The rap game can get deadly.
From shootouts to stabbings to assassination attempts,
there is no telling what’s going to happen when you step outside as a rapper.
The most recent artist to face an attempt on his life
is none other than the Project Baby himself, Kodak Black.
Let’s take a look at what happened.
Kodak Black is one of the most popular rappers coming out of Florida.
He started releasing music in 2009 but began to gain national attention
after Drake posted a video of himself dancing to the Florida rapper’s song Skrrt in 2015.
Not long after that, Kodak signed to Atlantic Records
and became one of rap’s new rising stars.
However, aside from his music, Kodak is known for being a genuine artist
who lives the life he talks about in his rhymes.
He grew up in a rough part of South Florida called Pompano Beach
and was raised by a single mother who was a Haitian immigrant.
He was expelled from school in the 5th grade for fighting
and was arrested for stealing a car in middle school.
However, he was always a smart kid and used to read dictionaries
and thesauruses to further his vocabulary.
Kodak started rapping at just 12 years old under the name J Black
and used to record his music at a local trap house.
But being in and out of jail for most of his teenage years and early ’20s
has slowed Kodak’s career trajectory.
Kodak was put into a youth detention center three times in one year as a teenager
and has served time for a long list of charges that range from armed robbery
to false imprisonment of a child.
Most recently, he was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon
and lying on a government document
after he illegally purchased a weapon from a legal weapons dealer,
then tried to smuggle it back into the United States from Canada.
Kodak lied on the application, when purchasing the gun,
claiming that he was not a convicted felon.
When he tried to cross the border with the gun,
authorities ran a background check and arrested him on several charges.
Due to his long list of previous offenses,
Kodak was looking at some serious time for the gun charge
and accepted a plea deal of 46 months.
However, Kodak only served a fraction of that time,
after he was pardoned by former President Donald Trump in 2021.
Check out our video on Rappers Pardoned Of Their Crimes
for more info on Kodak’s presidential pardon.
Kodak was released in January 2021;
however, his legal battles are not quite over.
He still has to face a sexual assault charge in Florence, South Carolina
over an incident that allegedly occurred in February 2016.
However, for now,
Kodak is a free man and has been enjoying his freedom since being pardoned.
But Kodak is a magnet for controversy
and has been involved in several online beefs in the short amount of time he’s been home.
First, he got into it with Pooh Shiesty,
the hottest up-and-coming rapper coming out of Memphis
who signed to Gucci’s 1017 label in 2020.
Pooh Shiesty is known for his iconic “burr” adlib
that sounds like a purring cat
and his love for spreading cash along his arm in videos and IG posts.
Kodak took to Instagram to throw some shade on the up-and-coming artist,
claiming that he started the spreading money trend and that these new rappers
were trying to steal his swag while he was locked up.
Pooh Sheisty got pretty angry about Kodak’s comments and fired back,
claiming that he lost all respect for the Project Baby rapper
and that he’d been spreading money like that for years.
Before this incident, Shiesty told HotNewHipHop
that Kodak was on his top 5 favorite rappers list,
so the beef was pretty serious.
However, the feud seems like it was short-lived.
Shiesty posted a series of photos to Instagram with the caption
“Anyone That Got Smoke with Me Got Shot or Tried to Fix it”.
Kodak commented underneath saying “I can relate lil Bra I can Relate”.
When a fan questioned if Kodak was trolling, he replied “no that’s bro”
So, it seems like Kodak and Shiesty have patched things up,
although neither has confirmed or denied this publicly.
However, Pooh Shiesty
isn’t the only person Kodak has gotten into a beef with since coming home.
Kodak also reignited an old feud with producer Southside of 808 Mafia
over Yung Miami from the City Girls.
Kodak and Yung Miami were once involved romantically.
But while Kodak was locked up,
she announced that she was expecting a baby with SouthSide.
This prompted Kodak to release a freestyle over the phone from jail,
where he threatened to punch the pregnant rapper in the stomach.
In the freestyle, Kodak raps
“I bought Yung Miami a ring, she wanted 808 baby
When I see her I’ma hit that ***** in the stomach
The way I keep my **** too real
They say I’m ****** up my money”
This freestyle understandably rubbed people the wrong way
and the public were outraged by Kodak’s threats that he would assault a pregnant woman.
Kodak later responded with a public apology on Twitter
to both Miami and Southside, however that didn’t kill the beef.
