LA Capone was one of Chicago’s hottest up-and-coming talents
before he was tragically murdered in 2013.
Let’s get into his his come-up and career.
LA Capone was born and raised in the Southside of Chicago.
His parents split when he was young,
and he mostly lived with his mom and four sisters in Chicago.
Even as a kid, his family knew he was going to be special.
He had a natural charm and sense of humor that made everyone like him.
He lived in Chicago until he was in middle school
and then briefly moved to Atlanta to live with his pops.
His mom was worried about the violence in the southside
and ain’t want LA to get sucked into the streets.
In Atlanta, he went to school and met Lil Yachty.
He and Yachty were cool with each other
and Yachty has maintained a relationship with LA’s older brother.
He was also friends with the former female rap group OMG Girlz,
which included Reginae Carter, Lil Wayne’s daughter,
and Zonnique Jailee Pullins, T.I.’s stepdaughter.
So even in his early day’s LA Capone was cool with future stars.
LA was an honor student in school and also played on the football team.
But after his pops passed away, he moved back to Chicago
and started getting into all the things his mom warned him about.
That’s when he started hanging around other dudes from the neighborhood
and became affiliated with the 600 set of the Black Disciples.
Around this time, he started carrying guns and was getting into fights almost every day.
But this was also when he started taking rap seriously.
He always had an interest in music and had been freestyling since he was a kid.
But being around other dudes from the neighborhood who were rapping
like Lil Durk and Rondonumbernine,
he started putting more effort into music.
He first appeared in videos of rappers from 600 and eventually began dropping music on his own.
He started making music under the name LA Capone when he was 14.
His rap name was a play on his initials
– LA for Leonard Anderson, his real name.
The Capone was a reference to the famous Chicago gangster Al Capone.
Early on, everyone knew that LA was going to blow up
because of how popular and well-liked he was in the hood.
LA’s first recorded song was a feature on the track Grimey with Rondonumbanine
and King Bruce, produced by Lex Luger.
Rondo was already building a buzz in the city with his hard flow and reputation in the streets.
But as soon as LA hopped on the track with him,
it was clear he also had the talent to make it far in the rap game.
Together it seemed like he and Rondo were on track to follow in the same footsteps as Chief Keef and Lil Durk,
who were quickly becoming the two biggest stars from Chicago.
Part of their appeal was that they were living the life they talked about in their music.
But that lifestyle also came with its consequences
and in September 2012, LA Capone got shot for the first time.
Fellow rapper Tay600 was with him when it happened.
According to Tay, they was hanging out on the block.
Originally, they had guns on them.
But it was so hot that day that they decided to leave them behind
and walk from 600 to Front Street to link up with some of their other homies.
As they were walking, they saw one of their opps but weren’t really paying attention.
The dude went into a nearby corner store and shot at someone inside first.
They heard the shot but ain’t know where it came from.
The shooter then came out of the store and spotted them, so he upped his pole
and started letting off shots.
They all started to run, but LA got hit.
They all tried to run in opposite directions to get away,
but LA ended up running down the street to try to duck behind a car.
He got shot in the leg; the exact place he would get hit a year later which took his life.
But getting shot ain’t seem to faze LA.
By that point, they had been exposed to so much growing up in Chicago
that they was becoming immune to violence.
So, LA made a quick recovery and got right back to what he was doing.
He dropped his first solo track, Work in 2012.
The track did some good numbers for a debut song
and showed how much potential he had as a rapper.
But, the track that really took off
was the song Murda, which was released in early 2013.
He followed up with the track So Loud which also did major numbers and showed his versatility.
LA was proving he was the entire package with cold bars, catchy melodies,
and the swag of a superstar.
He graduated high school in 2013.
Even though he was an honor student with good grades, he ain’t go to college
but instead put all his focus into his rap career.
In July 2013, he appeared on several tracks on Rondonumbanine’s mixtape Steve Drive
including Shooters, 6Double0, Grindin, and Play for Keeps.
Many of these songs eventually become drill classics.
LA and Rondo went on to release a video for Play for Keeps later that month
which racked up millions of views and started to gain them exposure outside of Chicago.
