep the peace.
"It's better to have them on hand," that second source said. "They're not there to bother any of these artists, but make sure things run like they're supposed to run. The other part of it is, there's a lot of really street-leaning gangster guys on the fringes of the industry. ... The police task force keeps tabs on who is around certain rappers and what movements they are going through."
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