In confusing hip hop news, Reverend Al Sharpton has issued a statement to AllHipHop.com, through his civil rights organisation The National Action Network, denying claims made in a new book, 'Rollin' With Dre' by Bruce Williams, that he demanded $500,000 from Dr Dre in order to end the feud between rappers The Game and 50 Cent. Williams alleges that Sharpton threatened Dre with a NAN march and a boycott if he refused.
How that $500,000 was supposed to help anything I'm yet to understand, but Sharpton isn't happy about the allegations. The statement issued to AllHipHop said: "The National Action Network and Reverend Al Sharpton were not involved with and did not attend a press conference held by Hip-Hop artists The Game and 50 Cent to announce their truce and donation to charities. At no point has Reverend Al Sharpton or an authorized representative of National Action Network met with Dr. Dre".
The statement continues: "To state that National Action Network and or Rev. Sharpton threatened to march is almost laughable because the first question would be whom would we have marched upon, since this was reportedly a clash between two black artists and there was no civil rights questions involved, and for what reason would we have marched?" Which is exactly what I was thinking.
This all seems to relate to a Hip Hop Town Hall meeting, organised by the NAN, which Interscope Records participated in. The statement says: "If someone gave donations to offset our movement, that would have precluded Reverend Al Sharpton's personal participation in standing with the teenager James Rosemond and his family at a press conference calling for an end to the kind of street violence that scars the hip hop industry. The press conference was widely reported to be taking issue with the artist 50 Cent, Yayo and G-Unit. It would also have precluded our marching on record companies, many of whom sponsored events with us, for using the 'N', 'B' and 'H' words, and withdrawing an award from record executive L.A. Reid for those same reasons".
Confirming that The Game attended this meeting, but denying this was due to threats against him by the NAN, the rapper's manager Jimmy "Henchmen" Rosemond told AllHipHop: "I am 100 percent positive that the Game did not come to the conference in fear of Al Sharpton marching and Rev. Sharpton had nothing to do with that conference or donations affiliated with it. The Game has worked with the community and National Action Network in the past and it has never been affiliated with a donation. The Game recently did a song in support of Sean Bell and has been vocal about his support for Nicole Paultre-Bell and the victims involved in the case".