There’s been a heated battle in Brooklyn over the past few years
between the Woos and the Choos.
Early on, the two groups was evenly matched in the music industry,
with artists like 22gz, Nick Blixky, and Coach Da Ghost representing the Choos.
But beef, murders, and gang indictments
hurt the group's position in the music industry.
Let’s take a closer look at the fall of the Choos.
The war between the Woos and the Choos has been active for over a decade.
The Woos were originally called wave gang
and were made up of different allied blood and cripp sets based in Brownsville.
The Choos originally went by the Hoodstarz and was made up of GD’s
from the Ebbet’s Field Houses in Brooklyn,
as well as other gangs they were cool with.
In 2012, a major gang indictment called Operation Tidal Wave
brought down 43 members of both the Wave gang and the Hoodstarz,
who were accused of crimes ranging from shootings to grand larceny.
There were allegations of snitching on both sides and ever since then
the two groups have had problems.
After the indictment, the Wave gang reformed under the Woo umbrella
and the Hoodstarz formed the Choos.
These two groups have been in a violent war
that has terrorized the streets of Brooklyn ever since.
The first GD rapper to start poppin was 22gz.
22gz is from East New York Brooklyn, and started gaining a buzz in 2016
with tracks like Blixky and Suburban.
He started building a following on YouTube, with his music videos racking up millions
of views.
He was one of the first rappers to use UK beats
and many consider him as one of the early pioneers of the Brooklyn drill sound.
22gz formed a group called the Blixky gang,
which featured other rappers like Nick Blixky and Nas Blixky.
22gz was the star of the group,
but together they all helped shape the early Brooklyn drill movement.
Then, just when the Blixky gang started gaining momentum,
22gz got in a wild road rage incident that almost ended his career before it really began.
The rapper was in Miami for a show
when the driver of the car he was in got into an altercation over a parking spot.
The driver tried to pull into a space that was too small
and ended up hitting the car in the next spot.
The owner of that car and another man saw it happen and confronted them.
At one point the driver pulled out a gun, shooting both men before fleeing.
This led to a high-speed chase with police, which resulted in the driver getting killed.
22gz was in the car the whole time
and got arrested for murder after one of the victims died.
He was later cleared of all charges
once it was proven that the driver of the car
was the one who fired the shots.
But 22gz still spent the next few months behind bars fighting the case.
So, while the leader of the Blixky Gang was locked up,
his homie Nick Blixky stepped up to the plate and started rapping to maintain their buzz
in the streets.
Nick Blixky had been secretly making music before but never dropped anything.
So, 22gz getting locked up
was the perfect moment for Nick to make his debut as a rapper.
Once 22gz got out, the Blicky gang continue to dominate the New York drill scene.
22gz and Nick Blixky collabed for the track Jet Li,
which quickly racked up over 1 million plays.
Nas Blixky and Breezy Blixky were also putting out music and doing decent numbers.
So, for a minute it seemed like the GDs had the Brooklyn drill sound on lock.
But all that changed in 2019, when Pop Smoke set off the Brooklyn drill sound
with tracks like Dior and Welcome to the Party.
Even though many credit 22gz for pioneering the sound,
it was Pop Smoke who really took it to the next level and attracted mainstream attention.
But Pop was from the Woos and often made references to the gang in his music
including the title of his debut mixtape Meet the Woo.
So now there was competition over which gang would dominate the Brooklyn drill scene
– the Woos or the Choos.
2019 was Pop Smoke's year, so for a while, it seemed like the Woos had the upper hand.
Plus, after Pop blew up, other Woo rappers began building a buzz
including Fivio Foreign and Sosa Geek.
Other rappers like Sheff G and Sleepy Hollow also started gaining attention.
They are not technically part of the Woo,
but they're cripps who also beef with 22gz and the Blixky Gang.
So, this applied more pressure to the gang now that their opps was blowing up.
Then, in February 2020, Pop Smoke was killed while staying out in LA.
At first, rumors circulated that his murder may have been due to his gang affiliations.
But it was later revealed that he was actually killed during a robbery attempt gone wrong.
Pop’s death left a major hole in the Brooklyn drill scene.
He took the sound to a national level, only to be killed before he could reach his
full potential.
It was a big loss for NYC hip hop
and for a while, it seemed like Brooklyn drill would never be the same.
Just a few months after Pop Smoke was killed, tragedy also hit the Blixky gang.
In May 2020, NYPD found Nick Blixky unconscious and unresponsive
with a gunshot wound to the torso and butt on Winthrop Street in Brooklyn.
