Photo: (L-R) Drakeo the Ruler (Walik Goshorn/MediaPunch /IPX), FBG Cash in his video for "YB Flow" (Official FBGCash via YouTube), Young Dolph (mpi04/MediaPunch /IPX) Dayvon "King Von" Bennett (provided to NPR courtesy of the artist).
Freaky Tah died due to a feud between two groups. He was part of the Lost Boyz group and the three people charged in his March 28, 1999, murder were affiliated with a hip-hop group called the Hellraisers.
In all, three people were killed in the feud.
It all started months earlier, when a member of the Lost Boyz was robbed. The Hellraisers were blamed.
After the robbery, someone associated but not with the Lost Boyz camp attempted to retaliate by shooting a man named Michael Saunders, who was a member of the Hellraisers camp, a source told MTV.
Problem was, Saunders was not involved in the robbery, according to police. Saunders was the half-brother of Kelvin Jones, who is accused of being the gunman in the Freaky Tah murder.
When Jones heard the Lost Boyz would be attending a party March 27 at a Sheraton Hotel in Queens, New York City, he recruited two others head to the location for retaliation of Sauders’ death.
The party ended, and Jones, wearing a ski mask, walked into a crowd outside the hotel and sought out Freaky Tah because he mistakenly believed the artist was a cousin of the man who shot Saunders, MTV reported.
Freaky Tah (born Raymond Rogers) was 27 when he died.
Three days after Freaky Tah’s death, a man named Roger Paggent, who also was affiliated with the Hellraisers, was shot dead in Ozone Park, Queens.
The Lost Boyz was a successful group. In 1995, they released their debut single “Lifestyles of the Rich & Shameless,” charting on the Billboard Hot 100. On June 4, 1996, the group dropped their debut album, “Legal Drug Money.” It featured five Hot 100 hits, including their past singles “Lifestyles of the Rich & Shameless,” “Renee,” “Music Makes Me High,” “Jeeps, Lex Coups, Bimaz & Benz,” and “Get Up.”The album was certified Gold.
Their second album, “Love, Peace & Nappiness,” was released on June 17, 1997 through Uptown/Universal Records. It featured another Hot 100 single, “Me & My Crazy World.” One of the most famous songs on the album was “Beasts from the East,” featuring other NYC-based artists A+, Redman, and Canibus. The album also reached Gold status.
New York City felt a major loss when Harlem-based hip-hop artist Bil L was shot and killed on Feb. 15, 1999.
Big L, whose birth name was Lamont Coleman, was killed by a childhood friend named Gerard Woodley.
The two had a falling out and Woodley exacted revenge by shooting Big L nine times in the face and chest on West 139th Street near Lenox Avenue in Harlem, reports said at the time.
According to investigators, Big L was part of a crew that robbed drug dealers. They claimed that he would double-cross people he knew by letting the robbery crew know the location of cash-carrying drug dealers, DNA Info reported.
This didn’t sit well with Woodley, who was also involved in the drug game, investigators said.
After Big L’s murder, police arrested Woodley but the case was later dropped because there wasn’t enough evidence against him. Woodley was in and out of the prison and had been charged with two other murders at one point. In 2016, Woodley was fatally shot.
Big L gained respect of the underground hip-hop scene for his rhyme skills and his freestyling ability. Many thought he was about to become a big name nationwide. Big L’s 1995 debut album was “Lifestylez Ov Da Poor & Dangerous” — and Woodley appeared on the back cover photo. The album debuted at No. 22 on Billboard’s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
In 1997, Big L started working on his second studio album, “The Big Picture.” It was released after his death.
Hip-hop artist Big Steve, who was also know as Granpappy Mafioso, was just 24 when he was killed in Houston on Jan. 11, 1999.
Born Steven Aniekan Eduok, Big Steve was part of the Screwed Up Click hip-hop collective and was in the Houston-based rap group Woss Ness. The group released the album “Da Game Done Changed” in 1977.
While there are varying accounts, some report that Big Steve and fellow artist Big Rue were in a parking lot outside of a club in Houston after a studio session when they were both gunned down, XXL reported.
Steve was reportedly shot 27 times with an AK-47.
Other accounts place the two in an apartment. But in the end, Big Steve’s life was cut short.
