Damon Dash has been grappling for a conclusion while composing the sequel to “Paid In Full,” his 2002 film based on Harlem drug kingpin Alpo Martinez. Breaking news of the real-life Martinez who was murdered in Harlem this past Sunday certainly cleared his writer's block. The Rock-A-Fella records co-founder reportedly told Page Six that he was ready to start filming the masterpiece.
Martinez snitched on his peers after his 1991 arrest and joined witness protection, was killed in a drive-by after being shot five times. The police don't know where to start as it could be anyone who wanted to kill the New York City drug don Alpo Martinez authorities admitted Thursday as new evidence surfaced attesting he was a consecutive womanizer and self-proclaimed “rat.”
“Suspects? Everyone he ever knew is a suspect in this,” a high-ranking police source told The Post, adding Martinez had turned on fellow associates before entering a witness protection program.
Martinez wasn’t embarrassed about the fact that he’d betrayed his former friends or his organization. He bragged about being a government eyewitness in a YouTube video last year.
“So what did that tell you? I’m not promoting being a rat, being a government witness. I’m promoting you get locked up you do what you gotta do,” he says in the footage. “I don’t promote being a rat, government witness. I promote being a man and walk[ing] in your own shoes.”
The 50-year-old producer, Damon Dash, explains that “‘Paid in Full’ is a representation of everything he has learned and he says that now that an ending has transpired he feels i's time to give the story an ending as well.
“So this is going to dramatically change based on what happened Sunday. I was stuck on how to really approach it and this is actually giving me more clarity.”
Martinez, who was characterized by Cam’ron in the 2002 movie “Paid In Full,” had been ducking out in a witness protection program in the town of Lewiston, Maine where neighbors reported seeing a flow of different women leaving his apartment. Others alleged that he continued a peaceful life serving as a Pepsi merchant then later worked in construction.
“‘Paid in Full’ was a classic. To even touch it again, I got to come better,” he said. “So the story got to be straight. Everybody’s thinking it’s got to be tight, and based on the fact that I have creative control, I can do things the right way. S–t’s going to be incredible. A lot of it talks about the environment and what a lot of people were going through. I just like the way he broke down the mechanics and logistics of hustling, I mean a lot of people hit me up with the news but Andre Carson was the first to hit me up,” he said, “so that is when I knew that the culture and the film… had made a major impact.” ”
RIP Alpo Martinez.
Comments / 21