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For those of you who missed it over the weekend, Busta Rhymes was arrested on Saturday on assault charges. After performing at NY's Amsterjam music festival, the police took Busta into custody to be arraigned on third degree assault charges stemming from an August 12th incident in which Buss allegedly attacked a man after the man spit on his car. During his arrest, the police found a machete in his car (but sadly, no shovel), so he can also look forward to a felony weapons charge if he does not cooperate with the po-po.
Busta Rhymes' lawyer is claiming that the NYPD put him "in the system as a payback" for not cooperating with the police in the investigation of the death of Israel Ramirez. The police, however, say that the charge was serious enough to warrant the arrest rather than just issue a ticket. If the average man off the street was charged with a third degree assault charge (third degree being the least serious grade of a crime) he would most likely be arrested, however most (non-rapper) celebrities would at least be given the option to turn themselves in on their own terms. There's no doubt that the NYPD took Busta Rhymes' personal stop snitching campaign into account when they decided to arrest him.
Having said that, I have no sympathy for Trevor Smith. Busta has been unwilling to sacrifice his recently developed street thug image by speaking to the police. If your friend is killed after taking a bullet that, by most accounts, was aimed for you, you are obligated to talk to the police. The concept of "stop snitching" shouldn't even come into play in these circumstances. By not cooperating, Busta has essentially said that he cares more about Tony Yayo (or whatever talentless G-Unit weed carrier it was that actually fired the gun) than the man that he claims was his "best friend." As Israel's sister has said, its disgraceful for Busta to continue to shout him out while doing nothing to help the Ramirez family, either by cooperating with the police or following through on his offer to help out Israel's children financially.
I found Busta Rhymes a lot more entertaining before he signed up with Aftermath and bought into the whole G-Unit wanksta act. Remember this? How about this? Am I really supposed to believe Busta Rhymes is now some gangsta who lives by the code of the streets and can't talk to police?
The turning point, when Busta went from colorful rapper to thugged out rapper, seems to have been a diss from Ja Rule that was aimed at 50 Cent, Busta and Eminem (among others). In response, Busta got on a track with 50 and Em and suddenly started rapping like a hard case. Here it is:
Busta's Hail Mary
And just to show how far Busta has fallen off:
Busta's Laffy Taffy
8/21/2006 9:49:21 AM posted by Fresh