On Feb. 3, 1998, Houston artist Fat Pat was shot and killed. He was an original member of DJ Screw’s Screwed Up Click and brother of fellow artist Big Hawk, XXL reported.
Fat Pat, having released a number of singles, was a regional hit.
He was fatally shot by an unknown gunman after going to a promoter’s apartment to collect an appearance fee. The promoter was not home and Fat Pat was shot in the corridor outside the apartment. No one was ever arrested.
Eight years later, his brother Big Hawk was also shot to death by an unknown gunman.
Born Patrick Lamark Hawkins, Fat Pat was 27 at the time of his death.
One of hip-hop’s biggest losses was the murder of New York City legend The Notorious B.I.G., also known as Christopher “Biggie Smalls ” Wallace.
Biggie was sitting at a red light in Los Angeles on March 9, 1997, when he was shotwith a bullet from another car. He was in L.A. to shoot the video for the lead single, “Hypnotize” and unexpectedly extended his trip to attend the Soul Train Music Awards. While in L.A., some insiders say he was househunting for a possible move to the West Coast.
Just six months earlier, Tupac Shakur was also shot while in his car in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas. While in L.A., Biggie had reflected during media interviews on his relationship with Tupac and his sadness over his death.
Biggie’s death came only weeks before his new and much-anticipated album, “Life After Death,” was scheduled to be released.
Biggie was considered one of the most prominent East Coast hip-hop artists. His 1994 record, “Ready to Die,” sold millions. Also in 1994, Tupac was shot several times but survived during a robbery at a recording studio in New York where Biggie was recording. Tupac claimed that Biggie was partially responsible. After this, the feud played out through their music.
The murder of Biggie has never been solved, though it has been suggested that Marion “Suge” Knight, the former head of Tupac’s label, Death Row Records, or the Crips gang may have been responsible, History.com reported.
According to reports from The Daily Mail and New York Post in 2021, retired FBI agent Phil Carson said Biggie was killed by a hitman hired by Suge. Carson claimed that in 1997, Knight paid a hitman to reportedly kill Sean “P. Diddy” Combs allegedly in revenge for the killing of Tupac. But 24-year-old Biggie, who was signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy Records, was killed instead.
Former LAPD detective Greg Kading also said he believed Knight was involved. Kading, who led a major federal task force probe into Biggie’s murder, told The Sun that Suge’s ex (codename: “Theresa Swann”) informed on how Suge paid enforcer Darnell “Poochie” Fouse to shoot Biggie.
Swann revealed how Knight ordered Compton gangster Poochie to murder Biggie. Another LAPD detective, Russell Poole, deeply investigated Biggie’s murder. He claimed that law enforcement was also involved — a claim he said forced him to resign and retire early. Poole accused LAPD Officer David Mack, along with Mack’s friend, Amir Muhammad, of being complicit in the murder, The Los Angeles Times reported. Poole said he had evidence to prove that Mack had ties to Knight.
Born Robert L. Johnson, Jr., Kilo G was just 20 years old when he was shot and killed in his home in New Orleans’ 7th Ward on Jan. 15, 1997, leaving behind a son, XXL reported.
Kilo G was Cash Money Records’ first-ever artist. At the age of 15, he released his debut album in 1992, “The Sleepwalker,” selling the LP out of the trunk of Cash Money Records CEO Birdman’s car. His next album was in 1995, “The Bloody City.”
Born Albert Thomas, New Orleans artist Yella Boi was in the group UNLV with Tec-9 and Lil Ya. They were signed to Cash Money Records and released the albums “6th And Baronne” (1993), “Straight Out Tha Gutta” (1994), “Mac Melph Calio” (1995), and “Uptown 4 Life” (1996).
While the regional hip-hop group enjoyed success, they did have high-profile beefs with another local artist, Mystikal, as well as with Big Boy Records. And on April 5, 1997, just months after UNLV had been dropped from Cash Money over a contract dispute, Yella was gunned down in New Orleans in what appeared to be a drug deal gone bad, XXL reported. The 22-year-old had been in a parked car when he was shot in the head.
Yafeu “Yaki Kadafi” Fula from New Jersey was killed on Nov. 10, 1996, just two years after launching his career as an original member of Tupac Shakur’s Outlawz crew, which Pac and Kadafi formed in 1995 while Pac was in prison.
