Police Investigating Rapper's Fall

PATERSON, N.J. (AP) - Rapper Erick Sermon was critically injured when he plunged from a third-story window, which Paterson police said Tuesday they are investigating as a suicide attempt.

The police account contradicts the story from the artist's record label that Sermon, 32, was injured in a car crash on a rain-slicked road.

Police said they were called Sept. 25 on a report of an attempted suicide. They were unable to interview Sermon, who is being treated for head and facial injuries at St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center.
But a woman told police the rapper had been in her apartment. She left briefly and returned to find him gone and a window open. The woman, whom police did not identify, said she looked out the window and saw Sermon lying on his back in the parking lot, bleeding from the head.

Sermon, who lives in Ronkonkoma, N.Y., was listed in fair condition Tuesday.

Biff Warren, a publicist for his label, J Records, initially told The Associated Press that Sermon was heading home after finishing a video shoot in upstate New York when he fell asleep at the wheel and ran into a wall.

Another record label publicist, Yusef Gomez, told The Record of Hackensack for Tuesday's editions that he does not know where the original information came from. "As far as we knew and what was sent to us, he was in a car accident,'' he said.
Representatives for J Records did not immediately return calls seeking comment from The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Sermon got his start in the late '80s as part of the duo EPMD. His new album is scheduled for release on Nov. 30.