LA was on his way to becoming a major name
and was getting looks from superstars like T.I., French Montana, and Waka Flocka.
But he ain’t even have an official project yet.
So, following the success of Play for Keeps,
he decided to lock in and start working on his debut mixtape.
He booked time at a studio so he could work on the project.
But before he had a chance to release the project, LA was tragically killed after leaving the studio.
Around 6:30pm on September 26th, 2013,
LA left a studio in the 7000 Block of South Stony Island Avenue.
He walked down an alley to get into a car and was confronted by rival gang members
who ended up firing several shots, hitting him in the thigh and lower back.
LA’s homie JB Bin Laden was with him at the studio right before he was killed.
But he decided to walk home in a different direction.
As he was walking away,
he spotted an opp trying to creep up on LA and tried to warn him.
But it was already too late.
LA tried to run away but ended up collapsing and had to be rushed to the hospital.
He was still alive when he was brought to the hospital and had to undergo emergency surgery.
Unfortunately, he lost too much blood and ended up dying later that night.
LA Capone’s death was a major loss for 600.
Everybody thought he would be the next superstar to blow up from Chicago
and put the whole hood on the map.
But after he was killed the whole 600 set started to fall apart.
Only a few months after LA was killed, Rondo and another member of 600 named Cdai
got arrested for the murder of a cab driver named Javan Boyd.
They would eventually be found guilty of that murder and sentenced to 38 and 39 years in prison.
During the trial,
rumors started going around that Tay600 snitched
because he was with them that night.
Years later, official paperwork was released
that claimed he never actually cooperated with authorities.
But by that point, his reputation was damaged
as well as his relationships with other members of 600.
So, LA’s death was the beginning of the end for 600.
About a year after he was killed, three men were arrested in connection with his murder.
Police identified Sakhee Hardy-Johnson and Michael Mays as the killers.
A third suspect named Meiko Buchanan was also arrested for driving a tail car,
meant to protect the other car with the killer inside it.
Johnson was sentenced to 60 years in prison,
Mays was sentenced to 24 years and Buchanan was sentenced to 45 years.
LA’s killers had ties to 051 Money Gang, a set of the Mickey Cobras
who are known to beef with 600.
Sakhee Hardy-Johnson aka Lil Mick
was allegedly the one who shot LA and the other two were accomplices.
Police tied them to the murder after arresting Michael Mays aka Rockhead for a gun charge.
He thought he could beat the case by telling them what he knew about his involvement
in the LA Capone murder.
But he ended up getting way more time than he would have if he just took the original charge.
Rockhead implicated Lil Mick as the shooter and Meiko as an accomplice.
By the end of the investigation, they all ended up snitching on each other
and confessed their involvement to the police to avoid getting life in prison.
051 Money Gang and 600 had been beefing for several years.
LA’s murder was rumored to be retaliation
for the murder of a 14-year-old member of 051 Money gang named Fatz or Fathead.
Fatz was killed on June 22nd, 2012 while walking with his cousin to a corner store.
A van drove past them while they were walking,
then minutes later a hooded gunman snuck up behind them and killed Fatz.
It’s said that 600 was responsible for the death of Fatz.
It’s also been said that LA may have been in the van at the time of the murder.
But even if he wasn’t involved, LA was a well-known member of 600
and would have been a major target for opps from rival gangs.
Separate Myself, the mixtape that LA was working on at the time of his death,
was eventually released in 2014.
It was a compilation of old and unreleased tracks and featured appearances from Rondo,
S. Dot, Lil Chief Dinero, and Lil Durk.
The final track on the album Brothers
was the last verse he recorded right before he was killed.
LA Capone’s death was not only a major loss to 600 but the entire Chicago drill scene.
He had a natural talent and energy that made everybody love him.
He’d probably be a superstar today if he hadn’t been killed at such a young age
or at least could have made it out the hood and helped his family.
But unfortunately, the gang life caught up to him and he wasn’t able to live up to his full potential.
But other members of 600 and OTF have continued to carry on his legacy
and his name will live on through his music and the people he inspired.