Thug Life Army

According to reports in the NY Daily news three men were wounded when an argument over rap music erupted in gunfire at the Manhattan bar, Limerick House Pub yesterday, police officials said.

Two executives from the hip-hop’s ‘bible’ The Source Magazine were being questioned in the shooting, law enforcement sources said.

The suspects are the Source magazine's general manager, Leroy (Bum) Peeples, and salesman Alvin Childs, the sources said. A young female co-worker, who is the daughter of a cop, was questioned and released.

The three were at the Limerick House pub on W. 23rd St., across the street from the hip-hop magazines The Source offices, when they got into a screaming match with an aspiring rap artist, his cousin and a busboy, the sources said.

"It was over whether they were going to play a rap CD or not," an investigator said.

The dispute spilled outside, where witnesses heard four shots and saw two bloodied men fall to the sidewalk.

"We were playing poker and when we looked out the window ... we see two guys wounded," said a 21-year-old witness.

"The man who was shot in the chest eventually collapsed," said a second poker player. "For several minutes, his friend stood above him trying to help him and suddenly he collapsed next to him."

Orlando Orenga, 26, the wanna-be rapper, was shot in the head and taken to St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan in critical condition. He was expected to survive.

His cousin Alex Colon, 30, was shot in the arm and leg, and the busboy took a bullet in the torso. They were in stable condition at St. Vincent's and Bellevue.

The suspects were nabbed fleeing the scene, and police also recovered two handguns, a 9-mm. and a .40-caliber Glock, hidden under parked cars.

The Source, which touts itself as the "hip-hop bible," dispatched well-known defense lawyer Mel Sachs to represent its employees. "So far, no one has been charged," Sachs said.

Police sources said the suspects were refusing to cooperate and it was unclear who fired the shots.

"You''ve got victims who were hanging out in a bar for six hours and don''t remember [anything]," a source said.

Peeples is a top-ranking executive at The Source and was one of several honchos named in a gender-discrimination lawsuit earlier this year by ex-editors who claim the magazine was run like a frat house.

The magazine, which had a 2003 circulation of 370,000, was founded 16 years ago by Harvard grad David Mays.