Earlier in April, Kodak went on his Instagram Live
and started singing the name “Caresha Brown” – Yung Miami’s actual name.
Caresha Brownly
He even went as far as pinning the name in a comment in the feed,
so fans would make no mistake about what he was saying.
He even mentioned Southside by name,
which prompted an angry response from the producer.
Southside had been in the middle of another public feud
with rapper Lil Uzi Vert after Uzi got into it with Miami on Live.
Lil Uzi is currently dating the other half of the City Girls, JT.
Uzi and Miami were in an Instagram Live session together,
where things got tense with Miami saying that she and Uzi don’t have to be friends.
Southside didn’t take kindly to Uzi messing with his baby mama
and took to Instagram to threaten the rapper.
Southside went pretty hard on Uzi telling him to “stay the lil weirdo he is”
and not to argue with his girl anymore.
Many thought that this was a bit of an overreaction.
Even though Miami is the mother of his child,
the fight between her and Uzi clearly wasn’t all that serious.
Plus, Uzi never portrayed himself to be a super tough rapper,
so it seemed a bit weird that Southside would get so aggressive with him
over a simple argument.
So when Kodak chimed in to mention his BM by her actual name,
the producer went off.
With Kodak he keeps it short and simple,
telling the rapper that he's a ***** and the next time he’s in Miami
he should pull up without security.
Yak you still a *****
we can bump too
I'll be back in Miami in a week pull up wherever we can bump, don't bring no security
Bring your ***** and I'mma bring my **** and we can bump
In another video, Southside went on to claim that Kodak and his crew don’t run Miami
and they should stay in Broward County.
***** don't work **** man *****
****** from Broward they aint even from Miami.
I run Miami *****.
**** you talking about
***** just popular
***** just doing too much **** don't even come to Miami
Not long after making these threats on social media,
someone made an attempt on Kodak’s life outside a McDonald’s in Tallahassee.
On Easter Sunday, Kodak dropped a song and video called Easter in Miami,
and performed at the Cultur3fest in Tallahassee.
The rapper and his entourage left an afterparty for the performance around 3:00AM
on Monday April, 5th and decided to go get McDonald's
which Kodak mentioned on Instagram live on his way there
and then people in the comments say he is being followed
when Kodak noticed a grey Jeep trackhawk on his tail.
A group of other vehicles attempted to cut Kodak and his crew off
and pursued them to the McDonalds on the 600 block of West Tennessee Street.
While Kodak was inside the McDonald’s ordering food,
someone in another vehicle opened fire on the rapper’s car
and ended up hitting one of his security guards in the leg.
No, Kodak hold it up dude.
Oh ****.
The security guard survived but was brought to a local hospital
and treated for the gunshot wound.
Kodak took to Instagram to taunt his opps,
posting a picture of his own car being towed with the caption
“That Baby Back This What You Posta Shoot”.
After investigating the incident,
police determined that it was clearly a targeted shooting
and the primary suspect was none other than Southside.
The investigation is still ongoing, and no formal arrests have been made.
But it does seem like a pretty big coincidence
that just hours after Southside told the rapper to pull up, someone tried to kill Kodak.
However, Kodak is an artist who is both loved and hated.
He’s one of the most influential rappers of the new generation,
however, he’s made a lot of enemies as well, both in the industry and in the street.
It may very well have been another opp who tried to kill Kodak,
but because Southside was the one making noise online,
he immediately became the prime suspect.
Hopefully, police can find out who did it and put the issue to bed
so that neither Kodak nor Southside end up back in jail.
But Kodak isn’t the only Florida rapper to face an attempt on his life.
This next artist crashed his Rolls Royce while being shot at with an AK-47,
after allegedly angering the Gangster Disciples.
Rick Ross
Rick Ross is a rapper and entrepreneur from Carol City, Florida.
Ross is well known for his major hits from the early 2000s,
like Hustlin’ and Aston Martin Music.
But being a platinum-selling artist
doesn’t protect you from death threats or assassination attempts and in 2013,
Ross was nearly killed after someone shot up his Rolls Royce with an AK 47.
Ross had been celebrating his 37th birthday
at a venue on Los Olas Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale.
He left with his girlfriend around 5 am, which is when his vehicle was hit.
It caused him to lose control of his Rolls Royce and slam into an apartment building.
Both Ross and his girl
managed to escape the accident without any major injuries –
however, they were clearly shaken.
The shooter was never caught however many have attributed the incident
to an ongoing beef Ross had with the Gangster Disciples.
