Bronx drill is one of the hottest new waves in hip hop.
Young rappers from the Bronx
are popping off and running up millions of views,
but there’s tons of competition at the top.
Back in 2020
Kay Flock started running up massive numbers
and was on his way to taking over the whole movement,
but then he allegedly murdered someone in broad daylight
and has been locked up ever since.
And just when fans thought he might beat the case,
the feds came through and hit him with a massive RICO indictment.
It’s a wild story all around,
and today we’re breaking down how Kay Flock
went from being the king of Bronx drill
to facing life in prison.
Let’s get right into it.
Kay Flock came up in a part of the Bronx
called Sevside
and reps a set that uses the same name.
Back in the day
he wanted to become a pro athlete,
but it didn’t take long for him to switch directions
and get active in the streets.
Flock didn’t even want to be a rapper back then,
but he acted like a hype man for his homies B Lovee and Dougie B
who were trying to make it in the industry.
Eventually Dougie B convinced Flock to hop in the booth,
but nobody expected what happened next.
Flock dropped his first track in May 2020,
then followed it up with a couple of collabs with his homies.
In August 2020
he released Is Ya Ready and Being Honest,
and both tracks ran up over a million views.
Flock was only rapping for a few months,
but he was already one of the hottest new artists in the city.
But just like Chicago drill back in the day,
it’s not just about music in the Bronx.
Almost every rapper in the drill scene
is also gang affiliated -
and real street issues end up getting brought into the music.
Sha EK and Edot baby were both coming up around the same time as Flock.
Edot repped the OYs, while Sha put on for the OGs.
Both of them were cool with Flock
and a lot of other dudes from Sevside,
but then Edot was caught chilling with Flock’s opps
and everything changed.
Edot was blowing up
after his track Ready 4 War racked up millions of plays,
and a crew called Structure wanted to link up with him.
But at the same time Structure was cool with RPT,
a set that has beef with Sevside.
According to rumors,
Edot went to party with Structure
and when he showed up some dudes from RPT were already there.
Flock and Sevside had issues with them,
but obviously Edot didn’t feel like crashing out over a beef
he wasn’t involved with -
so he just kicked it with Structure and RPT that night.
Edot might not have thought it was a big deal,
but that’s not how Flock took it.
They had been cool for a minute,
but after Edot was spotted with RPT
Flock considered him an opp forever.
It also caused a split between Sha and Kay Flock
because Sha was still rocking with Edot.
A lot of people think most of the violence going on in the Bronx right now
can be traced back to the night Edot chilled with Structure and RPT.
Flock and Edot started sending disses back and forth,
which just turned the situation up even more
On the track CLICKING,
Flock said “Why these n****s is actors?
B****, I shoot like the Raptors
Gang in the back and they blitz like the Packers
You don’t shoot like Kobe, you play for the Lackers.”
Then Edot clapped back with a track called Geek and said
“Like no, I don’t play for the Lackers,
like I’m a gangster takin’ them risk
SevSideK, all that s*** to my d***.”
But while Flock was going after his old homies
and allegedly sparking a huge wave of violence,
he was also blowing up in the mainstream at a fast pace.
In October 2021
he linked up with Lil Tjay and Fivio Foreign
on the track Not in the Mood,
which hit #61 on the Billboard Hot 100.
He kept it pushing in November and dropped his debut mixtape
and was named Hip Hop Rookie of the Month by Billboard.
Flock wasn’t just popping off in New York,
he was looking like the first Bronx drill artist
who could take over the whole game.
But unfortunately
he didn’t leave the streets behind,
and his beef with Edot was getting worse by the day.
Both sides had their homies jumping into the beef,
then in December 2021
Kay Flock allegedly killed Edot’s friend Waka outside of a barbershop
in the middle of the day.
When the police reports first broke,
they said Kay Flock spotted Waka in the barbershop
and decided to check him.
He opened the door and asked Waka what he was looking at,
then Waka walked over to him and they started fighting.
According to the initial reports,
Flock turned around to leave,
then spun back around and shot Waka in the neck and back.
The cops released a photo of the shooter that was caught by a surveillance camera.
