This is a great case of when things get boring for the New York City Police Department, maybe.
On Friday (Dec 8), a video of nine New York City police officers, including the commanding officer of the Seventh Precinct on the Lower East Side, Steven Hellman rapping about their job descriptions and typical daily routines went viral causing a severe sense of embarrassment for the department. Mediocre rhyming was a major factor here, giving the performance a cringe-worthy rating.
A police source told The Post, “‘Cringy’ is being kind.”
The commander and his fellow NCOs (neighborhood coordination officers), in dress down Friday clothing, are seen standing in suspect lineup form (rather than the signature format of the hip-hop cypher) and each officer takes their turn to spit over what appears to be a remixed version of Drake’s “Energy” instrumental.
The NYPD lypher (yes, lypher, L for lineup) starts off with one officer wearing a pair of shades with a graphic tee and backward baseball cap, hopping on the rhyming format of the Drake track with the starting line, “I got energy, gotta lotta energy.”
Hellman, rocking a grey hoodie and a pair of sports shades, turns the rap line into the path of cringy, with his lackluster rhymes, “I’m the commander in chief, the 7 CO, Lettin’ ya’ll know how my NCOs flow.”
At least these cops are not in denial about their lyrical skills. One even admitted to being a wack spitter. “Who’s the hottest emcee? Haha, not me. I may spit the wackest rhymes, but I can help you solve crimes.”
To conclude the video, to inform the masses that he is hip with modern day trends, an officer promotes his Twitter use, “hit me up on Twitter.”
The video was an effort imposed by the NCOs to make NYPD’s connection with the community a trustworthy one. Instead, the mission ended up being a fail, due to NYPD facing embarrassment and the NYC youth’s detached response.
A 17-year-old found the NCOs efforts cute, but weak in manifestation. “I see what they’re trying to do, and it’s not working. It’s ridiculous,” Makayla Butler told The Post. Another teen simply did not find the attempt strong enough to bypass the noted tension between the community and NYPD, especially when it comes to the white rapping cop. “If you want us to take you seriously, you have to speak to us like we’re intelligent. White cops rapping in a super corny way – that’s just not what we respond to.”
There is a clearly a preference on behalf of the youth to have a simple dialogue with the police department in the topic of community relations. By making an attempt to speak the language of the youth, there is a great chance these NYPD cops had good intentions which align with their direct duties to the city. Perhaps, this attempt can serve as a case study on how cops should connect with their communities when it comes to what not to do.
Peep the controversial NYPD rap video, here.
