Ice Cube's New Video Hits Home.

[MA-Caver]

Teen athlete's killing lamented in Ice Cube video

By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer Sat Oct 4, 4:27 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081004/ap_en_mu/athlete_killed_rap_video
LOS ANGELES - The unlikely stars of Ice Cube's new video are the grieving relatives of a 17-year-old high school football star who was shot to death outside his home.
The song "Why Me?" speaks out against senseless violence and gun crime devastating communities. Cube says Jamiel Shaw Jr.'s family is a powerful illustration of the pain that lingers after a murder.
"It just was a tragic, tragic story of why," Cube says. "Young people are dying for no reason all over the world that don't know why. It's ugly, everywhere."
Shaw had been on track for a college sports scholarship when he was gunned down in March a few yards from his house in a working-class neighborhood south of downtown Los Angeles. His mother was serving in the Army in Iraq at the time.
Pedro Espinoza, an illegal immigrant and suspected gang member who had been released from jail a day earlier on weapons charges, has pleaded not guilty to murder.
Prosecutors say Espinoza drove to Shaw's neighborhood and shot him after asking him about his gang affiliation. Police have said Shaw was never in a gang.
The rap video begins with the tightly framed, sorrow-filled faces of Shaw's parents and aunt. His father recounts a final conversation with his son.
"To drive this home, it was only right to use real family and not use a bunch of actors," Cube says.

Good to see multimillionaire rappers turned movie stars not forgetting their roots and not forgetting those still in the war zones of L.A.'s mean streets. In getting a message out that there's still a problem out there that needs to be fixed.
:asian: to Ice.

 

[terryl965]

Yes he does alot for the community and the under class of America.