Beanie Sigel Joins Bill Cosby for Anti-Violence March in Philadelphia

Beanie Sigel teamed up with an unlikely partner for an anti-violence march in his hometown of Philadelphia on Thursday (December 20): comedian Bill Cosby. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Sigel joined Cosby and activist Bilal Qayyum, co-chair of the Men United for a Better Philadelphia organization, for the march down Susquehanna Avenue as part of his continuing efforts to stem the rampant violence that has plagued Philly in recent months. Cosby, who has been publicly critical of the influence of Hip-Hop culture on inner city youth in the past, had positive words for the sometimes controversial MC. "Here is a young man from the streets who came back to the streets as a man," Cosby said of the rapper. "This is what we want from our young boys, to go from boys to men." Beans, who shot an anti-violence public service announcement with Philly’s Fox 29 last week, believes that, as an artist who hails from the same mean streets that are now under siege, he is uniquely suited to reach at-risk youth. “I come from these things, the streets,” Beans told the crowd outside of M. Hall Stanton School. “I'm at a time in my life where I'm trying to make the transition from something negative to something positive.” Men United for a Better Philadelphia seek to keep the number of murders in the city this year under the 400 mark, and the march closed out their “Peace Week 2007” initiative.