The GD’s are a prominent street gang that began in Chicago
but have spread all over the country.
If you’ve seen our past videos on Chicago Drill,
you know about the war that is currently raging in the city between the GDs and their opps.
They don’t take kindly to disrespect
and it seems like Ross did something to piss them off.
In 2018,
there was a massive indictment of the gang that revealed all kinds of crimes
and threats they made over the years against members of the public –
including Rick Ross.
In 2012, Ross canceled a string of shows in Illinois, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
Ross claims that he canceled the shows
because he didn’t like how they were being promoted.
But the indictment shows that around that time,
GD’s in those cities had made serious threats against the rapper’s life,
causing the artist to cancel his shows in areas he may have problems.
Apparently, they were angry because Ross had mentioned the founder of the GD’s,
Larry Hoover, in a song called BMF.
Plus, he used their symbol on the cover of his Bar Mitzvah mixtape.
The GD’s were demanding payment for the use of their symbol
and appropriation of their culture, or else Ross would face consequences.
Ross has faced many allegations of stealing street culture throughout his career.
Although Ross is respected in the industry,
he was never a hardcore gangster
and has faced criticism from street artists for portraying the image of a drug kingpin
when in reality he went to college on a football scholarship
and even worked as a corrections officer in a prison for 18 months.
His stage name is also the name of a well-known drug dealer named Freeway Rick Ross
who built a crack empire in Los Angeles in the ’80s
and ended up suing the rapper for stealing his image in 2010.
Although it was never proven that the shooting was committed by the GD’s,
the timeline does make sense.
Ross has had his fair share of beef with industry dudes,
but you have to be a bit more cutthroat to light up someone's car with an AK.
There were no other threats made by GD’s after that incident,
nor were there any more attempts on Ross’s life,
which probably means that Ross pulled out the checkbook
and made things right with the gang after nearly losing his life.
But Ross and Kodak are not the only Florida rappers to face an assassination attempt.
This next artist is involved in an ongoing feud with another rapper from the same city
that resulted in an attempt on his life at a local mall.
9lokknine
9locknine is an up-and-coming rapper from Orlando, Florida
known for tracks like 10 percent and 223’s with YNW Melly.
He is also known for being involved in an ongoing war
with another rapper from Orlando named Hotboii,
that has allegedly claimed the lives of multiple victims.
In October 2020, 9lokk was the target of a shooting at an Orlando mall
and was arrested after it was discovered that the rapper had a warrant out for his arrest,
stemming from charges related to a different shooting.
9lockine is part of a crew called All Family No Friends or AFNF
and Hotboii is part of a crew called 438.
Although the two rappers used to be cool with each other,
jealousy and competition ended up souring the relationship.
They’ve been in a heated rivalry ever since Hotboii came home from prison
over who is the top rapper in Orlando.
This beef has resulted in numerous shootings
that have left several victims dead,
including not only gang affiliates
but innocent bystanders like 3-year-old Daquane James Felix Jr
and Ocoee High School Football star Dexter Rentz.
The shooting at Millennium Mall was intended to put the beef permanently to rest
by assassinating the leader of the AFNF Gang, 9lokknine.
The shooter was a 19-year-old 438 affiliate named Trey’von Graham
who opened fire at 9lokknine in broad daylight in the middle of the mall.
He missed his target and did not injure anyone else,
but the bold shooting in a crowded commercial area terrorized the public
and put authorities on high alert.
Both Graham and 9locknine were arrested.
Even though 9lock was the target and hadn’t done anything wrong on that particular day,
he had a warrant out for his arrest for a weapons charge
that related to a shooting that occurred back in July.
Allegedly the rapper was involved in a shootout
that sent stray bullets into a nearby home where a mother and her daughter were sleeping.
No one was hit but the shooting caused damage to the home
and emotional distress to the woman and her child.
The war between the AFNF camp and the 438 crew
is well known by local authorities and both rappers are under close surveillance.
9lokkinine posted bail back in early March and just hours after he was released,
one of his affiliates, AFNF Metemo was killed.
This deadly war is still ongoing,
and it doesn’t seem like either crew is willing to put the past behind them.
Hopefully, they can reach an agreement before two more talented rappers lose their lives.
But with so much blood already spilled,
it seems unlikely they either camp will turn the other cheek.
If you liked this video
check out some of our previous videos!
From Rappers Pardoned Of Their Crimes
to Rappers Getting Ran Up On
we cover the most insane stories that you need to hear!
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