Yvette Carnell: Let’s Talk About G. Dep Snitchin’ On Himself And Going to Jail for 15 Years

by Yvette Carnell

Yesterday Yourblackworld reported that rapper G. Dep was going to jail for 15 years on a murder conviction. Sadly, a rapper headed to the pen is barely newsworthy anymore. A former Bad Boy rapper having a streak of bad luck? There’s a name for it: The Bad Boy Curse (Really, the “curse” has much more to do with Diddy tying artists up in lopsided contracts that stick them to his label while they’re in their prime than witchcraft or sorcery.)

But what struck me about G. Dep’s story was that he’s is going to jail for 15 long years because he told on himself. This from yesterday’s story:

Former Bad Boy rapper G. Dep was sentenced to 20 years in prison earlier this morning for a murder that took place over 20 years ago. The case was considered a cold case until G. Dep, real name Trevelle Coleman, turned himself in last year and confessed to the mugging and murder. Coleman said he confessed to make things right with God.

Someone should’ve told G. Dep that he has two sons to raise, and that his main responsibility- as a father and as a man- is to ensure that those boys don’t go down whatever path numbed his relationship to other people’s pain. G. Dep was  so devoid of compassion that he took another man’s life. That’s sad. What’s even sadder, though, is that he’s now abandoning his kids out of some misplaced sense of redemption, or, as he says, as a way of “making it right”.

The thing is, it will never be right. Going to jail won’t bring back the man he murdered. At this point, his redemption can only come through course correction, and by that I mean leaving a legacy unlike the one that was left to him. If G. Dep raises two wonderful sons to become wonderful men,then  that’s redemption enough. Your obligation to your family almost always outweighs your obligation to The State.

Going to prison, and wading through the psychological impact of what happens there, and what he will see and be forced to do there, won’t help his wife or his twin sons. Not having any income, and forcing his wife to bear the burden of rearing and providing for two boys alone, doesn’t help society or G. Dep one bit.

G. Dep would’ve been better off seeing his actions 20 years ago for what they were: an vile and knee-jerk reaction to a toxic system. It is regrettable. And G. Dep should, and obviously does,  feel pain and remorse for his actions over two decades ago. But he should’ve sought solace in the healing arms of his family or his church or whatever, but not in prison. There’s nothing redeeming about living in a cage for 15 years. A cage can’t make you whole. Only you can do that.

I feel for G. Dep, but he only made things worse when he went to the police and asked them to lock him up. Now two families are irrevocably damaged by what happened over two decades ago. I know many people are asking why the court didn’t show compassion on G. Dep for turning himself in. Short answer is,  it’s not up to the court to show compassion on a G. Dep. The court’s only obligation is to the law. It was up to G. Dep to show compassion on himself, to forgive himself, and not turn his life over to the courts in the first place.  I wish he’d made that decision instead of the one he made.

Yvette Carnell is a former Capitol Hill and campaign staffer turned writer. She is currently an editor and contributor to Yourblackworld.

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