Drakeo the Ruler is one of the most influential artists in LA’s rap scene.
But early in his career, Drakeo almost lost it all after being tried twice for the same murder.
He eventually beat the case,
but the murder sparked a beef with one of the biggest gangs in the city,
the Inglewood Family Gangsta Bloods.
Let’s get into the beef between Drakeo the Ruler
and a rapper from IFG named Frosty the Snowman.
Drakeo grew up in the 100’s neighborhood of South Central, LA.
He went to Washington High School near Westmont and has a brother who is also a rapper
named Ralphy the Plug. They grew up in a cripp hood
and are cool with other cripp rappers like 03 Greedo.
But Drakeo never really claimed a gang, except for the Stinc Team.
The Stinc Team is a rap group that Drakeo started with his brother Ralphy.
Other members of the Stinc Team include the late rapper Ketchy the Great, Remble,
Sayso the Mac, Kellz, Bambino, Good Finesse, Money Monk and Young Bull.
Drakeo was interested in music at an early age and was inspired by the Hot Boys, Dipset,
Lil Boosie, and Webbie.
But his biggest inspiration was a battle rapper named Cocky.
Drakeo said he was impressed with how the rapper could say the most disrespectful things
in a smooth, calm way. This inspired Drakeo’s own unique style,
which has a laid back almost mumbled delivery.
Drakeo went to high school with YG’s brother, who introduced him to DJ Mustard.
This helped Drakeo get his first major look in the industry
after Mustard remixed his track, Mr. Get Dough.
The video for the remix quickly racked up millions of views and helped Drakeo build an early buzz.
After that he dropped multiple mixtapes back to back, including I am Mr. Mosley 1 and 2
and So Cold I Do Em before eventually dropping his debut album Cold Devil later that same year.
Drakeo’s strong work ethic, unique approach, and wordplay helped make him a legend in LAs rap scene.
But just as he was starting to get hot,
his career came to a hault after he got arrested for a murder
and spent the next few years behind bars fighting for his freedom.
On the night of December 10th, 2016,
Drakeo and the Stinc Team went to a Naughty or Nice Pajama Party in Carson, California.
The Stinc Team pulled up after finding out about the party on social media.
There was around 160 people there and at some point,
Drakeo and his homies noticed some of their opps from IFG were also at the party.
They were chillin outside by their cars when an IFB member named Davion Gregory
aka Red Bull and two other men walked toward the entrance of the party.
Drakeo turned to tell the rest of the Stinc Team it was time to go.
But Red Bull ended up walking toward them.
At some point, someone let off shots, making everyone run for their lives.
Several people were brought to the hospital
and police arrived to question those who were at the party.
But many refused to cooperate, and no one was arrested that night.
The next day, Red Bull was pronounced dead at the Harvard UCLA Medical Center.
Two other men were also injured, Travis Harvey Broome, a wide receiver
who briefly played in the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals and the New York Giants,
as well as Kwentin Polk, a defensive back for Missouri Western State.
Harvey and Redbull had known each other from pop warner football
but hadn’t seen each other in years.
They ran into each other in the parking lot, right before the shots went off.
Neither of the football players or anyone they came with were from any gang.
The only evidence police could go off was the shell casings recovered from a .40 Glock pistol
and a .38 revolver.
They also had some low quality surveillance footage showing cars in the parking lot
and two groups of men passing by each other.
But their faces couldn’t be seen, and it ain’t capture the actual murder.
While the two other gunshot victims were recovering in the hospital,
police paid them a visit.
During that visit, Harvey said he saw a light- skinned dude with braids or dreads
and two suspicious cars, a black Mercedes Benz SUV, and a red Mustang or Benz.
About a week later, a detective heard Drakeo’s name come up
while listening to a wiretap on an unrelated gang case.
Police had also heard rumors about Drakeo and the Stinc team
somehow being involved in the shooting, which is when they started to connect them to the murder.
Surveillance footage also showed Drakeo leaving the party in a black Mercedes Benz SUV,
similar to the one Harvey described to police.
A few weeks before, Drakeo, Ralphy, and another Stinc Team member named Kellz
had dropped a video for a song called Chunky Monkey.
In the video, theyre seen driving the same SUV,
which was later used as evidence to tie Drakeo to the scene of the crime.
Theyre also shown in the video flashing guns, specifically a .40 glock pistol and a .38 revolver,
the same weapons used in the shooting.
Police ran a search on the serial numbers of the guns
and found out they matched the ones used to kill Red Bull and injure the others.
On January 2nd, 2017, a SWAT team was sent to Drakeo’s apartment
and arrested him along with his brother
and several other members of the Stinc team in connection to the murder.
Each member got placed in a different cell with an undercover police informant
who was wearing a wire.
A Stinc Team member named 2Shitty
told one of these informants that the shooter was from the Rollin 40’s cripps
named Jaiden Boyd aka AB.
This confession led to AB’s arrest, but prosecutors needed more evidence
to take down the Stinc Team.
So, they started applying pressure to get someone to flip.
Almost everyone stayed solid, except for one dude named Solo,
who was Drakeo’s close homie.
Solo made a deal and told police everything he knew
in exchange for getting the charges against him dropped.
He confirmed they was all at Drakeo’s crib before the party
and that he was the one who wanted to pull up.
He also identified Kellz and AB as the shooters
and said Drakeo had nothing to do with the shooting and he just happened to be there at the time,
but that’s not the narrative police decided to run with.
California has strict gang laws
that allowed prosecutors to charge Drakeo with crimes that his homies committed
because he was seen as the leader of the gang.
