Sanyika Shakur, also known by his former street moniker Monster, is a former
member of the Los Angeles gang the Eight Tray Gangster Crips. He got his nickname
as a 13-year-old gang member when he beat and stomped a robbery victim until
he was disfigured. Shakur claimed to have reformed in prison, joined the
Republic of New Afrika movement, and wrote a 1993 autobiography called
Monster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member.
Monster describes how Shakur was drawn into gang life, his experiences as a
gangster both on the street and in prisons, and eventually his
transformation into a Black nationalist. Shakur spent 36 months at San Quentin
State Prison and five years at Pelican Bay State Prison, most of which was
spent in solitary confinement, where he converted to Islam.
In March 2007, Shakur, already sought by police for parole violations and named
on the city's most-wanted gang members list, was arrested by the Los Angeles
Police Department for allegedly breaking into the home of an acquaintance and
beating him in order to steal his car. The charges represent a possible third
strike that could send Shakur back to prison for life. In May 2008 Shakur
pleaded no contest to carjacking and robbery charges, and was sentenced to
six years in state prison. Also in 2008, Shakur made his fiction debut with the
publication of T.H.U.G. L.I.F.E.. He was released from Pelican Bay after serving
two thirds of his 6-year sentence in August 2012.
Early life Kody Dejohn Scott was born in Los
Angeles, California on November 13, 1963 to Ernest Scott and Birdie Canada, both
from Houston, Texas. Kody was the fifth of six children, including four brothers
and two sisters. Kody claims to be the son of former Los Angeles Rams running
back Dick Bass, and that he was conceived during an adulterous affair
that his mother was having with the football star, a claim for which there
is no compelling evidence. Ernest Scott held a bitter resentment towards
Birdie's affair and physically abused his wife regularly throughout Kody's
early childhood. Ernest Scott physically and emotionally
abused Kody, routinely beating him and showing deliberate favoritism towards
his biological children over Kody, which included taking the other children out
to dinners, movies and trips to his hometown of Houston and intentionally
leaving Kody behind. In 1970, Ernest and Birdie Scott divorced and for the next
five years, Ernest Scott would visit the family on weekends but still openly
displayed contempt for young Kody. In 1972, Birdie Scott moved her family
into a house on W 69th St and Denker Ave in a very rough and gang-infested
neighborhood on the west side of South Central Los Angeles. According to Kody
Scott, his first encounter with street gangs occurred at age ten when he was
assaulted by two thirteen-year-olds who stole his money. Because Birdie Scott
worked several jobs to support her large family as well as the neglect that he
received from Ernest Scott, young Kody would often hang out on the streets of
his new neighborhood. It was around this time that Kody began hanging around his
neighbor Stanley Tookie Williams, leader of the West Side Crips street gang.
In his autobiography " Blue Rage, Black Redemption " Tookie Williams recalls the
occasions where he and other adult members of the Crips would smoke PCP and
lift weights at Williams' house. According to Williams, Kody was always
present at the house and would watch in awe as the gang members would lift
weights and tell stories about gang fights and shootings that they had
committed. In the book Williams also expressed his regret regarding his
behavior around the impressionable young Kody, and held himself personally
responsible for exposing Kody to drugs as Kody himself would later become a
frequent PCP user. Joining The Crips
In 1975 a member of the West Side Crips nicknamed Sidewinder formed a "set"
called the Eight Tray Gangster Crips in Kody's neighborhood. WhatKody began
hanging out with members of the ETG's, in particular a teenaged member of the
gang nicknamed Tray Ball. In May 1975, one month before his sixth grade
graduation from [Raymond Avenue Elementary School] (incorrect - Horace
Mann hosted grades 7-9 during that time period.
His age is consistent with a 6th grade elementary school graduation), Kody was
suspended from school for flashing an ETG gang sign in the Class of 1975
graduation photo. On the evening of June 15, 1975, the day of his sixth-grade
graduation, Kody was initiated into the ETG's. Kody was " quoted " into the
gang. Kody and another gang member then
hotwired a stolen car after which Kody and several members of the ETG's, all
armed with revolvers and shotguns, tracked down members of the Brims street
gang who had been hanging out in the Crips' neighborhood. The ETG's opened
fire on a group of approximately fifteen Brims, shooting several of them. Kody,
armed with a sawed-off 12 gauge shotgun and instructed not to return to the car
unless he used all eight rounds of the weapon, shot several Brims gang members
that evening. = Disfiguring an older Black man=
As a new member of the Crips Kody was mentored in the ways of gangbanging by
Tray Ball. In 1977, at age thirteen, Kody and Tray Ball attempted to rob an
older African American man walking through their neighborhood. The man
punched Kody in the face and, after being physically restrained by Tray Ball
when he attempted to run, Kody kicked and stomped the man for approximately
twenty minutes. Kody's vicious attack left the man in a coma with his face
permanently disfigured. According to Kody, Crips present at the
crime scene overheard police officers saying that whoever assaulted the man
was a "monster" and reported this back to Kody. From that point on other
members of the ETG's referred to Kody as "Monster" and Kody took the name as a
street moniker. = First arrest for shooting=
Kody's first arrest occurred in 1978 at age 14 after he shot at the employee of
a fast-food restaurant who had assaulted his younger brother, Kershawn, and later
assaulted and pulled a gun on Kody. Kershawn Scott later joined the
Eight-Trays and assumed the nickname Lil' Monster.