Initially, footage leaked to the internet showing police standing over his body,
leading many to assume that he was killed in an incident of police brutality.
But come to find out, Nick was actually killed by someone he knew.
Police uncovered surveillance footage from outside a nearby deli
which showed Nick dapping up his killer just before being shot.
They used the footage to identify a suspect named Caliph Glean,
who had previously served time for attempted murder.
The footage also showed that Glean was rocking a blue bandana at the time of the
shooting,
leading police to believe that Nick’s gang affiliations may have led to his death.
The exact motive behind the murder is still unclear.
But police revealed that it was likely payback for the Blixky gang dissing Pop Smoke after
his passing.
Both Breezy and Nas Blicky sent shots on social media after Pops murder.
So, police believe that Nick’s death was retaliation for the disrespect.
Nick Blixky’s murder was a major L for the GDs.
He was starting to build a major buzz with the song Drive the Boat
and was working on his debut album at the time of his death.
To make matters worse, a beef formed between two Choo-affiliated rappers,
Envy Caine and Coach Da Ghost, which caused internal tension in the gang.
Coach da Ghost is a rapper from Brownsville,
who was part of the Choo back when it was known as the Hoodstarz.
He was one of the gang members who got arrested as part of Operation Tidal Wave.
He did 7 years but kept it solid and never snitched on anybody.
So, he earned a lot of respect in the gang.
He started building a buzz with tracks like Goey Sauce and Hitlist.
Hitlist gained a lot of attention in the city
cause it featured disses aimed at Pop Smoke and Fivio Foreign.
It even attracted the attention of Gucci Mane, who wanted to sign Coach to his new 1017 roster.
But that never happened, possibly because of the Pop Smoke diss.
Envy Caine is another GD rapper who has collaborated with 22gz and Coach da Ghost
on tracks like Woo K and Revenge.
But eventually, they would all fall out,
which led to Coach da Ghost kicking Envy Caine out of the Choos.
Coach went on IG Live and announced that Envy Caine was no longer Folk
and that they cut all ties with him.
It’s not clear exactly what caused the split.
But it’s rumored that Envy Caine was starting problems with some GD’s down in Atlanta.
He was making the crew look bad, so Coach decided to cut him off to save face.
Envy Caine responded by telling Coach to come find him outside if he has problems.
He would also send shots at 22gz, claiming Sheff G had run them out of the city.
So instead of coming together to take over the rap game,
the Choos would be dissing each other and creating internal beef.
Not long after making his debut as a rapper, Coach Da Ghost got arrested for a parole violation.
The rapper had been on the run from his parole office for over three years.
The whole time he was dropping songs, he was wanted by the police.
This may have contributed to him being dropped by 1017
because he couldn’t do any shows or really move around properly as an artist while on
the run.
The final blow to the GDs came in August 2020,
when 9 members of the gang were arrested for trafficking guns from Georgia to New York.
The guns were purchased legally in Georgia,
but then brought to New York illegally in rental cars or greyhound busses.
Many of the guns would be sold to felons and gang members who couldn’t purchase them
legally.
Police learned of the gun trafficking ring after catching the straw purchaser
or the person who was buying the guns legally then flipping them on the black
market.
Devaughn Wilson, the buyer, would sell them to members of the Blixky gang,
who helped smuggle them into New York.
Wilson agreed to testify against his business partners
and a total of eight men and one woman were arrested in the indictment.
Some of the GD's arrested were also rappers
and police were able to match some of the stolen guns to those used in their music videos.
Some of these stolen guns were used in videos for songs like Guns in the Booth
and Word to Folk by Saint Laurent Sour and Tay 627.
This only provided more evidence that these rappers were involved
in a huge interstate gun trafficking ring.
The police were able to tie Wilson to the purchase of over 87 guns.
At least one of the weapons, a .22 pistol,
was used to fire shots at a police officer in the Bronx.
Four others had been seized by police the past month
while they were searching the home of a man suspected of a murder in Brooklyn.
NYC has been cracking down on guns over the past year.
A spike in crime during the coronavirus pandemic has led to a major increase in gun violence.
So, the feds have responded by doing whatever it takes to get the guns off the streets.
An investigation into how the guns were making their way into the city
led them right to the GDs.
So now it seems like 22gz is the only popular Choo rapper left on the streets.
He has continued to grind and dropped his 3rd official mixtape The Blixky Tape in March
2021,
which peaked at number 20 on Billboard.
He continues to receive credit as one of the early pioneers of Brooklyn drill
and still has a dedicated fanbase.
But it seems like the GDs have lost a lot of momentum in the rap game,
compared to when he first entered the industry.