Now on to Flava Flav. For those who have gotten a chance to see the Public Enemy show which features Blackalicious and Dilated Peoples, you will have noticed the absence of Hip Hop's most famous hype man Flava Flav. Unfortunately shortly before the tour started Flav was hauled off to jail and was facing the possibility of 4 years in jail for ... now everyone sit down for this one... He was looking at 4 years in jail for unpaid parking tickets. He also had a suspended license but who gets 4 years for that? Flav was not caught doing drugs, assaulting anyone, robbing a bank or selling any sort of illegal narcotics. he got busted in the Bronx driving with a suspended license and was looking at 4 years.

The judge would not release Flav on his own recognizance. He said Flav was in violation of his probation. He went to court this past Wednesday in the Bronx where he had to endure a hostile judge and callous guards. For example, when Flav was being lead into court, he was behind a glass partition. Apparently one of the guards escorting him did not realize he could be seen from court observers. While standing behind Flav he began to mimic him and do some sort of shuffle dance in an attempt to clown. That upset more then a few folks.

During the hearing, the judge wound up reducing Flav's 4 year sentence to one year and we would get credit for time already served. This meant that Flav would have to spend another 9 weeks in jail. His release was timed for him to get out just as PE gets off tour.

Now I'm not going to sit up here and say Flav is an angel or anything like that. Bottom line he shouldn't have been with a suspended license. He should've also been paying his parking tickets. From what I'm told they weren't that much maybe a couple of thousand at most which is not unsual for a place like NYC or San Francisco etc. Flav had started working at Power 105 as a deejay and had been making moves to really put himself in a better financial situation. This tour was really important because it would've allowed him to finally get everything together. Many feel the judge knew all this and wanted to stiffle that momentum.

Now I've watched guys who have pulled guns and assaulted folks get out bail. I've watched cats who done much more harmful things that got shorter time for parole violation. Maybe it's me..I'm not no lawyer or nothing, but if I was a judge and knew that Flav was working and getting a regular paycheck and he owed money for parking tickets, couldn't you simply 'GARNISH' his wages? Since he was scheduled to be out on the road for the next couple of months couldn't they have made it a provision that he take care of his license. It's not like he would be driving while touring? Now the man's income sources are shut down and he sits in jail for the next two months while cats still sell drugs and do all types of crazy stuff around my Bronx neighborhood. When he gets out he will be in serious dire straits and will have to play a serious game of catch up.

It's interesting to note that Slick Rick, Gil Scott Heron and Flava Flav all sit in jail with no possibility of bail. Slick is in an INS jail accused of not being a US citizen even though's he lived here all his life. her got swept up in this latest war on terrorism. Gil Scott is serving three years for smoking crack. and Flav is looking at another two months for not unpaid tickets. Meanwhile we have corporate crooks who have stolen millions and put average ordinary folks in serious financial jeopardy walking around like nothing happen. Only America folks Only in America.

Finally in other news. MTV has announced that they will play Public Enemy's new video 'Give the Peeps What They Need' without any of the restrictions. In other words we will hear Chuck D say 'FREE MUMIA'. While this is great it's not satisfying. We are wondering if MTV is agreeing to play the video to avert a protest in front of their studios by upset activists..mmmmm we'll keep you posted. What will be pertinent in this situation is to see how often they play the video. Like Chuck D said, He didn't make the video for MTV. It's simple the principal of the matter.