I came across a recent article about hip-hop star Fat Joe is looking at a 4 month prison bid for failing to pay the IRS $700,000 in back taxes. It is alarming to see a lot of hip hop celebrities facing jail time in recent years for failing to meet their tax obligations.
Method Man, of the famous Wu-tang Clan, recently pleaded guilty to a tax-evasion charge but was lucky to not face any jail time. Lauryn Hill, on the other hand, also pleaded guilty to tax evasion and has been sentenced to three months in prison for owing the IRS a sum of $968,000 in taxes. Philadelphia rapper Beanie Sigel is currently serving a two year sentence and owes the IRS $728,536. Popular rapper Ja Rule recently finished serving time for weapons charges and Federal tax evasion. He was guilty of not paying $3million in back taxes to the IRS.
Singer Mary J. Blige owes the IRS $3million in back taxes but she is working to resolve the dispute. I’m seriously confused about why some of these artists have to go to jail while others are given the opportunity to pay their debt. I also don’t understand how these celebrities got themselves into such a predicament given the unforgiveable nature of the American Government, did they think the Government would forget about it or were they singing ‘My President is black’ to their accountants?
The odd thing about all this is there are a lot of celebrities outside the hip-hop community having tax issues and are yet to face jail time. Some of the offenders include Lindsay Vonn ($1,705,437), Mark Anthony ($2,500,000), Nicholas Cage ($14,000,000), Chris Tucker ($11,000,000), Paul Hogan ($37,000,000) etc.
So is this another attack on hip-hop or just a case of random profiling? I’ll let you decide.