In the photo you can see a dude rocking a Moncler coat,
Amiri jeans, and a pair of Jordans that hadn’t even been released yet.
At first it looked like
Flock threw on a bunch of designer and went out looking for problems,
but then footage came out that proved the cop’s original report
was completely wrong.
Surveillance footage leaked online that showed Flock
walking past the barbershop
without stopping or saying anything to someone inside.
After he went by,
Waka came out of the shop and started following him.
It’s not clear what happened next because the shooting wasn’t captured by the camera,
but obviously the cops had the situation twisted.
Flock turned himself in on the murder charge
but his legal team is helping him claim that it was self-defense.
Flock is known for being a wild dude who isn’t afraid to crash out,
but in this case it looks like Waka
might have been the one who started the issue and ended up getting killed over it.
We’ll find out more after the trial starts,
but Waka’s murder isn’t the only case Flock is gonna have to fight.
Back in December,
Flock’s fans got some good news about the murder case.
Someone on TikTok posted a jail call with him
where he said
“Wipe a n**** nose if it’s wetty.
I’ll be back real soon,
2023 March, ya heard?”
Even though Flock has been locked up for over a year,
his name never fell off in the industry.
In April 2022 he released a collab with Dougie B,
Bory300, and Cardi B called Shake It.
Linking up with Cardi B was massive for Flock
and it took his career to the next level
even though he was behind bars when it dropped.
It looked like if Flock could beat the murder charge
then he would come out and still be at the top of the game.
Fans also thought Flock scored a huge win
after he hired Jeffrey Lichtman to be his lawyer.
Lichtman is a serious dude in the legal game.
He defended El Chapo and John Gotti Jr,
so a simple murder case should be a breeze for him to handle.
There’s a good chance Flock would have walked away from the murder charges,
but then everything changed in February.
The US Justice Department
handed down a RICO indictment
that targeted eight alleged members of Sev Side and Third Side,
including Kay Flock.
According to the indictment,
the two gangs linked up to “terrorize” the area
and were shooting up the city like crazy between 2019 and 2022.
Flock’s alleged murder of Waka is in the indictment,
but he also caught new charges
for allegedly letting off shots at the opps in June 2020
and November 2021.
Beating a murder is one thing,
but it’s almost impossible to get out of a RICO unless you snitch.
Flock is facing a minimum of life in prison
and could even get the death penalty if he’s convicted,
and it doesn’t seem like the feds have any interest
in giving him a deal.
Flock’s lawyer and a lot of other people think
the RICO only happened because the courts knew
Flock could get off on the murder case
but they wanted to keep him off the streets.
Jeffrey Lictman told XXL
"We’re not surprised by the federal charges
as we’ve been fighting Kevin’s state murder charge for over a year now—
and considering the shooting was a clear act of self-defense,
it wasn’t a particularly strong charge.
That it’s now being used as a basis
for a possible death penalty charge is extraordinary.”
Even if Flock could beat his own charges,
someone almost always flips when it comes to RICO cases.
His homie Sticky B hopped on IG and said
the feds already offered a deal but he’s staying solid.
According to him he’s facing 30 years
but he’d rather take the time than snitch on his homie.
Sticky wrote “they said “tell us about Kevin,
help yourself, 30 years is a long time “
well guess I’ll see ya in 30 yrs.”
But even if Sticky isn’t gonna flip,
that doesn’t mean someone else won’t.
Almost everyone in the case is facing life in prison,
so it’s probably just a matter of time before one of them flips to get a lighter sentence.
What’s so tragic about this case
is how pointless all of the death and violence was.
A lot of it allegedly started
because someone hung out with the wrong people one night,
and now several people are dead
and a lot more are facing crazy sentences.
Kay Flock blew up so fast that it seemed like
he was guaranteed to become a superstar.
But instead of leaving the beef behind and focusing on his career,
he threw it all away and might end up getting the death penalty for it.
Hopefully other drill rappers learn to walk away
when they get the chance,
because if you’re crashing out in the streets
it’s only a matter of time before it catches up.
Rest in peace to everyone who lost their lives.