Rap is a dangerous game.
While many rappers are shooters,
others have been on the other side of the gun as well.
Here is a look at some of the most popular rappers who got caught lackin’
but survived to tell the tale.
Lil Reese
Tavares Lamont Taylor, better known as Lil Reese,
is a drill rapper from Chicago, Illinois.
Born in the Southside of Chicago along with other legends like Chief Keef
and Fredo Santana, Lil Reese was one of the early pioneers of the drill sound.
Featured on one of Chief Keef’s breakout hits “I Don’t Like”,
Lil Reese was poised to be drill’s next big star,
until a video of the artist allegedly assaulting his girlfriend leaked onto the internet,
leading to criminal charges and issues with his label.
Lil Reese, along with many of his fellow GBE affiliates
a brand started by Chief Keef and those in his circle,
is a member of the Black Disciples, a prominent gang in Chicago.
The Black Disciples have a longstanding beef with the Gangster Disciples,
another major gang that operates in the area.
Lil Reese famously got into a twitter beef with local rapper and Gangster Disciple member
Lil Jojo on Twitter,
right before the rapper was killed.
Family members allege that Reese and Chief Keef had something to do with the killing.
Both rappers were investigated as persons of interest in the murder,
but nothing was ever proven.
On November 11th, 2019,
Lil Reese was shot while driving in Chicago,
at the intersection of Markham and Country Club Hills.
According to witnesses on the scene,
an assailant was seen tailing Reese’s vehicle.
When traffic stopped, the assailant jumped out of the car
with what witnesses describe as a small rifle and shot Reese’s vehicle several times,
before getting back in the car and fleeing the scene.
Reese was taken to the hospital by a friend, rather than waiting for an ambulance.
He sustained serious injuries to his neck, but luckily, he survived.
He took to social media to let fans and supporters know
he would not be able to speak for several months,
but he was alive and well despite the shooting.
Police have not yet arrested anyone in connection to the shooting,
however they have issued a warrant for a person of interest.
That person remains at large,
and given the delays caused by coronavirus,
the streets may take care of the situation before the authorities.
The motivation behind Reese’s shooting remains unknown.
But given that nothing was stolen from him and the hit was clearly targeted,
it was likely some kind of gang retaliation.
Fellow GBE Member Tray Savage
was killed in a similar manner earlier this year
not far away in the Chatham neighborhood of the Southside.
Many fans and spectators online have claimed that the shootings are related.
Tray Savage was also killed in his vehicle
in a targeted hit and was a member of the same BD set that Reese was a part of.
The shootings could be retaliation by the Gangster Disciples
for the longstanding beef that both men were involved in.
Or it could be the actions of any up and coming shooter looking to earn a stripe
by killing a prominent BD member.
In most cities, gang beefs stem from protecting drug markets
and various other illegal money-making activities.
But in Chicago the beef is often more brutal.
Gangs go back and forth killing other members in retaliation for past killings
or simply to prove who is the most dominant.
Drugs and money are often a part of the lifestyle,
but on the south side, a lot of the violence is simply for violence sake.
Lil Reese has recovered from his injury and continues to make music.
Whether or not a suspect is taken into custody
or ends up a victim of retaliation is yet to be seen.
Young Dolph
Adolph Thorton Jr., better known as Young Dolph,
is a popular rapper from Memphis, Tennessee.
He was born in Chicago but moved to Memphis when he was 2 years old.
Young Dolph is best known for his smash single “Cut It” featuring OT Genesis,
but has a long discography of popular songs and mixtapes.
His debut studio album King of Memphis was released in 2016 and
debuted at #49 on the billboard Hot 200.
Young Dolph is not associated with any known gangs, but he is a hustler.
He speaks about selling drugs
and the struggles of surviving in the streets at length in his music.
Despite his lack of gang affiliation, he has been through his fair share of beefs.
He has had a longstanding feud with Yo Gotti another prominent artist from Memphis
which is believed to be the reason he was shot in Hollywood, California
on September 26th, 2017.
The Young Dolph – Yo Gotti beef
stems from comments that Dolph made in an interview in 2014.
In the interview
Dolph claims he would turn down a deal offered by Yo Gotti if it was offered to him.
Yo Gotti was a bigger artist than Dolph at the time,
and the comments were seen by many as a diss toward a more established artist.
