Jay-Z hides the secret messages

Jay-Z has promised that his new album is packed with all kinds of secret messages:

[The hidden references are] really for the people who like to listen like that [closely], first. And it's [also] for people to catch later.

"You know how sometimes someone says a line and you can guess the second one, where they're going? You can't guess it or can't see it [with me] - it just comes out of nowhere.

"And you might not get it ever. Or you might get it five years later."

Our expert said that he didn't spot any hidden references on the record, but he didn't have time to discus it any further as he'd been overcome with the sudden urge to go and shout obscenities at Cam'Ron.

Cam'Ron tries to clarify his 'no snitching' rule

Cam'rons insistence that nobody should talk to the authorities, like one of Grouty's henchmen, has been raising eyebrows amongst the sort of people he needs to do deals with in order to continue flogging his records, and so he's attempted to issue a clarification:

"In 2005, I was a victim of a violent crime. I was shot multiple times without provocation by two armed men who attempted to carjack my vehicle. Although I was a crime victim, I didn't feel like I could cooperate with the police investigation. Where I come from, once word gets out that you've cooperated with the police that only makes you a bigger target of criminal violence. That is a dark reality in so many neighborhoods like mine across America. I'm not saying its right, but its reality. And it's not unfounded. There's a harsh reality around violence and criminal justice in our inner cities.

"But my experience in no way justifies what I said. Looking back now, I can see how those comments could be viewed as offensive, especially to those who have suffered their own personal tragedies or to those who put their lives on the line to protect our citizens from crime. Please understand that I was expressing my own personal frustration at my own personal circumstances. I in no way was intending to be malicious or harmful. I apologize deeply for this error in judgment."

Yes, the whole frustration of "if I lived next door to a serial killer I wouldn't tell the police" was self-evident.

Look, we don't want to sound like Shaw Taylor, but surely part of the reason why people are able to run around shooting other people at will is because of this half-arsed code of secrecy. Still, at least Cam'ron has admitted that what he was trying to pass off as a moral code is actually simply moral cowardice.

Cam'ron keeps the code

If you had a mass-murderer living next door to you, you wouldn't know. The neighbours never do, do they? "He seemed so perfectly normal, although with hindsight he did sometimes leave his milk out on the step until eleven, even on summer days, so there was something unsettling."

But if you did, by chance, happen to spot your neighbour killing people to death, you'd probably call the police. Unless you're like Cam'Ron, of course, whose confused sense of right and wrong means that he'd be putting in a call to Location, Location, Location rather than Crimewatch:

"If I knew the serial killer was living next door to me?" Giles responds to a hypothetical question posed by Cooper. "I wouldn't call and tell anybody on him -- but I'd probably move. But I'm not going to call and be like, 'The serial killer's in 4E.' "

Thank god it's only a hypothetical question, eh? It's charming to see Cam'ron's sense of civic duty and natural justice is easily outweighed by some sort of desire to keep to a muddled-headed 'no snitching' rule. Like so many supposed grown-ups, he seems completely unfit to live in a world where life isn't actually some big stupid team game.

Of course, he'd have to mention the serial killer in his Homesellers Information Pack, so he won't ever be able to get a buyer for 4F.