*Entertainer Bill Cosby, who often blames gangster rap for glamorizing bad behavior within the black community, found himself joining forces with an artist from the genre in an effort to stop the on-going violence in Philadelphia's urban neighborhoods.

According to the Philadelphia Daily News, Philly-based rapper Beanie Sigel joined Cosby and activist Bilal Qayyum, co-chair of the Men United for a Better Philadelphia organization, for a march down Susquehanna Avenue as part of his ongoing quest to curb the violence that has plagued the city in recent months.

Speaking to a crowd outside of M. Hall Stanton School, Cosby said of Beans: "Here is a young man from the streets who came back to the streets as a man. This is what we want from our young boys, to go from boys to men."

Sigel, who shot an anti-violence public service announcement last week with Philly's Fox 29, said his background in the streets makes him more apt to actually reach at-risk youth.

"I come from these things, the streets," the rapper said. "I'm at a time in my life where I'm trying to make the transition from something negative to something positive."

Men United for a Better Philadelphia, seeking to keep the number of murders in the city this year under 400, used the march to close out their "Peace Week 2007" initiative.