The Stinc Team is documented as a street gang by the LAPD
and Drakeo is the highest-ranking member.
Prosecutors tried to say that Drakeo wanted to go to the party that night
to kill another rapper named RJ, who Drakeo supposedly had beef with.
RJ is another rapper from LA who is affiliated with YG and DJ Mustard.
Drakeo and RJ had problems in the past, but it never went beyond rap beef.
RJ was not at the party that night, and was never planning on even going in the first place.
But prosecutors used statements made by the informant, and also lyrics from one of Drakeo’s songs
to make the case that he went to the party that night with plans to kill RJ.
They used his song Flex Freestyle where he raps
“ I'm ridin' round town with a tommy gun and a Jag
And you can disregard the yelling, RJ tied up in the back”,
as evidence that Drakeo and RJ had real beef, even though it’s clearly just a joke.
RJ has even gone on record and said that their beef was never that serious
and the two rappers eventually put it all behind them.
But the LAPD clearly had it out for Drakeo.
As a result of the trial, Kellz was convicted of murder and attempted murder
with a gang enhancement charge and got sentenced to life,
and AB is still fighting charges related to the case.
Drakeo was cleared of the murder charge and attempted murder charge.
But he faced a hung jury on the criminal street gang conspiracy charge
– which basically means he was responsible for creating an environment
where a murder and other crimes were likely to occur.
So, the DA refiled the charges and he was kept in jail to wait for a retrial.
In November 2020, a new Los Angeles district attorney was elected,
and they decided to offer Drakeo a plea deal.
The case got a lot of media attention and many thought he was being unfairly targeted by police.
So, they decided to let him out to avoid more negative publicity.
While he was behind bars,
Drakeo dropped a project from prison called Thank You for Using GTL,
entirely recorded over a jail phone.
A reviewer from Pitchfork called the project
“likely the greatest rap album ever recorded from jail".
Once Drakeo got home, he got right to work and dropped an album
called We Know the Truth at the end of 2020.
He followed up with another project in early 2021 called the Truth Hurts,
which featured guest appearances from big names like Drake and Don Tolliver.
So Drakeo was finally getting recognition for his influence in rap.
But even though he beat the murder charge,
he came home to more beef with the Inglewood Family Bloods.
While Drakeo was locked up, two rappers from IFG started building a buzz in LA,
Frosty the Snowman and AZChike.
Frosty da Snowman started blowing up around the time Drakeo got locked up
with the song Ya Digg.
AZChike is another rapper from IFG
who teamed up with Frosty to go after Drakeo and the Stinc Team.
Frosty is also cool with Baby Kapone, the dude from IFG
who defaced the Nipsey Hussle mural outside his store.
The disrespect got a lot of hate from other rival gangs in LA.
Another one of their homies, Indian Red Boy
ended up getting shot while on Live with Baby Kapone not long after,
leading many to believe the two incidents were connected.
Frosty has continued to be seen chilling and going on live with Baby Kapone,
putting him right in the middle of the beef.
In August, Frosty got shot in a drive-by that left him in critical condition
and another IFG member dead.
So the gang is at the center of a lot of beef in LA,
including the neighborhood cripps who are allied with the Stinc team.
Later that month,
Drakeo dropped a diss track called Ingleweird, where he took shots at Frosty, AZ Chike,
and the entire city of Inglewood.
This is the song that turnt up the beef between the Stinc team and IFG and exposed it to the world.
He also dissed the rappers on social media, questioning their street cred
and how much money they’ve made off their music.
AZ Chike dropped his own diss track called Lil Stinc Stinc,
where he responded to the shots Drakeo took at him on Ingleweird.
In response to the diss, Stinc Team member Money Munk
pulled up to AZ Chike’s crib, looking to run a fade.
Isn't this your house Chike?
Where you at *****?
Huh where you at?
Where you at you ***** ****
But the opps wasn’t the only ones taking notice.
Police must still be keeping an eye on Drakeo, because the day after he dropped Ingleweird,
he got pulled over and arrested.
He was in an Uber with his son when the car got pulled over for having tinted windows.
Drakeo was on live at the time and recorded the entire arrest for his fans to see.
I don't have nothing on me I'm on live bro
What are yall doing bro?
Boy what are you talking about bro?
What are yall doing bro?
He ended up getting arrested and hit with a gun charge
because he had a burner on him.
But he was later released on a $35,000 bail.
Many questioned why he was even pulled over and searched in the first place
since the driver of the Uber should be the one responsible for the window’s tints.
Since then Drakeo has had to keep a low profile and focus on music.
It’s clear that the LAPD has something against him
and if he makes one wrong move, it’s back to jail.
But both sides have continued dissing each other back and forth.
Lil Boosie even did a song with AZ Chike and Rucci, called Hoodrat.
Boosie was one of Drakeo’s biggest inspirations and he shouted out the rapper in multiple songs.
So, he felt disrespected that he worked with his opps and posted about it on social media.
Drakeo wrote on his IG,
"I lost all respect for @boosienewnewig
he been pickin the wrong n**** to **** wit lately for the past few years
I grew up listening to that n**** smh".
AZ Chike responded by saying
“So we doing this now? ?
n**** be havin drake features and all these chains
but worried Boosie **** with us”.
Boosie himself responded in an interview with Vlad TV.
He said that he aint know about the beef and that Drakeo was in his feelings
cause the opps beat him to the punch.
But it ain’t that serious.
So, it don’t seem like the beef is going to slow down any time soon.
Drakeo has a promising career ahead of him
and he should appreciate the second chance he got and not waste it over something petty.
But that might be hard to do after dissing one of the oldest and most established gangs in LA.