Shit Gets Real
“Chicago’s hip-hop community is in a war of words that has escalated into violence, with the shooting death of a teenage rapper,” Greg Kot writes for the Tribune.
“Tuesday was another night, another homicide in a year in which hundreds of Chicagoans have been gunned down; the murder rate for the year’s first half is up an alarming 38 percent over last year. This time the victim was Joseph Coleman (18-year-old rapper Lil Jojo). The bicycle-riding teen was slain by a drive-by shooter in his South Side Englewood neighborhood.
“His death starkly punctuated a gang-related war of words and music between Jojo and rapper Lil Reese, associated with the biggest new star in Chicago hip-hop, Chief Keef. Jojo recently released a song on-line, ‘3hunna K’ that mocked Reese, Keef and their ‘300 squad,’ which is associated with a street gang.
“Keef took to his Twitter account Wednesday to respond to Jojo’s death: ‘It’s sad cus … Jojo wanted to be just like us #LMAO”‘(Internet slang for ‘laughing my ass off’). Chicago police are reportedly investigating a possible connection between the comments and Jojo’s death.”
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Lupe Fiasco Hints At Retirement After Chief Keef Beef.
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@LupeFiasco.
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From the Beachwood vault: South Side 16-Year-Old Gets Shot, Blows Up.
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Back to Kot:
“Other prominent Chicago hip-hop artists jumped in with their own Twitter comments Wednesday in the wake of the Keef-Fiasco debate.
“Psalm One, who has been recording acclaimed hip-hop albums for more than a decade, pointedly called out Keef: ‘We hear you loud and clear,’ but ‘a lot of folks just can’t rock with you on it.’ And later, she questioned success built on ‘talking about nothing but drugs/guns.’
“After several hours of mostly negative fallout from his more than 200,000 Twitter followers, Keef claimed his account had been hacked.
“The animated Twitter discussion dissipated by late Wednesday, but not until another respected Chicago hip-hop artist chimed in. Rhymefest, who ran unsuccessfully for alderman in the crime-riddled 20th Ward earlier this year, added this postcript: ‘I warned you all about this Chicago violence in Hip Hop and I was called a Hater. Now someone else is dead.'”
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Comments welcome.
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1. From Daniel Pickens:
Lowkey I aint gone stunt I had a lil animosity against chief keef to cause he the same age as me and he doing way better so really I just look at him as a motivation.
2. From Nicole Murphy:
Something is def wrong with this kid. Shame on Jimmy Iovine for promoting this Death music.
Posted on September 6, 2012