Dolph titling his debut project King of Memphis
was another subtle dig
which ignited a public beef between Dolph and Yo Gotti’s new artist Blac Youngsta.
Dolph released a diss track aimed at Gotti in February of 2017
called Play Wit Yo B****,
in which he refers to the artist as Ho Gotti.
Gotti fired back with a track called Don’t Beef With Me
and Dolph responded with a video for his diss track
that featured an unflattering depiction of the other artist.
Before getting shot in California,
Dolph was the target of a shooting in February of 2017,
while he was on tour in Charlotte North Carolina.
Over 100 bullets were allegedly fired in the shoot out,
but Young Dolph got away unscathed.
His second album Bulletproof was released just over a month later,
and it’s title is an obvious reference to the shooting.
Neither he nor Yo Gotti addressed the incident publicly,
but it is assumed these events are connected.
On September 26th, 2017,
Young Dolph was shot in a retail area of Hollywood, California.
The Memphis rapper was transported to a local hospital in critical condition
but survived.
He sustained three gunshot wounds during the attack,
and spent two weeks in the hospital recovering.
Yo Gotti was immediately named as a person of interest in the shooting
and brought in for questioning.
The artist was eventually cleared,
but an associate of his named Corey McClendon
was arrested for attempted murder soon after.
McClendon was eventually released with no charges the next day,
due to insufficient evidence and lack of witnesses.
Dolph has not named Yo Gotti publicly as the one who sent the hit
and Yo Gotti has not addressed it either.
Yet, while the two have not officially squashed their beef,
it has remained relatively quiet since this incident.
No new diss tracks have been released
and neither artist seems to want to keep the beef going in interviews.
But all it takes is one subliminal diss in a song or a tweet to reignite the feud.
Yella Breezy
Markies Deandre Conway, aka Yella Beezy,
is a rapper from Dallas, Texas,
best known for his hit singles That’s On Me, Bacc at It Again and Up One.
Beezy was raised in the Oak Park neighborhood of Dallas.
When he was only 12 years old,
his father was shot and killed at their home on Mother’s Day.
The Dallas rapper originally wanted to focus on sports
and had aspirations to become a professional football player.
But he was eventually forced to sell drugs to help support his family
and joined the Crips when he was a teenager.
He began rapping at age 13
and was inspired by other popular Southern artists like Boozie Badazz and Kevin Gates
to pursue music seriously.
In 2017 he released his breakout song,
That’s On Me, which peaked at #37 on the Billboard Hot 100.
This earned him a deal with LA Reid’s label Hitco
and he followed up with a number of other big songs.
Just as his hype was reaching a peak,
Yella Breezy was the victim of a drive-by shooting
on the Sam Rayburn Tollway in Lewisville, Texas around 3:30am.
He was shot at with more than 23 rounds and was hit four times.
He was brought to the hospital by authorities and was in critical condition but survived.
The shooter was never caught
and Yella Beezy himself claims he isn’t sure who it was that did it.
In an interview with the Breakfast Club,
Beezy says he was at the strip club on the night of the shooting.
His friends convinced him to go to another club, but he eventually left on his own.
He was on his way back to his new house and slowed down to look up the address,
when someone pulled up alongside him and opened fire.
He claims he had a gun on his lap at the time of the shooting
and hopped into the passenger’s seat while being shot to grab the gun.
This caused him to crash the car,
but he managed to get out of the car and call his family.
He blames the shooting on minor street beef.
He claims he doesn’t know exactly what it stems from and exactly who fired the shots.
But, he blamed it on the jealousy that often comes from being a successful artist
in a city where very few make it out.
He has never publicly exposed his shooters,
nor has he expressed interest in the media in trying to find who did it.
However, in an interview with DJ Vlad,
Vlad asks Beezy whether the shooters were ever caught.
Beezy doesn’t answer at first,
but eventually just shrugs and smirks a bit,
as if to indicate that he knows more than he’s letting on.
No suspect was ever apprehended by police,
so if they were caught by someone else,
it makes sense that the artist wouldn’t want to talk about it.
Despite getting shot several times in critical areas,
Yella Beezy made a full recovery
and claims he was back doing shows just a few weeks later.
He continues to make music
and had a hit song with Quavo and Gucci Mane called Bacc At It in 2019.
So, despite this set back, Beezy seems to be doing better than ever.
Well, that's all for today!
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