Kadafi made his first appearance on Tupac’s “Me Against The World” album that same year. Kadafi also appears on Tupac’s double album from 1996, “All Eyez on M,” on the song “All About U.” But Kadafi’s career was cut short when he was found dead at around 3:45 a.m. in the third-floor hallway of an apartment building where his girlfriend lived in Orange, New Jersey. He had been shot once in the head. Kadafi’s murder has yet to be solved, XXL reported.
On the fateful night of Sept. 7, 1996, Tupac Shakur (who performed as a hip-hop artist as 2Pac) attended a Mike Tyson boxing match in Las Vegas. Afterward, he was involved in a violent dispute with a member of the South Side Crips gang in the lobby of the venue. Before the night was out, Tupac had been shot four times in a drive-by shooting. He died six days later on Sept. 13, 1996.
His life and recording career came to an end at the age of 25.
There had been a failed attempt on his life two years earlier. On Nov. 30, 1994, Tupac was shot and seriously wounded during a robbery committed by two armed men in the lobby of a midtown Manhattan office building that housed a recording studio where he’d been working on his third album, “Me Against the World” (1995). Also in the studio that night was The Notorious B.I.G. Tupac blamed Biggie and after Tupac signed with L.A.-based record label Death Row Records, the rivalry grew, History.com reported. The media started calling it the “East Coast vs. West Coast” beef, which added fuel to the fire.
Fast forward to Sept. 7, 1996. Tupac was riding as a passenger in a car driven by Death Row Records head Marian “Suge” Knight when a white Cadillac pulled up alongside them at a stoplight and opened fire. At least 12 shots were fired, four of which hit Tupac and one which grazed Knight’s head.
Emergency surgery at University Medical Center saved Shakur’s life that night, but Tupac ultimately succumbed to his wounds.
Rumors swirled that Knight was behind the hit on Tupac. Apparently, Tupac was considering leaving Death Row to concentrate on his film career. Speculators said Tupac would be worth more to Kinght dead than alive.
Six months later, Tupac’s rap rival, Christopher Wallace, was murdered in similar circumstances in Los Angeles. No arrest has been made to date in connection with either murder.
According to The New Yorker, friends of Tupac told the publication that “the real Tupac was trying to leave Death Row when he was killed.”
Tupac’s lawyer, Charles Ogletree, told the New Yorker that Tupac was strategically plotting his exit from Death Row. “He had ‘Euphanasia’, he had the ‘Outlawz’, he had his movie deals—he was building something that was all to be part of one entity. . . . He had a strategy—the idea was to maintain a friendly relationship with Suge but to separate his business,” Ogletree said.
The night of the murder, Tupac wanted to drive himself, but according to The New Yorker, Knight insisted on Tupac riding with him. And the normal security procedure was not followed. A former Death Row bodyguard told The New Yorker that “ordinarily, an armed bodyguard would have been riding with them, and additional armed bodyguards would follow in the car behind.” But that night, Knight and Tupac rode alone without security.
Tupac, who was often outspoken on societal issues, had a total of 21 hits on the Hot 100, with nine of them reaching the top 40, Billboard reported. Two-thirds of his chart hits came after his death.
Southside Compton Crips member Orlando Anderson was the suspected shooter but he was murdered before being charged. Duane “Keefe D” Davis, also a Crip, confessed to being an accomplice in Tupac’s murder.
Knight openly claimed his allegiance to the rival Leudis Park Compton Piru Bloods.
Randy “Stretch” Walker was actually from the East Coast, but he was allied with Tupac Shukur. Stretch was a member of New York City-bred Hollis, Queens hip-hop and production act Live Squad. On Nov. 30, 1995, he was killed in a fatal high-speed car chase in Queens.
Earlier that night, he was driving through Queens Village when two to three men drove down on him and fired at least four shots. Two bullets struck Walker in the back, XXL reported. He died of his wounds.
Before his death, Stretch had been at Quad Studios where Tupac was shot and injured in 1994. It was that shooting that sparked Tupac’s feud with Biggie.
Since Stretch was killed exactly one year to the day after the Quad shooting, conspiracy theories sprung up around Stretch’s death.
He and and Tupac fell out after the Quad robbery and shooting. There are also rumors that his death was a hit ordered by drug dealers whom he allegedly robbed. No arrests were made.
Among Stretch’s musical contributions were tracks with Nas and 2Pac.
