Rappers Are ‘Basically Thugs,’ NYPD Commissioner Says After T.I. Concert Shooting

“You’d like to think with all the wealth that comes from the fame, they’d be able to turn their lives around,” Bill Bratton says

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Bill Bratton apparently isn’t a rap fan.

After a shooting at a performance by rapper T.I. in New York left one person dead, the NYPD commissioner condemned rappers as “basically thugs” during a radio interview on Thursday.

Appearing on WCBS 880 (via BuzzFeed), Bratton lamented the “crazy world of these so-called rap artists who are basically thugs that basically celebrate violence they did all their lives, and unfortunately that violence often times manifests itself during their performances, and that’s exactly what happened last evening.”

Asked if “thug culture” in the rap world had lessened since Bratton’s first run as NYPD commissioner in the ’90s, Bratton shooed away the notion of improvement.

“This world has not reformed. It’s unfortunate,” Bratton said. “You’d like to think with all the wealth that comes from the fame, they’d be able to turn their lives around but they continue hanging out with the same people they hung out with when they came out of that world of desperation and poverty and crime.”

As reported Wednesday, three people were wounded and one was killed at a T.I. concert at New York’s Irving Plaza.

T.I., whose real name is Clifford Joseph Harris, Jr., hadn’t taken the stage before chaos erupted, according to witnesses.

Bratton said that he expects police will get to the bottom of the shootings quickly.

“We’ve got a pretty good idea of what happened and we’ll put it together very quickly,” Bratton said.

Listen to the interview below.

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