It looks like the perilous relationship between hip hop artists and writers have just gotten strained again. The latest incident involves Blaze Magazine editor and chief Jessie Washington and a producer out of Puff Daddy's camp relationship. According to a story in The Associated Press, Washington was attacked by 4 men who barged into his Manhatten office and pummeled him. One of the four men accused of beaten Washington was Derek 'D-Dot' Angellettie who works as a producer for Sean Puffy Combs.

Angellettie has vehemently denied his innocence-so much so that he has volunteered to go down to police headquarters for questioning. None of the other assailants were identified.. However, the story that has been circulating around the music industry was D-Dot and his crew were upset by a recent article that appeared in Blaze.

Unfortunately for Washington this incident is the second confrontation he has had since he launched the new magazine 5 months ago. This past summer word had gotten out about Washington having a gun pulled on him by Wyclef Jean. In this scenario, Wyclef was upset about an editorial regarding Wyclef's artist Canibus. Wyclef has steadfastly denied the allegations although industry heads have maintained that Wyclef rolls with a posse of kids who have no problem acting ill when upset about something. Washington himself came under fire because he waited for more then a month before publicly talking about the incident. He was accused of using the incident as a publicity stunt for his new magazine. In addition Washington did not involve law enforcement. When questioned about that. Washington noted that he had been taught not to involve the police when there is a problem between two Black men. His contention was, the police would make matters worse.

It will be interesting to see how this whole drama plays itself out, and whether or not Washington will call the police. In this case, Washington was beaten bad enough that it landed him in a hospital.

This unfortunate event brings to mind the topsy turvy relationship between writers and artists. Many artists have maintained that hip hop journalist have unfairly criticized their material in an attempt to garner a reputation and make a name for themselves. They have also contended that bad write ups have resulted in financial set backs. Writers on the other hand, have noted that hip hop artists have not learned the rules of the music business industry and incidents of violence [and there have been many] have been the result of ignorance and kids trying to bring a street mentality into the world of business.

written by
Davey D