Think of the hiphop nation as one where ANY kind of crime is a capital crime

and the ONLY kind of punishment is the death penalty.

Even the Mafia and motorcycle gangs dispense justice with a sense of perspective: while most infractions can indeed get you murdered, there are situations in which simply breaking your kneecaps or firebombing your place of business is punishment enough. Hip-hoppers, however, will "go to the mattresses" over something as trivial as eating someone else's candy -- anything less makes you look "weak."

Most recently, rapper and record label owner Rick Ross was fired upon because he displayed Gangster Disciple insignia on one of his albums, and they want to be compensated. Apparently, YouGoogleTube is too busy cracking down on people who post their favorite songs to notice that this kind of stuff is being uploaded: I guess they're cool with your making lethal terroristic threats as long as your background music is original.

Hooray for me.