By Brandon Perkins

“IF THEY MESSING WITH YOUR FAMILY . . . I’ll say, if they broke into your momma’s house,
you might want to point ‘em out.” The sentence cautiously stumbles from Project Pat’s lips, wobbling on a line bookended by two very famous mantras: “Practice what you preach (anonymous) and “Don’t Get Caught” (Young Jeezy). A question like this forces him to choose between the weight of his past and the free-man status of his present, especially when his album, <em>Crook by da Book: The Fed Story</em>, drops later this month. Pat is responding to a precarious question: Is snitch-ing ever acceptable? As a man who’s on federal probation, wanting nothing more than not to go back, and whose “Tell Tell Tell” is a certified stop-snitching anthem, there isn’t really a right answer.

“If they robbin’ your momma’s house,” he repeats, …