NYPD Settle Suit From Rapper Forced To Rhyme For Freedom

Former Brooklyn rapper Quinshon Shingles, who went by the stage name Sauce Da Boss, has been awarded $7,500 in a settlement of his federal lawsuit against NYPD cops David Grieco and Joseph Patton, whom Shingles alleged forced him to rhyme his way out of handcuffs during a raid.

“They said, ‘Let me hear something, let me hear you rap, and if it’s good enough, we’ll let you go,'” Shingles told the NY Daily News. “I started rapping and they liked it, so they said, ‘You know what, get him out of the handcuffs.’ I was probably rapping for about a minute before they let me go.”

According to Shingles’ suit, Grieco, whom the Daily News reports has been named in at least 12 lawsuits in federal and state courts alleging civil rights violations, and Patton, who has since been promoted to detective, did not have a warrant to search Shingles’ East New York residence.

The two officers allegedly “coerced” the building’s superintendent into handing over a duplicate set of keys to Shingles’ aunt’s apartment. Shingles and two friends were then handcuffed for 90 minutes while the cops performed a search. They were allegedly looking for a visitor to the apartment.

“It took a toll on me,” Shingles said of the incident which forced him to abandon rap. “I wanted to do the music thing back then, but that incident right there, that really killed it for me.” The Daily News reports that the tenant of the apartment, Donyale Kitchens, also accepted a $4,000 settlement.

Watch: Sauce Da Boss – Pistols Poppin

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