Over the past few months, there have been whispers that Al Sharpton and his group of goons at the National Action Network were shaking down hip hop stars. Back in May, Bruce Williams, Dr. Dre’s former right hand man told HipHopDX that Rev Al Sharpton gave Aftermath camp an ultimatum - donate $500,000 to NAN and publicly squash the 50 Cent/Game beef or they would he would march in protest. “He said if we didn’t have a million, we marching. It’s that easy,” Williams allegations however fell on deaf ears and received very little press…until now.

It appears the The New York Post WAS paying attention and has now further amplified those allegations with a report that Al Sharpton and his National Action Network REGULARLY squeeze money out of CORPORATIONS by threatening to march on their businesses.

According to the report, a representative for perhaps the largest US corporation, General Motors said it had rejected NAN’s requests for contributions for the past six years. However after its latest rejection in December 2006, Sharpton threatened to call a boycott over the closing of an African-American-owned GM dealership in The Bronx, and he picketed outside GM headquarters on Fifth Avenue. General Motors gave NAN $10,000 in donations over the last two years calling NAN a “worthy” organization allegedly in response to such threats.

The Post also questions Chrysler’s recent and abrupt support of NAN’s conferences especially after Sharpton threatened to boycott DaimlerChrysler over alleged racial bias in car loans back in 2003. “This is institutional racism,” he said at his protest at the 2003 Chicago Car Show. Also in 2003, Sharpton cited Honda for its lack of minorities in management positions. “We cannot be silent while African-Americans spend hard-earned dollars with a company that does not hire, promote or do business with us in a statistically significant manner.” Two months later, American Honda began to sponsor NAN’s events - and continue to support the organization.

In all, about 50 major fortune 500 companies including PepsiCo, Wal-Mart, FedEx, Continental Airlines, Johnson & Johnson and Chase sponsored the National Action Network annual conference this April which the organization claims were based on their own benevolence.

“His way of doing things was, ‘If we’re going to support you and you’re not going to support us, then we have to focus on telling the African-American community not to spend their money,’” said La-Van Hawkins, owner of the popular African-American owned Checkers franchises nationwide.

After Hawkins lost an attempt to sue Burger King in 2000, he sent Sharpton and Johnnie Cochran to meet with the company. As a result BK would settle with Hawkins for $31 million. According to Hawkins, Sharpton did not publicaly get paid but has received an under-the-table annual and donations “over $1 million” to NAN.