Dibs

“They cut me in my stomach and my guts were laid out, hanging from my stomach. It was like when you gut a fish,” said rap artist and author-to-be James Lathlin after a gang attacked his head, chest and abdomen with knives outside his Manitoba, Canada home last Saturday. A devotee of the late singer Tupac Shakur, Lathlin is a former gang member himself — an enthusiastic car thief charged at least once with assault — who now coordinates an inner-city youth center and has penned a memoir, Better Days, set to be published with the help of a grant established by Shakur’s mother. Police have arrested 29-year-old Abimael Zuniga-Torres of the B-Side street gang for the near-fatal stabbing. Lathlin, who used to belong to the Overlords, said he knows of Zuniga-Torres but has no personal history with the would-be killer. Lathlin’s transformation from gangsta to working stiff has been covered at thuglifearmy.com, thugz-network.com, mobfiggaz.com and other sites.