Ex-gang member’s rooftop rap video shoot ends with 44 arrests
When hip hop artist China Mac decided to shoot a rap video on the rooftop of Manhattan’s Baruch Houses near Houston St. he probably didn’t think it would end with dozens of people getting arrested.
The shoot went down on Saturday and was organized by China Mac, a former gang member who served 10 years in prison for shooting a rival rapper in 2003.
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Saturday morning on Facebook, Mac, whose real name is Raymond Yu, posted, “Are ya ready for the epic video shoot today?”
He added, “Pull up and rock with a real one! Let’s show how we do in New mutha York!”
The post drew dozens of people to the site of the shoot and after multiple calls to the cops for disorderly conduct, the police arrived in force. Just after 6 pm, they arrested 44 people, including China Mac. Thirty-seven men and seven women were arrested and charged with criminal trespassing.
The cops also found two imitation rifles on the roof and a real gun behind the building.
According to resident Lusaida Rodriguez, 65, the police were arresting droves of young people.
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“They had red and blue flags and they were shooting some kind of gangster film,” Rodriguez stated.
“They’re not careful, you know? Get a friggin’ permit — how much could it be?”
In 2003 China Mac shot a rival rapper named Christopher Louie in the lower back at the Yello nightclub in Chinatown. The shooting left Louie partially paralyzed.
Mac was arrested at the Washington-Canadian border trying to flee the US in December 2004.
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“I did a lot of stupid s**t,” China Mac said to Black Star News in a 2017 article. “I did a lot of stuff to cause pain and grief for people that didn’t deserve it. For that I regret it.”
He took part in a documentary titled “Rikers: An American Jail,” in 2017. He said living at Rikers Island was “like going into the belly of the beast” where “everybody’s screaming and it just sounds like a madhouse,”
