Young Pappy was one of the hottest up-and-coming rappers in the early days of Chicago drill.
But like many other drill rappers who are really about that life,
Young Pappy got killed before his music became mainstream.
Let's get into the come-up and career of Young Pappy.
Young Pappy grew up in the North Side of Chicago
and was raised mostly by a single mom with four brothers and three sisters.
His parents split when he was young and he moved around a lot
between the neighborhoods of Uptown, Edgewater, and Rogers Park.
He showed an interest in music from an early age and started rapping at just 4 years old.
His older brother BU Doble also rapped and taught him how to make music.
His younger brother TaySav also became a rapper
and he once said that as a kid Pappy used to read the dictionary to learn new words for his raps.
Pappy was a childhood nickname given to him by his grandmother,
which he continued to use once he started rapping.
He started dropping tracks on YouTube and other platforms in 2007 around age 12.
But as he got older, he became more influenced by his environment
and got sucked into the streets.
Pappy was a member of the Gangster Disciples
and claimed a set called the Insane Cutthroat Gangsters or Pooh Bear Gang.
Pooh Bear Gang was named after a respected member of the set
named Pooh Bear got killed in 2012.
Pooh Bear was killed on the 1800 block of Juneway Terrace.
His killer was never caught but police believed that it was a dude named Dante Simmons
from a set of the GDs called Loc City.
Simmons was later found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot wound
and killed himself using the same gun that was used in Pooh Bear’s murder.
But rumors started going around that another member of Loc City named Munchie
was behind Pooh Bear's death.
Munchie and Pooh Bear were childhood friends,
but petty fights and gang politics turned them against each other.
Just a few days before he got killed, Pooh Bear dissed the Loc’s on social media,
which may have led to his death
and sparked the deadly war between Pooh Bear Gang and Loc City.
Pooh Bear and Young Pappy were close friends
and his death had a major impact on him
and was one of the main reasons Young Pappy jumped off the porch and became a shooter.
Since he moved around a lot, Young Pappy was also affiliated with another set called TFG.
Pooh Bear Gang and TFG were closely affiliated but had their own hoods
– kinda like 600 and O'Block.
So, Pappy claimed both of them cause he grew up around dudes from both areas.
Pappy started out committing petty crimes like fighting and stealing.
But the deeper he got into the streets, the more trouble he got into.
His wild behavior eventually landed him in juvie for a gun charge.
While locked up, he had time to work on his music and decided to take it seriously,
since he was already known in the hood for his music.
So, after he got out, he bought some audio equipment
and music software and started recording his own tracks.
At first, he was just making remixes of other popular songs.
But he eventually started making original songs which gained him local attention.
At the same time, Young Pappy was also building a reputation in the streets.
After getting out of jail, he was out for revenge on Loc City for Pooh Bears death,
which only got worse after PBG lost another member in April 2012.
According to the rumors, Young Pappy got revenge
by shooting a member of Loc City named Lucky in the thigh and back.
Not long after, he dropped the track Competition, which featured the bar
“better ask lucky what will happen when I drill sh*t”.
So, Pappy’s reputation in the streets was entering into his music career
and earning him clout in the city.
But it also made him a major target for Loc City who was out for revenge
after losing several members to the beef.
Not long after that Young Pappy started getting into more trouble with the law.
In June 2013, he was convicted of felony unlawful use of a weapon
and sentenced to two years of probation.
He later violated that probation and ended up being sentenced to a year in prison.
But was later credited with time served and released.
Even though he had a pending case hanging over his head, he continued to go hard in the streets.
On July 14th, 2013,
Young Pappy allegedly caught his first body.
A dude from Loc City named Blake Lamb was shot in the head multiple times
on the 1600 block of West Jonquil Terrace.
He was walking down the sidewalk when a car pulled up next to him
and started letting off shots.
The killers then jumped out of the car, stood over the victim,
and shot him a few more times before fleeing the scene.
So, whoever did it definitely wanted to send a message.
No one was ever arrested for Blake’s murder.
But it was rumored to have been committed by Young Pappy
and a group of other dudes from PBG.
But this wasn’t just the street’s talking,
Pappy and his crew seemed to confirm them on multiple occasions.
After the shooting, he and his homies doubled back and took videos of the crime scene,
which they posted to social media to taunt their opps.
Plus, a few years later Pappy released a freestyle that featured the bar
“Give you hollow tips, have your shit lookin' like Blake’s face”.
So whether or not he was actually involved, Young Pappy used Blake’s death to diss his opps.
A few months later, Young Pappy and other members from PBG and TFG
allegedly shot up another rival hood called Day Day World, a set of Insane GDs.
They were looking for a member named Lil Duke, who Pappy had a personal beef with.
A few days later, one of Pappy’s close homies 2cups was murdered near the intersection
of North Broadway and West Glenlake Avenue.
The day before he got killed, 2cups told his father that he was taking his friend
who was in a wheelchair to the social security office the next morning.
His pops knew he liked to help people, so he aint think nothin of it.
But he ain't know about his son's gang ties.
His mother saw him eating breakfast around 9 am, and that was the last time she saw him.
2cupz and his friend were standing at the intersection when a light-colored van pulled up.
His friend was not identified by police but was said to be a member from TFG.
A shooter then jumped out of the van and started letting off shots,
killing 2cups and critically injuring his friend.
It’s been rumored that the killer was Lil Duke,
who was getting revenge after Young Pappy shot up his hood.
2cups and Young Pappy were close, and his death hit him hard.
