MEET BENTMAN, AKA CHARLES TAYLOR JR, THE RAPPER SON OF THE FORMER PRESIDENT OF LIBERIA

If by chance you’ve read any news or listened to anyone talk about anything you know that Charles Taylor, the American-educated, sadistic former president of Liberia and current Jew, is on trial at the Hague for war crimes. Primarily people are taking note because model Naomi Campbell and actress Mia Farrow offered up contradictory testimony as to the nature of the former president’s awkward generosity—mostly related to the giving and receiving of blood diamonds. Andy Capper, editor of Vice UK and VBS producer, traveled to the Hague to report on the goings-on when he recalled that during his excursion into the bowels of Liberian ghettos for the Vice Guide to Liberia he’d conducted an interview with Charles Taylor Jr that was left on the cutting-room floor. Jr is a rapper, aka Bentman, and his mother and Sr are no longer married. Andy thought we should pull the piece out of mothballs and revisit it. Everyone agreed and I cornered Andy to give us some context.

VBS: The UK is particularly interested in the Taylor trial. Why is that, do you think? Is it just the supermodel angle?
ANDY CAPPER: Yeah, because people love celebrity. Here’s a good anecdote for it: The day that blog post about my visit to the Hague to see Charles and Naomi Campbell I had everybody from The Sun to The Telegraph to The Guardian to the BBC World Service call me up. I took part in a live phone debate with the BBC World Service and there was a lady whose name I can’t recall but who was extremely intelligent and highly experienced in matters relating to Sierra Leone and Liberia. All these things about her are highly admirable but she was also quite snooty.

What was the focus of the debate?
The debate was about whether bringing in Naomi Campbell makes a mockery of the trial by creating a celebrity circus around some very serious and horrific crimes. Her answer was somethign like: “No, I think Naomi Campbell has done the people of Liberia and Sierra Leone a big favour by coming to this trial, because it attracts more attention to the case.” My response was: “What? Have you been there recently? The little kids playing in fecal matter, the drugs, the child prostitution, the total devastation? What on earth are these kids getting out of Naomi Campbell’s fanbase caring about this trial for as long as she’s involved in it?”

I assume she took issue with most of these questions.
Her reply was that she’d been to Sierra Leone many times, that her family had been involved in the wars there, and that I should stop being such an uppity brat. My appearance on the BBC World Service went rapidly downhill from that moment.

Meaning?
The moderator told me to stop talking over her. She was really brilliant at being on the BBC World Service. I was less skillful.

How does Bentman fit into this story as you see it?
Bentman being a rapper adds to the showbiz angle of the story. His rapping style, aka “flow,” reminded me of Fabolous, and I liked the fact that his mixtape was called L.S.D: Legal Street Dope.

That is pretty good actually. Were any other family members there, or did he discuss his 13 siblings with you?
His mom was making dinner and didn’t want to meet us. He did talk briefly about how his brother Chuckie was “having some difficulties”. Which are that he is serving hundreds of years in prison for war atrocities.

In all, though, he still seems pretty enamored with his dad. Or very well trained at least—he never seemed off message.
Yeah, the weirdest thing he said was that his dad is now a practicing Jew.

-CHRIS CECHIN

THE VICE GUIDE TO LIBERIA

READ MORE:
LIBERIA’S FUTURE
DEWEY GREY, LIBERIA’S SEXUAL ASSAULT LAWYER
DOODLES OF WAR – Bloodthirsty Child Soldiers Tag Liberia
LIBERIA’S ANALOGUE BLOGGER
LIBERIAN BOYS AND GIRLS – Have Better Vintage T-Shirts than You
THE HUNTER AND HIS DOGS – Liberian fiction by Saah Millimono
GENERAL BUTT NAKED VERSUS THE TUPAC ARMY – West Africa has Gone Mad and it Looks Fantastic!
LIBERIA – DEPT OF LET BYGONE BE BYGONES (Gen. Butt Naked’s capture)