Shooting, brawl at Beanie birthday bash

Where Beanie Sigel shows up, trouble often follows.

The latest was the South Philly "gangsta rap" star's wild 35th- birthday party last Friday at a Penn's Landing club, which drew nearly 600 celebrants.

One person was shot inside Club Solo, and a fight involving several people erupted outside the restaurant-bar once known as Club Egypt, at Columbus Boulevard and Spring Garden Street, police and a city official said.

Amid celebratory posters and fliers, his mom was collecting admissions from hundreds at the door, said a law-enforcement source.

Among the uninvited guests were patrol officers; the city task-force on nuisance bars, composed of police and inspectors from the Department of Licenses and Inspections; and troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement.

Sigel, whose real name is Dwight Grant, has led a colorful life in and out of jail. He was "was performing on stage at the club," said his attorney, Fortunato Perri Jr.

Sigel is still under supervised release following a federal weapons conviction.

"He was told later that something happened, but he didn't know who was involved," said Perri.

Police sources said that at 1:35 a.m. Saturday, Tyheem Baker, 24, of Camden, was shot in the upper left chest, after getting into an argument with two unidentified males when he came out of the men's room.

Baker told police he didn't know who shot him.

He was taken to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and was listed in stable condition.

Meantime, Dominic Verdi, coordinator for the police and L&I on the nuisance-bars task force, said that they inspected the club about 10 p.m., and found no problems. Soon after 1 a.m. Saturday, Verdi said, they were called back to the club in response to a fight outside but left shortly before the shooting.

Members of the District Attorney's Office on the nuisance task force are investigating, said Cathy Abookire, spokeswoman for the D.A.'s office.

Police sources said that the video-surveillance system "mysteriously malfunctioned" inside the club.

The state troopers were investigating whether celebrants were properly searched by doormen looking for weapons, and whether patrons were properly carded at the door - both conditions of the club's liquor license.

Last year, Sigel spent three months in federal prison for a third violation of his supervised release after he tested positive for drugs. U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick ordered Sigel to undergo drug treatment as a condition of 12 more months of supervised released.

Sigel, who was dropped by Jay-Z's Def Jam label last fall, founded the State Property rap group in 2001, and later a clothing line by the same name. *