He later named a series of mixtapes after his friend including 2cups parts 1, 2, and 3.
The first tape in that series became one of Young Pappy’s most popular projects
and is now considered a drill classic.
This mixtape really started to build Pappy a buzz in the city.
But becoming a well-known rapper and a shooter also made him a target for opps.
After the death of 2cupz,
Young Pappy continued to slide on Day Day World to get revenge.
But members of Loc City would catch him first, almost taking his life.
On February 5th, 2014,
Pappy along with other members of PBG
were on their way to a McDonald’s in Rogers Park, when masked gunmen shot at they whip.
Four of them got hit, including Young Pappy who was hit in the arm.
One member of their group, unfortunately, ain’t make it, but the other three survived.
The shooting was rumored to be the work of Loc City in retaliation for the death of Blake Lamb.
According to police, Young Pappy was the intended target.
He made a quick recovery, only to land himself in jail a few weeks later.
On March 26th, 2014,
Pappy got arrested for reckless conduct and sentenced to 90 days in jail.
He spent his 19th birthday locked up and got out on June 3rd.
After he got out, he started to focus on music again
in an attempt to make it out of the streets for good.
But his reputation made it hard for him to avoid conflict.
Not long after getting out of jail, Pappy was walking down Devon Avenue
with a photographer who was shooting the cover art for his next mixtape.
A car drove by and saw Young Pappy.
They doubled back and someone inside the car started letting off shots.
Young Pappy managed to escape, but his photographer was hit multiple times
before collapsing to the ground.
Two gunmen chased Young Pappy down a nearby street,
while witnesses tried to help the photographer.
But it was too late and he ended up dying.
So, it seemed like everywhere Pappy went, bodies was dropping like flies.
This attracted the attention of the Chicago police
who saw his music taking off and all the violence that followed.
A few months later, Young Pappy allegedly got revenge for the death of his homie Pooh Bear.
On September 11th, 2014,
police responded to a call of a person shot on the 1600 Block of West Juneway Terrace,
not far from where Pooh Bear was killed.
The victim was none other than Glenford Johnson
aka Munchie from Loc City, Pappy’s main opp.
Munchie was standing in the courtyard of a building when a car pulled up
and started letting off shots.
He was hit in the chest and tried to run to a nearby hallway but collapsed and later died.
No one was ever arrested for Munchie’s murder.
But it’s been rumored that it was committed by Young Pappy and other members of PBG.
Pappy continued to add fuel to these rumors by dissing Munchie in a remix
to Chief Keef’s Faneto.
He dissed Munchie on tracks and on social media, which only made him a bigger target
for his opps from Loc City.
By that point, Pappy was really blowing up and his videos were getting millions of views.
In January 2015, Pappy got into a fight with a man outside the same McDonalds
where he was shot less than a year earlier.
The dude he was fighting was supposedly a member of Loc City
and he ended up getting shot in the leg during the argument.
Police saw part of the fight go down and ended up arresting Pappy
on a reckless conduct charge.
His mother said the police raided her apartment with guns drawn,
looking for weapons that belonged to Pappy.
But they ain’t find anything.
So he eventually plead guilty to the reckless conduct charges
and was sentenced to 29 days in jail.
After getting out, he dropped the second installment of his 2 cups series,
which featured some of the biggest tracks of his career, including Killa, Savages,
and After Life Part 3.
It looked like Pappy was finally on his way to becoming a rapstar.
But he kept getting in trouble with the police and it prevented him from reaching his full potential.
To announce the release of his album, Pappy decided to host a birthday release party,
cause he was turning 20 just a few days later.
During the party, neighbors ended up calling the cops after someone shot a gun in the air.
Police already had their eye on Young Pappy.
So, when they heard he was involved, they decided to send a message.
A SWAT team arrived with more than 50 officers and arrested over 100 people
including Young Pappy.
30 of them were charged with disorderly conduct.
Pappy bonded out the same day but ended up catching another case
for failing to appear in court for reckless conduct.
So he was processed and again bonded out not long after.
He then dropped the track Shooters right after being released
to prove he couldn’t be stopped.
But just as he was reaching the height of his buzz, Young Pappy would be gunned down.
Around 1:30 am on May 29th, 2015,
Pappy was walking with a friend near the 4800 block of North Kenmore Avenue
when two gunmen walked up behind him and shot him twice in the back.
He was rushed to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center
but was pronounced dead a few hours later.
Young Pappy’s death was a huge loss to the city of Chicago.
He was a major talent, and many were convinced
that he would be the next to blow up on a national level.
But unfortunately, the streets caught up to him
before he could make it out and change his life for good.
Pappy’s murder remains controversial.
He was both a feared shooter and respected rapper,
which made him a huge target for any opps of TFG or PBG.
Some say he might have been set up by his own people or even the police
because of how his killers were able to sneak up on him at 1:30 in the morning.
But Pappy’s death led to a wave of retaliation.
Just a few weeks after his murder, a Loc City member named Clifton Frye
dissed Pappy on Facebook, writing
“smoking on Pappy right now”.
Not long after that, Frye was shot and killed broad day on the 7600 Block
of North Ashland Ave.
He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and declared brain dead
two weeks after getting shot.
A PBG member named Germel Dossie was later arrested for the murder.
Since his death, Young Pappy has been recognized for his unique talent and lyrical abilities.
Unfortunately, he fell victim to the consequences of the street life
before he gained the exposure that his talent deserved.
But at least he left a catalog of music that will carry on his legacy.