RAP PERFORMER FROM QUEENS FACES CHARGE ON MARIJUANA

NEW YORK -- Victor Santiago, a fast-rising rap performer from Queens who
performs under the name Noreaga, was arrested Sunday night on narcotics
charges after undercover officers spotted him and three other men sharing a
marijuana cigarette in his car, the police said Monday.

Santiago, 22, was charged with criminal possession of marijuana, a
misdemeanor. He was released from custody by Judge Robert Raciti of Queens
Criminal Court. The charges against Santiago will be dropped if he is not
arrested again in the next six months, said Mary de Bourbon, a spokeswoman
for the Queens district attorney's office. The other men who were arrested
were also released.

Santiago and his friends were parked at 111th Street and 55th Avenue in
Corona at 6:10 p.m. on Sunday when a group of Queens narcotics officers
noticed the men passing what appeared to be a marijuana cigarette, said
Officer Joseph Cavitolo, a police spokesman.

Santiago served a three-year term as a teen-ager for attempted murder. While
in prison, he met Kiam Holley, another young man from Queens, and they
formed a wildly successful rap duo that, in 1997, produced "The War Report,"
an album that became an underground hit. Last year, Santiago released a solo
album, "N.O.R.E.," which sold more than 125,000 copies in its first week.
Earlier this year, he released another recording, "Melvin Flynt -- Da
Hustler."

Reginald Dennis, former music editor of The Source, a rap magazine, said
that Santiago's music tried to capture the gritty essence of the streets
with simple, rhyming lyrics about topics like drug dealing and violence. The
message has resonated with countless fans in New York, Dennis said.

"His lyrics rhyme, the words rhyme, but at such a rudimentary level that
it's appealing to his fans," he said.

In interviews, Santiago has said that he wants to be versatile, writing and
singing about the streets he cannot leave behind.

"I love it here, and part of the reason why our music comes across as real
is because it is real," he said earlier this year in The Los Angeles Times.
"We lived through the experiences you'll hear."