New York Post Reports
City jail officials are investigating a rap concert at Rikers Island -- approved by a hip-hop-loving warden -- that triggered months of bloody gang violence there, The Post has learned.
Correction officials are looking into why supervisors -- including jail warden and fan Emmanuel Bailey -- allowed Brooklyn rapper Papoose to do a nearly two-hour show at the lockup on May 30, 2006, sources said.
There were eight slashings and stabbings at the George Motchan Detention Center in the months after the show, when Papoose's jailed rival ordered attacks on the rapper's imprisoned pals.
Papoose, 30, whose real name is Shamele Mackie, has a longstanding feud with Dough Boy, 28, an ex-Bloods gang leader whose real name is Miguel Jeffrey.
The two had worked together but had a falling out after Dough Boy accused Papoose of marginalizing him in the studio. He told The Post he retaliated by shooting at the rapper's entourage and stealing a $40,000 gold chain from a Papoose relative.
The Rikers concert "was like throwing a match on gasoline -- boom!" Dough Boy said in a jailhouse interview.
Fueled by the mayhem, the 2,978-inmate GMDC racked up 13 assaults for the year -- the most among all 14 city jails.
Many of the clashes at the jail, mostly filled with "low-risk" inmates, involved Bloods members, records indicate.
Bailey had discussed a possible concert after he noticed Papoose at Rikers visiting an imprisoned pal, Pooh Nitty, a jail insider said.
The warden approached Nitty, a rapper whose real name is Devendra Singh and who is doing time on weapons charges, and said, "Papoose is my favorite rapper. Can you get him to come do a show for us?" according to the insider.
Following the concert, Bailey invited Papoose and his band into his office and had photos taken of him with the performers, the source said.
Bailey is a rap fan who hangs out with people in the music business, said a Correction colleague.
Bailey, who makes $157,146 a year, was "reprimanded" at the time for failing to get the required approvals for the concert, said department spokesman Stephen Morello.
"A procedural step may have been missed," Morello said. "That doesn't mean the handling of this event involved venality, corruption or a lack of competence."
The Papoose concert spurred loud gang chants, jail sources said.
"I heard he gave a shout-out to me at the end," said Dough Boy, who had been barred from the show by jail officials aware of their feud.
In response to the onstage taunt, Dough Boy said he instructed his friends to "get at 'em."
That meant attack, Dough Boy said in at upstate Great Meadow prison, where he's serving 12 years for armed robbery and assault.
Morello said the department hosts sports and entertainment figures to speak or perform at jails.
"Inmate idleness is a factor in inmate violence," he explained
Papoose married rapper Remy Ma, who was convicted of shooting a female friend. Their Rikers wedding ceremony was canceled in 2008 after Papoose allegedly tried to slip her a handcuff key.
Sources said Correction's chief of department, Carolyn Thomas, initially ignored calls to investigate the concert and the violence, despite receiving reports of an increase in slashings.
The Post also reported that she did nothing to stop a lavish bar mitzvah party held at a lower-Manhattan jail for an inmate's son, and that she showed favoritism to jailed celebs, including rap star Foxy Brown.
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