City Hall Partners with Drug Rapper
for National Night Out

National Night Out, the annual City-sponsored group of street gatherings in August, is in partnership with Beeda Weeda, a drug and sideshow rapper.

According to KMEL radio, last year there was Beeda Weeda's National Night Out Community Block Party at the Manzanita Recreation Center. This year, a resident found a glossy card on the street:

One side promotes a repeat of the block party. The other side promotes rapper Beeda Weeda's forthcoming release, Da Thizzness – a reference to drugs, especially a combination of Ecstasy and alcohol.

Beeda Weeda strikes the noble crotch-grabbing pose. (Photo: "Turf's Up" video)

The rapper's previous release, Turf's Up, celebrates sideshow driving and "getting stupid," also called hyphy. (See a video here.) Sample lyric from the album: "Number one rule: no snitching / Snitching is like pork to a Muslim / We love it but we will do without it." Great stuff for luring youth into simple respect for peace on the streets, isn't it? It was good enough for City Hall somehow to let the National Night Out logo artwork pair up with the gutter rapper's album cover.

When Beeda Weeda is not taking over National Night Out events, he helps produce sideshow videos. "Beeda did all of the casting for E-40's 'Tell Me When To Go' video, including providing vehicles, extras and locations for the shoot. He says, 'They damn near had me directing s---, like 'Beeda where you want the cars at?' I had too many cars, I had too much going on, they had to tell me 'Stop – we can't have all of that up in here it's getting too crazy.' They wanted a real sideshow, but they were trying to control it. I tried to tell them that you can't control it; you gotta let these little n-gg-s go! E-40 needed the streets so I provided him the streets." (musicremedy.com) Incidentally, another City-funded agency, Youth UpRising, supplied its youth members for Beeda to cast in this video.

Update: In 2009 this drug rapper welcomed the death of four Oakland police officers shot by rapist, pimp, and drug dealer Lovelle Mixon, "I feel like Oscar Grant was our big sacrifice in order for people to see the reality about OPD and the four cops was karma." (Interview with riot celebrant Cleveland "JR" Valrey Jr.) The Oscar Grant incident involved BART police, not City of Oakland officers.

Something is wrong with City Hall and the way it runs a so-called crime prevention event. Why does a drug rapper get away with using National Night Out to promote the thug culture that is part of Oakland's street problems?

Reading the above report, one resident of the area recognizes that Beeda Weeda's "video clearly shows drug dealing and sideshow activity on 23rd Ave." Another resident reports that a government source informs us that "Beeda Weeda and co. is the place in the area for on-the-street pot purchases. This is also the crew that has loitered around Manzanita for years producing the usual noise, trash, etc."

ORPN invited the City official in charge of Oakland's National Night Out events, Claudia Albano, to respond. At first she merely quoted from an email by a member of the local Neighborhood Crime Prevention Council (NCPC). They:

"wanted to have the citizens & children & families & Manazanita Rec. Ctrn event. The new Director & NCPC group advised the rapper to include only clean lyrics to his music. They agreed to conform to the request. ... We'll try it if it doesn't work. we'll know for next yr."

The City official, Ms. Albano, tries to hide behind a neighborhood activist. In fact, the City can and does control the NCPCs, which it charters and sometimes dissolves. City officials have forbidden NCPC actions, such as a letter to a problem landlord, citing reasons like legal liability and insurance exposure. City officials have final say over NCPC expenditures, which they review and reimburse on an item-by-item basis.

In addition, the explanation passed on by Ms. Albano overlooks the fact that Beeda Weeda appropriated last year's event at this venue to push his persona and his gutter rap. As readers may know, rap titles are often issued in two versions, original and "clean," the latter with the obscenities blanked out. The whole point is to peddle sales of the actual CD, which have the original tracks on them.

After a second inquiry to her, Ms. Albano sent another email on Aug. 13: "The City was not involved in the printing of Beeta [sic] Weeda's promotional NNO postcard. ... We did not give Beeta Weeda the art work. Perhaps he scanned one of our postcards to make his promotional materials."

The City did not object to the gutter rapper associating the City logo with his drug rap. He took over the Manzanita Recreation Center event for National Night Out. In blithe manner Ms. Albano confirms that Oakland City Hall operates with an attitude of tolerance for the thug culture of disrespect. That doesn't help Oakland achieve peaceful neighborhoods.