"U-God"

SCARED RAPLESS

Wednesday, July 09, 2008
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
Jersey Journal

A former member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan is afraid that associates of the group are trying to get him and he has asked the Jersey City police for protection.

U-God, whose real name is Lamont Hawkins, contacted police on June 8 saying he's suing the band for about $180,000 and he thinks that's why various men in various vehicles have been following him from his Manhattan recording studio to his home in the Newport section of Jersey City, police said.

He said that for the past two months cars with Pennsylvania, New Jersey or New York plates have followed him numerous times, but he didn't contact authorities sooner because he distrusts police.

On one occasion he parked in the garage of his River Court building and when he walked out he saw two men get out of a car across the street, police said. One of them gestured toward his waistband as though threatening that he had a weapon, U-God told the cops.

One time a driver tried to follow U-God's vehicle into the garage, but was unsuccessful, he told police, adding that sometimes the drivers roll down a window and nod at him.

The man who wrote "Kick Azz," "I'm Talkin' to You," "Dance With a Gangsta," "Ghetto Gutter," "Rumble," and "Heart of Stone" said he felt threatened and couldn't take it any more so he went to police for help. He filed a suspicious persons report. No one has been charged, police said.

U-God could not be reached for comment yesterday.

U-God said he toured Europe with the Wu-Tang Clan in January and February and they owed him about $180,000, so he filed a lawsuit in Manhattan. U-God said he thinks the incidents may be in retaliation for the lawsuit. He told police he cannot identify any of the drivers that he said followed him.

Gunshots rang out at the DoubleTree Suites Hotel a few blocks from U-God's home just after midnight on Sept. 9, 2003 as rapper 50 Cent and his entourage were checking in to the hotel.

And on Dec. 16, 2004, Robert "Tito" Montanez, 31, of Baldwin Avenue and Fleet Street, was fatally shot in the parking lot of the Ringside Bar at Tonnelle and Manhattan avenues while with the rapper Capone, officials said. Rapper Akon had also been at the bar that night.