Sauce Da Boss Says NYPD Officers Forced Him To Rap For His Freedom

Posted November 06

Quinshon Shingles, a Brooklyn, New York rapper who goes by Sauce Da Boss, says New York Police Department officers made him rap for his freedom.

Quinshon Shingles, a Brooklyn, New York resident, says he was forced to rap for New York Police Department officers in order to be released from handcuffs in 2011, according to nypost.com.

Shingles, who performs as Sauce Da Boss, says he was warned that if his raps were not deemed "hot" enough by police officers, he would not be released. Shingles is now suing the New York Police Department for illegal search and false imprisonment. 

“I felt like they were humiliating me,” Shingles said to the paper. “They were all Caucasian officers, and I’m a Black man, and they had me performing for my freedom. I was really upset.”

Shingles says that he was at his cousin's home in East New York with another male friend in December 2011. He says plainclothes officers came to the home to perform a search. Shingles' cousin, Tyriek Fortune, was suspected of criminal offense, according to the suit, though the suit does not state the reason given for the search. The paper also reports that one of the officers at the scene, David Grieco, is under investigation for illegal entries in other homes. Fortune's mother, Donyale Kitchens, did not allow the officers to enter the home without a warrant. Officers reportedly agreed to come back, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that the police officers then obtained keys to Kitchens' home from a building super. They entered the home and handcuffed Shingles, Fortune and their friend, who is unnamed in the report. The officers then searched the home, according to the lawsuit, without a warrant. 

According to the lawsuit, the police officers discovered that Shingles rapped. 

“They said, ‘Rap something if you want to go home,’ ” Shingles said, according to the nypost.com. “I was scared. I was nervous. I didn’t want to go to jail.”

He said he rapped a song that he wrote months before the incident. Police officers then agreed to release him from the handcuffs, according to the lawsuit. His cousin and friend reportedly remained handcuffed. 

The police officers did not find any illegal activity in the home after the search, according to the nypost.com. 

Kitchens and Shingles are both suing the New York Police Department for illegal search and false imprisonment. 

A New York Police Department spokesperson did not comment on the matter because the spokesperson said the department had not seen the lawsuit yet, according to the nypost.com.

Fortune won an undisclosed settlement from the New York Police Departments months prior to the incident, according to nypost.com. He won the settlement after he said he was falsely arrested on charges of gun possession.