Fuck around, y'all gon' be up on Anderson Cooper's show

During his classic segment on The O'Reilly Factor, Cameron "Cam'ron" Giles defended his music by comparing himself to a "reporter", reporting what goes on on the streets of Harlem. If this is the case, then the breaking news on CNN -- Cam'ron News Network -- is that Cam has a lot of money and fucks a lot women. But it appears that Cam might be trying to up his journalistic cred a bit, as he appeared on a segment of 60 Minutes last night.

Sunday night at 6:00
Told ya girl I'll be on 60 Minutes
She like, "What time is that on?"
I'm like, "sixty minutes"

Cam was interviewed by CNN's Anderson Cooper to defend, or at least explain, the recurring trend in hip hop that is the "Stop Snitching" movement. [As an aside, considering the rampant rumors regarding Cooper's sexuality, how many times did Cam have to tell himself "no homo" before agreeing to this interview?] Among other things, Cam says that the only time he'll talk to a police officer is to say, "Hello, how ya feel, everything alright?", and definitely not to get back at the people who put bullets in both of his arms in an attempt to carjack him for his Lamborghini.

My team is the goonies
Been seen with Andy Rooney
He thinks my tunes are looney
But Lesley Stahl had to do me

Now, as your typical white dude living in the suburbs who listens to hip hop music and thinks he knows something about that lifestyle, I always considered "Stop Snitching" to be somewhat of a sign of solidarity amongst the ghetto-residing youth. After all, when your neighborhood police officer appears to be less of a friend and more of a plunger-fucking, beat-'em-'til-they-collapse, shoot-first and ask-questions-last animal, why would you want to talk to 'em? Granted, there is unresolved criminal activity involved, but what's the chance that "justice" would truly be achieved, especially when Biggie and 2Pac were murdered amongst crowd of onlookers yet no arrests have ever been made? Furthermore, I always understood a "snitch" to be someone that would give up their friends to protect themselves from consequences, or, in the case of a drug dealer, someone who would give up info to cops to take down a rival (something Cam has accused 50 Cent of doing in his now-infamous "CURTIS!" video). And what kind of pride could one have in themselves after doing something shady like that? Like Jay-Z said on "A Week Ago": "The labelling of a snitch is a lifetime scar/ You'll always be in jail, n***a, just minus the bars".

However, to hear Cam say that he wouldn't say anything to police if he knew that a SERIAL KILLER were living next door to him? I think that's stretching the definition of a "snitch" a bit too wide. There's got to be some line between "protecting the lives of innocent people" and "avoiding communication with police". Cam defends this stance by saying that it would affect his business (a.k.a. his record sales) if he were to be known publicly as someone who talked to cops, and I have to question this stance on 2 grounds. For one thing, there is such a thing as an anonymous tip -- often times there are financial rewards for people who give their identity, but considering Cam being a millionaire and all, I don't think he'd have a hard time giving up that money. Secondly, Cam telling police about "the serial killer in 4E" may harm his status in the hip hop community somewhat, but how much more harmful would it be to him if it were discovered that he potentially could have saved a bunch of lives had he spoke up -- the kind of backlash that would result from that would likely extend far past record sales.

Where I'm at, dog
Ain't ever seen no serial killer
Fucked ya girl before breakfast
She said, "You want cereal, Killa?"

I am willing to give Cam some benefit of the doubt here, though. I mean, dude probably has never lived next door to someone who keeps chopped-up body parts in their freezer, and who's to say that if he ended up in such a situation that the conscience of Cameron Giles wouldn't outweigh the business-saavy of Killa Cam. But I am certain that the media and old white people alike aren't going to be as forgiving to Cam over this foot-in-his-mouth statement, especially considering the black eye that hip hop is currently receiving following the Don Imus situation. The only thing that is going to result out of this is more debate over the worth of hip hop to the greater good of society, more spotlights being shined in rappers' faces, and perhaps some serial killers looking for property nearby Cam's residence. But the real question that needs to be posed here is not to the artists, but to the record-buying public themselves, and that question is: Would you really stop supporting a rapper that would tell police that a FUCKING SERIAL KILLER is hacking up families next door?

[NOTE: The mock Cam'ron rhymes, interspersed for comedic value within this otherwise-serious attempt to spark up discussion, were inspired by this.]