Rap

PRETORIA, South Africa - Paralympic superstar Oscar Pistorius was charged Thursday with the murder of his girlfriend who was shot inside his home in South Africa, a stunning development in the life of a national hero known as the Blade Runner for his high-tech artificial legs. Reeva Steenkamp, a model who spoke out on Twitter against rape and abuse of women, was shot four times in the predawn hours in the house, in a gated community in the capital, Pretoria, police said. Hours later after undergoing police questioning, Pistorius left a police station accompanied by officers.

WHEN HE'S not playing basketball (or studying, of course), Khayri Washington likes to entertain his friends with rap. "Sometimes I write it down, and sometimes I go freestyle," he said. "Everybody says I'm pretty good. They like hearing me. " How about an example? "Ah, man," Washington said. "My best rap line? Phew. Um . . . I can't think of one. Not right now, anyway. " Now's as good a time as any to tell you that Washington, a 6-foot, 150-pound senior, plays wing guard for John Bartram High, and that Tuesday he drained the decisive three-pointer as the visiting Braves edged Frankford, 52-51, in a crackling Public League round-of-16 playoff that also served as a Class AAAA semifinal.

Pop Diamond in the Ruff (Babygrande ***) Different generations of Philly's old-school rap scene made a handsome showing in 2012. In a year that saw Beanie Sigel releasing a minor hit before heading back to prison and Schoolly D touring with Public Enemy, having Freeway back in action is a bonus. Like his pal Beans, Freeway was a member of Jay-Z's Roc-a-Fella family in the early 2000s and stayed hard throughout the decade and its four solo releases. Diamond in the Ruff proves that highly volatile Freeway is still the stoic iceman when it comes to rapping and rhyming.

I NEVER 'GOT' rap. It just seemed like a musical version of the emperor's new clothes, where everyone around you is saying, "Wow, how outrageously innovative!" and all you hear is the sound a car makes when it's dying. To me, this is not art. Someone once suggested to me that this aversion to the genre was an innocent form of racism, in which an otherwise well-meaning white person fails to appreciate the nuance of black culture. My answer to that was along the lines of, "I don't believe black culture is all about baby mamas, drive-by shootings and getting high.

A20-YEAR-OLD Kensington man is accused of using Facebook to threaten witnesses who were to testify against his friends in a weapons case. Freddie Henriquez allegedly obtained a witness' statement and posted images of it on Facebook, accompanied with a caption that said "RATS. " Henriquez also posted other threatening messages on Facebook, authorities say. In an August post provided by prosecutors, he wrote, "KILL RATS point blank period. " Those threats came after four of his associates were arrested in February for an alleged conspiracy involving straw purchases of firearms.

THE UP-AND-COMING North Philadelphia rapper known as Meek Mill and his entourage got a rap session Monday from a judge who refused to allow him to travel outside the city over the next 30 days for paying gigs. The ruling by Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley means that Mill - who was born Robert Williams - will miss a concert in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. He previously had to cancel a tour of Africa, costing him $215,000, defense attorney Gary Silver said during a nearly two-hour motion hearing at the city's Criminal Justice Center.

MORNING HOST Bill Anderson , of 900 WURD-AM, is expected to announce on his Wednesday "Wake Up With Bill" show that Friday will be his last day at the station. Anderson, a former Daily News Sexy Single, has told friends he will be dabbling in television in the near future. He appears regularly on Fox 29's "Good Day" but denies that's where he's going. "I wish I could say more, but I really can't," Anderson said Tuesday. "The decision to leave was mine, and the station has been great about supporting my decision.

APAIR of snake traffickers are facing federal charges for allegedly capturing rattlesnakes illegally in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to sell through their thriving mail-order reptile business. Robroy MacInnes, 54, and Robbie Keszey, 47, are co-owners of the Glades Herp Farm in Florida. According to prosecutors, however, the two were illegally obtaining many of their rattlesnakes from Pennsylvania. According to a federal indictment, MacInnes and Keszey made several trips to Sellersville, Easton and Jim Thorpe in 2007 and 2008 to illegally trap, and sometimes buy, federally protected eastern timber rattlers.

QUINTIEN Jenkins is finding out the hard way that you can still be tried for murder even if you shoot at someone and miss. After a Wednesday preliminary hearing, Jenkins, 24, was ordered to stand trial in the March 22 death of Roger Long, 33, who was struck by a car and killed on Tabor Road near 5th Street while fleeing from gunfire that Jenkins allegedly intended for another man. Mark Jackson, the driver of the Nissan Altima that struck Long, testified...