Busta is feeling heat

Grand jury could force rapper to break silence

BY JESS WISLOSKI and ROBERT F. MOORE DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Fed-up police and prosecutors are threatening to haul rapper Busta Rhymes before a grand jury to force him to start talking about the murder of his bodyguard.

The investigation into the shooting death of Israel Ramirez at a Brooklyn video shoot has been stymied by the silence of witnesses, including the hip-hop star.

"Nobody has come forward," a frustrated Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday.

"No one has volunteered any information, even though there were possibly 50 people at the scene of this homicide."

The NYPD had already contacted Rhymes' attorney, seeking information from the rapper, who reportedly was only a few feet from Ramirez, 29, when he was gunned down Feb. 5.

But he has refused to cooperate, so now police are plotting a much more aggressive move.

They plan to sit down with Brooklyn prosecutors this week to explore the possibility of impaneling an investigative grand jury, Kelly said.

The grand jury could be used as tool to compel Rhymes and other witnesses to tell what they know - or face perjury or contempt charges.

It's the same tactic investigators used to crack tight-lipped witnesses in the murder of Mark Fisher, a college jock killed in October 2003 in Brooklyn for $20.

The strategy also is used to break up organized crime rings.

Ramirez's friends and family have urged Rhymes to assist the NYPD with the probe into the death of the father of three, to no avail.

"There's an incredible stigma associated with cooperating with the police," said Chuck (Jigsaw) Creekmur, co-founder of allhiphop.com.

Creekmur said the taboo has its roots in the "mob mentality" and has been cemented by the hip-hop community's distrust of law enforcement.

"It has grown into an outright code of silence," he said. And if Rhymes were to break it, "a certain segment of the population would see him as a snitch."

Still, a grass-roots effort is emerging to pressure Rhymes, whose real name is Trevor Smith, to come forward on behalf of his slain employee.

"It's time to put the career aside and worry about who killed Mr. Ramirez," said Geoffrey Davis of the James E. Davis Stop the Violence Foundation.

Geoffrey Davis, the brother of slain City Councilman James Davis (D-Brooklyn), said the group plans to boycott Rhymes' music and chide him on hip-hop radio station Hot 97 next Sunday.

"We encourage Busta Rhymes to come forward," said the Rev. Ken Bogan, a member of the anti-violence group. "This code of silence has to be broken."