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GOVERNMENT ADVISOR RAPS 50 CENT TOUR

24-09-2007

Controversial rapper 50 Cent should be banned from touring Britain according to one of the government's top advisors on inner city crime. Dr Derrick Campbell who runs Race Equality Sandwell and chairs the Independent Panel on Guns and Gangs says the hip hop star - who has just announced a date in Birmingham - "offers nothing but negativity."

50 Cent, or Fiddy as he's known to his fans, is due to play at the NEC on November 9 as part of eight date schedule, but Campbell wants the visit scrapped.

He objects to Fiddy's gun-toting image, which spilled over into real life violence in 2000 when he was stabbed and, in a separate incident, shot nine times.

Two years ago, British sportswear firm Reebok was forced to withdraw an ad starring 50 Cent in which he was seen counting from one to nine - the Advertising Standards Authority reckoned this was an attempt to glamourise the shooting.

In the same year, posters for his movie "Get Rich Or Die Tryin" were pulled because they showed him holding a microphone in one hand and a gun in the other.

50 Cent's greatest patron was Eminem, who in 2003 lifted a track called "Wanksta" for his "Eight Mile High" soundtrack. He's released three hugely successful albums in his own right, as well as a Playstation and X-Box game ("Bulletproof") in which he hunts down his would-be assassins.

Typical song titles include "My Gun Go Off" (youtube link ) and "Officer Down".

Meanwhile gun crime continues to rise in the West Midlands, with evidence that it's breaking out of the inner city; on Friday night a man was shot in the leg outside Melody's nightclub in downtown Cotteridge.

Campbell fears that 50 Cent's presence will only encourage more of the same. He said: "We don't need people promoting this kind of attitude to our young people. He offers nothing but negativity. The precedent was set when the government banned Snoop Dogg and I think they should follow the same example here.

"He might say that he's just telling it like it is in the ghetto, but we already know what's it's like. We don't need him to tell us. What we need him to do is show some positivity and offer a better way forward for our young people.

"Until he does we don't want him in Britain."

To check out 50 cent for yourself, watch the videos on his official website http://www.50cent.com/

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