Local

Police arrest 2 involved in rap video

BESSEMER CITY, N.C. — Complaints about a rap video started pouring in after it surfaced on YouTube.
 
Young people in the video can be seen what appears to be smoking marijuana and holding guns.
 
Channel 9 was there when Gaston County police brought a 17-year-old boy and 20-year-old man to the jail on unrelated charges.
 
Matthew Pope, 20, said he's happy about all for the attention they're getting for his video prominently featuring a lifestyle of drugs, guns and money in the small town of Bessemer City.
 
The video is the proud creation of self-proclaimed director Pope.
 
Police said they saw the video and went to Pope's house looking for a gun.

Police said instead, they found LSD.
 
Pope didn't want to talk about the charges but was thrilled about the attention his video is getting.
 
"We got over 10,000 hits which is what we said we were going to do," Pope said.
 
Two days ago his YouTube video had 6,400 views and it has more than doubled since then.
 
"Everybody knows our names now," Pope said. "Everybody is talking about us. We are out there. We grabbed some attention."
            
That attention is also what led to a search of his home Wednesday and a felony drug charge.

Reporter Ken Lemon asked Pope if he had any regrets.

"No, not one bit," Pope said.
 
The disclaimer on the video states, "The guns and drugs in this video are not real. They were only video props."
 
But police still want to see the gun themselves.
 
They also searched 17-year-old Zachary Stalcup's car at Bessemer City High School Wednesday.
 
Stalcup was in the video.
 
Police said they found marijuana and rolling papers in the car so they arrested the teen.
 
One of the rappers wore a Bessemer City High School letterman jacket throughout the video while spouting racially insensitive lyrics and rapping about smoking marijuana and shooting.
 
"All I want to say is that's what Bessemer City is and if you think it's not, you are lying," Pope said.

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