It should be noted however that none of these county databases nor the FDLE’s report includes any juvenile criminal record that might have existed for Plies prior to his 18^th birthday in 1994, or any federal criminal charges that might have been levied against the rapper in the 14 years since.

And, as is commonly understood, the absence of an arrest record is never absolute proof of the complete absence of one’s criminal activity.

However, it’s been documented in previous articles on the “realest” street scribe in Hip Hop today that Plies’ time was mostly consumed in the mid-to-late ‘90’s attending college at either Miami University in Oxford, Ohio – where he reportedly played on the football team – or the University of South Florida in Tampa, or both schools (there are conflicting reports regarding his collegiate career, and DX was unable to substantiate any as of press time).

And while crime has clearly hovered around the rapper’s day-to-day life in recent years, impacting him indirectly via the aforementioned incarceration of his older brother and the recent arrest of his manager [click to read], first person accounts of criminal activities on Plies’ part are conspicuously scarce in his raw rhymes. Instead, sympathetic laments on the cruelties experienced by family members and friends at the hands of an oftentimes merciless justice system, and not his own personal experiences, can be found in most of his material.

But there are the occasional past tense references to what appear to be claims of his own criminal activity. One glaring example can be found during his lament on the suffering his alleged criminal activities caused his mother on “Runnin My Momma Crazy,” in which he recollects:  “Remember the nights, me sittin' up in a cold cell/I'm wakin' ya up out'cha sleep, it's me callin' you from jail.” While passionate, his verse’s claim that he was ever in a “cold cell” now appears to be untruthful, as according to the FDLE’s report Plies was never in jail for any period of time prior to 2006.

In addition to fallacious statements in song, Plies has also produced a contemptuous image for himself on the screen, including his portrayal as a high rollin’ drug dealer in the video clip for “Worth Goin Fed Fo” [click to watch ].

Recent “outings” of fellow Floridian, and Slip-N-Slide labelmate, Rick Ross [click to read], as well as “Hypnotized” collaborator Akon [click to read ] have shone a new light on the exaggerated, and in some instances completely fabricated, biographies crafted by too many of today’s Hip Hop artists.

These personal “stories” highlight phantom criminal backgrounds in an attempt to boost so-called “street cred” with fans who often are not living such lives and are therefore attracted to these tall tales of Tony Montana-esque (or in Plies’ case, O-Dog-style) criminal prowess and/or success. These fake personas proving to be alarmingly irresponsible when absorbed by the equally impressionable, but oftentimes far more impoverished, segment of the Hip Hop audience who believe with a dangerous literalism that they too can lead lives of crime ala fictional movie criminals or equally fictional rap criminals and yet in still eventually become an unimprisoned Hip Hop celebrity.

And while fabricated bios are nothing new to Hip Hop, even claiming the careers of some artists (see Vanilla Ice), unlike most emcees of yesteryear like the aforementioned Tupac, who balanced his occasionally outlandish claims of dope dealing and gang banging with cautionary tales of the pitfalls involved in a life of crime (see “Shorty Wanna Be A Thug,” “Young Niggaz,” etc), Plies seems more oblivious to maintaining any artistic responsibility, instead recklessly crafting a seemingly strategic image and seeking to capitalize on fraudulent claims of criminal activity all the while declaring to be Hip Hop’s undiluted truth teller, personifying all that is “real.”

It’s now abundantly apparent that Plies has forsaken being fully forthright with his fans, failing to make the crucial distinction that those around him, and not he, are the real victims of our nation’s often flawed justice system, and that he is merely observing and reporting their experiences within a life of crime and not his own.

Representatives for Plies could not be reached for comment on this report as of press time.

FDLE record for Plies is below (each charge and date of the two offenses have been highlighted)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: internetcriminalresults@fdle.state.fl.us <internetcriminalresults@fdle.state.fl.us>
Date: Jul 25, 2008 1:39 PM
Subject: FDLE Criminal History Search Results
To: 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                               Criminal History

 
--FLORIDA CCH RESPONSE--
ATN/ANONCCHINET/CCHINET/
FC.DLE/6531501.PUR/P.ATN/ANONCCHINET/CCHINET/
       SID  NUMBER:  6531501   PURPOSE CODE:P         PAGE:   1
      BECAUSE ADDITIONS OR DELETIONS MAY BE MADE AT ANY TIME,
      A NEW COPY SHOULD BE REQUESTED WHEN NEEDED FOR FUTURE USE
                   -   FLORIDA   CRIMINAL   HISTORY   -
NAME                             STATE ID NO.   FBI NO.      DATE REQUESTED
WASHINGTON, ALGERNOD             FL-06531501                   07/25/2008
SEX  RACE  BIRTH DATE  HEIGHT  WEIGHT  EYES  HAIR  BIRTH PLACE  SKIN  DOC NO.
M    B     05/22/1976  5'06''  155     BRO   BLK   FL
--CONTINUED-- Continued on page 3 »