Feds Say Philly Rapper Depicted Drug Empire Via His Music Videos
Published: Thursday - January 17, 2008
Words by Allen Starbury
Alton "Ace Capone" Coles (Photo: The Philadelphia Inquirer)
The trial of an aspiring hip-hop mogul based out of Philadelphia began Wednesday (January 16), in which prosecutors say that a past music video he had produced and starred in -- in which he played a drug kingpin -- is actually his real life, and not that of a hip-hop mogul.
Alton "Ace Capone" Coles, a Philly rapper, promoter and label owner, is accused of using his legitimate businesses, which include party promotion and record label Take Down Records, to launder approximately $25 million made from cocaine sales.
Coles produced and starred in a music video, titled "New Jack City: The Next Generation," which chronicled the life of a Southwest Philadelphia drug kingpin.
Prosecutors believe his life is a case of art imitating life.
However, Coles and his legal team say otherwise.
Despite prosecutors accusations, the defense claims that Coles ran a cash business, and if anything, is guilty of failing to report his income to the government, not dealing drugs. In fact, attorney Christopher Warren told jurors at Coles' trial on Wednesday (January 16), according to the Associated Press, that the weekly parties he threw earned him as much as $10,000 a week in cash. And even admitted that Coles didn't file any tax returns or pay taxes on the income, but said his client is not facing tax fraud charges.
ATF agents thought differently. When they raided his home in August 2005, they found more than $500,000 in cash, 10 guns, 380 rounds of ammunition, 450 grams of cocaine and seven grams of crack in the same-day raids of his home and several other properties. All of which followed a two-year investigation by agents that consisted of surveillance, informants, undercover agents and wiretaps.
They also noted that 34-year-old Coles owned a Bentley, a Mercedes Benz and a half-million-dollar home in Harrison Township. And he and his partner, Tim "Gotti" Baukman, even rubbed elbows with big name rappers such as Beanie Sigel and Jay-Z, via business through their Take Down Records label.
Coles has since outright denied any connection between the image he portrayed in the hip-hop world with real life, via an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer last year.
"It's not a story of my life. ... You wouldn't take Denzel Washington and indict him for being a drug dealer because he played one in 'American Gangster,'" said Coles, who has behind bars since the August 2005 raid of his mini-mansion in Mullica Hill, N.J., one of several places he called home. "These charges are not who I am."
In the coming days, jurors will view the 31-minute "New Jack City" video during the trial, but Warren made his own assessment of the prosecution's art-imitating-life theory.
"It was an art film and it was imitating life -- just not his life," Warren told jurors. "Some of these conversations that the government says are so damning ... is actually him discussing props. These are movies about the drug culture."
Warren further explained that drugs were common in the world of hip-hop, but that doesn't make Coles a drug dealer.
"That's part of the culture in which he was born. ... That is the reality that he is putting on film," he said.
Coles' trial is expected to last nearly two months.
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