Rapper's upcoming W-B show has law enforcement on edge

May 12--WILKES-BARRE -- A rapper and suspected gang member from Brooklyn who advocates killing police officers is slated to perform next week at a downtown nightclub, putting concerned law enforcement on high alert.

Ali Baba Liquor Lounge at 219 S. Main St. is heavily promoting next Friday's performance of "Uncle Murda," who insists in one song it's "time to start killing these coppers" to avenge the police killings of black men.

In the song's official video, which has amassed 1.25 million views online, Uncle Murda and another rapper point guns at the head of a man in a New York Police Department uniform.

Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis said Thursday that area law enforcement has been preparing for the arrival of the controversial rapper and his entourage, who have made headlines in New York City media for anti-cop rhetoric.

"They are, in my opinion, gang members. When someone like this comes into our community, we have to be on high alert," Salavantis said. "To talk about violence, and putting a gun to the heads of law enforcement, and killing law enforcement, that is not the answer. It's very upsetting."

Ali Abualburak, general manager of Ali Baba Liquor Lounge, on Wednesday only offered to talk to a reporter off the record. He did not return requests for comment Thursday.

Efforts to reach Uncle Murda, whose real name is Leonard Grant, were not successful.

Tickets for Uncle Murda's show are on sale for $30.

"(Expletive) the police"

While the rapper condemns the police, Wilkes-Barre cops will be tasked with protecting him, his staff and fans when he performs at Ali Baba Liquor Lounge.

People familiar with the operation say Ali Baba, in addition to having its own security staff, pays to have four city police officers on-hand when the club is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights -- just like private duty details that officers perform for Sherman Hills Apartments, McDonald's, and other locations.

Wilkes-Barre police Chief Marcella Lendacky said extra officers will be deployed to maintain safety during the show. She said anti-police views seem to be "the norm for rappers," but there's little police can do about it.

"Do I agree with it? No. Would I be entertained by it? No. I don't encourage it. But you have free speech and the First Amendment," Lendacky said. "If someone chooses to partake in that type of entertainment we have to take precautions to make sure everyone is safe."

Uncle Murda has long voiced his hatred for police. His Facebook cover photo says "(Expletive) the police." When he got shot in the head in 2008, he told some industry publications he thought the police were responsible.

Video: "Time to start killing these coppers"

Perhaps his most controversial words about cops came when Uncle Murda released a song in late 2014 that demands retribution for police killings of two black men -- Sean Bell in Queens in 2006 and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014.

"For Mike Brown and Sean Bell, a cop got to get killed. Because I'm black, police think they got a right to shoot me. No jail for them. Their punishment is desk duty," the rapper says in the song.

Later in the song, he says, "Time to start killing these coppers. If Malcolm X was alive, he'd be next to me with them choppers."

In the video, Uncle Murda motions like he is holding a long gun when he says the word choppers, which is street slang for AK-47 assault rifles.

The song is called "Hands Up," a refrain often repeated at protests against police after Brown's death, and was considered a tribute to Eric Garner, who died after receiving a police choke hold in Staten Island, New York, in July 2014.

All the men were unarmed "and the police knew it," the song says.

The song's video was released Dec. 3, 2014. Less than three weeks later, a pair of New York City police officers were ambushed and killed in an execution-style shooting. The NYPD's union claimed the accused gunman's online justification for the killing "bore a striking similarity" to the words expressed in Uncle Murda's song.

New York City's Department of Investigation launched a probe after the video's release because two city-funded attorneys from the nonprofit Bronx Defenders office appeared in the video even after knowing the song's lyrics endorsed the murder of police. The attorneys were forced to resign and the group's executive director was suspended without pay for 60 days.

Uncle Murda is also linked to another controversial video glorifying gang violence that was shot at the Nassau County jail in Long Island, New York. He rented out an old, abandoned facility on the property, but several jail officers in the operation part of the jail were unwittingly used in the backdrop of the videos.

Uncle Murda last year signed with G Unit Records, a label founded by rap star 50 Cent. The pair recently released an album, Statute of Limitations.

G Unit Records is a subsidiary of Caroline US, which is a division of Capitol Music Group, all of which is under the umbrella of Santa Monica, California-based Universal Music Group. Requests for comment from the record companies were not returned. Calls placed to the booking agent Uncle Murda lists on his Facebook page were not returned.

After a fatal shooting broke out at one of his concerts last year in Brooklyn, Uncle Murda vowed to start the conversation to help to reduce violence in hip-hop.

"Even though the content of the music is street, this is still a business at the end of the day and we got to conduct ourselves as such -- as businessmen," Uncle Murda told an online news site that covers the rap music scene.

Life as a rapper

For years, most news accounts about Uncle Murda claimed he has a rap sheet that includes drug offenses and a charge of attempted murder of a police officer.

However, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office says it has no record of such an arrest and efforts to find such a charge were not successful.

Transcripts from the 2014 trial against Uncle Murda's associate and fellow rapper Ra Diggs -- officially Ronald Herron, who is now serving life in federal prison on murder and racketeering charges -- show Uncle Murda was convicted in 2006 for dealing crack-cocaine to an undercover police officer and in 1998 for possessing marijuana. But there is no mention of any attempted murder charge against Uncle Murda, whose testimony at the trial also touched on the source of his stage name.

"(I got it) from giving little kids money in the neighborhood and, you know, from murdering the track and, you know, from somewhat trying to give an image as a bad guy as well," he testified. "But for murdering the beat, too. Like when you a rapper they say when you kill a track you kill a beat, I murdered that beat. So I was known for performing good on records and tracks, so it was like murder, you know, stuff like that."

Uncle Murda -- who described spending as much as $5,000 a night buying bottles of liquor at clubs to build his image as a successful rapper -- also admitted that while he raps about getting no treatment after being shot in the head, he in fact went to a doctor for the graze wound.

"But I did go to the doctor," he testified. "You know, with music sometimes you exaggerate things to be -- to sound like the best thing out there. So I said I didn't go to the doctor but I actually did go to the doctor."

James Halpin, staff writer, contributed to this report.

Contact the writer:

bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com

570-821-2055, @cvbobkal

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