Author Ethan Brown is working on the follow-up to his critically acclaimed book
Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Hustler.
Snitch
will take a critical look at the federal government’s use of informants to build
cases, how America’s legal system relies on informants, and the rise of the
"snitch" as social anathema within inner-city, Hip-Hop, and youth
cultures.
"It will
trace the feds’ reliance on informants to a series of anti-crime bills passed
by Congress during the 1980’s which imposed stiff mandatory minimums for drug-related
crimes and therefore created a situation where defendants are forced to either
plead out–or, more often than not, cooperate with government," Brown explained
to AllHipHop.com.
"Along the
way, I will be closely examining draconian drug policy efforts such as ‘Three
Strikes’ provisions and sentencing guidelines that treat five grams of crack
as the equivalent of five hundred grams of powder cocaine."
Queens Reigns
Supreme is also being produced for television, as Tommy Mottola’s The Mottola
Company has optioned film and television rights to the book in January.
Snitch will
be published by Public Affairs, a law and policy oriented publishing house.