A week after being released from jail Kody was arrested again after being
falsely accused of shooting a member of the Inglewood Family Bloods while he and
other members of the Crips were on their way to a roller skating rink in Compton,
California. On February 14, 1979 Kody was arrested for assault and grand theft
auto and served nine months at Camp Munz in Lake Hughes, California.
The Rivalry Between The Eight Trays and The Rollin 60's: The beginning of Crip
vs. Crip Violence During Kody's stay at Camp Munz several
major events occurred on the streets of South Central L.A. involving the Crips.
On March 15, 1979 West Side Crips leader Stanley "Tookie" Williams was arrested
for four murders committed during two separate robberies while on an alleged
drug binge. Williams was sentenced to death row and executed by lethal
injection on December 13, 2005. On August 9, 1979 Raymond Washington,
the founder of the Crips, was murdered in a drive-by shooting near his home.
Because Raymond Washington always made it a point never to walk up to cars, it
was determined that his killers were people he knew personally since he had
walked up to the murderers' car and had a conversation with them prior to being
shot. Washington's murder was blamed on the Hoover Crips, which started a war
between the East Side Crips and the Hoovers.
In September 1979 a 15-year-old member of the ETG's nicknamed Bootsy got into a
fight with a teenaged member of the Rollin 60's Neighborhood Crips named
Tyrone over a girl who had been dating both young men. Before this incident and
the gang war that resulted from it, the Eight-Trays and the Rollin 60's were
close allies, even participating in fights and shootings together against
the Bloods. In a subsequent fistfight between the two teenagers a new recruit
to the ETG's, eager to make a name for himself, pulled a gun and shot Tyrone to
death. Tyrone's older brother, a member of the
Rollin' 60's, demanded that the ETG's hand over the new recruit to be punished
by the 60's and to prevent a war between the two gangs. The ETG's were unable to
find the new recruit, who had already turned himself in to the police. The
Rollin' 60's, feeling that the ETG's weren't being honest, murdered a member
of the ETG's in retaliation, shooting the young man in his face six times at
point blank range after he was ambushed on his front porch.
A meeting was called by the leaders of both gangs in an attempt to end the
fight. However, because tensions were high with both gangs, the meeting
erupted into a gang rumble, after which the Rollin' 60's and the ETG's engaged
in a gang war that still exists to this day.
= Shooting and hospitalisation= Kody Scott, along with his best friend
Deautri "Crazy De" Denard, was deeply involved in this gang war and was
responsible for shooting and assaulting dozens of members of the Rollin' 60's.
On December 31, 1980, 17-year-old Kody was ambushed and shot five times by
three adult members of the Rollin' 60's after being set up by a group of girls
who were dating friends from his set. Perhaps what saved his life was the fact
that earlier that evening Kody had been drinking a cheap brand of low-end
fortified wine called "Night Train" and smoked PCP with other members of the
ETG's as the gang celebrated New Years Eve and the level of inebriation that
Kody was under at the time of the shooting prevented him from going into
shock. After being shot Kody reported having hallucinations of seeing the
faces of all of the gang members he had shot since joining the Crips as well as
seeing the infant daughter that he had with his girlfriend, Tamu. Kody survived
the shooting and was hospitalized for several weeks.
Kody's younger brother Kershawn, who was by now a member of the Eight-Trays
nicknamed Lil' Monster, sought revenge for his older brother's shooting. On New
Years Day 1981 Kershawn and several teenage members of the ETG's committed a
string of retaliatory shootings. Kershawn shot two teenagers who were
standing in the front yard at a house party that was being thrown in the
Rollin' 60's neighborhood and later that evening shot another teenager to death
in a drive-by as the young man was walking down the street.
Kershawn was later arrested and sentenced to five years in California
Youth Authority for murder as a juvenile. While recovering in the
hospital Kody's assailants from the Rollin' 60's came to the hospital in an
attempt to finish him off. Due to the intervention of a nurse who was
attending to him, Kody was unharmed. However, once released from the
hospital, he continued gangbanging and would spend the remainder of the 1980s
in and out of the penal system for numerous violent offenses.
Changing his name to Sanyika Shakur While in prison during the 1980s Kody
befriended members of the Republic of New Afrika movement. Kody, who dropped
out of high school, began to educate himself in prison. He changed his name
to Sanyika Shakur and began changing his viewpoint regarding his role in the
plight of blacks in the United States of America. After being released from
prison in 1988, Kody married his longtime girlfriend, Tamu.
In January 1991, Kody was arrested for assault and grand theft auto after
beating up a crack dealer and stealing the dealer's van. Kody was incarcerated
during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots following the acquittal of the four
police officers accused of beating Rodney King following a traffic stop.
The beating of white truck driver Reginald Denny was committed by members
of the ETG's in Kody's neighborhood. This event, as well as participating in
Leon Bing's book Do Or Die inspired Kody to write his book, Monster: The
Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Member. Friendship with Tupac Shakur and the
Vibe Magazine Interviews In the early 1990s Kody, now calling
himself Sanyika Shakur, met rapper Tupac Shakur. The two immediately became good
friends and Kody mentioned Tupac in the introduction to his book. In 1996, as
Kody was on the run from police for a parole violation, he met up with Tupac
on the set of the x-rated version of Tupac's music video "How Do U Want It".
This would be the last time that Kody would ever see Tupac.
On September 13, 1996 Tupac Shakur died after being shot in a drive-by shooting
in Las Vegas, Nevada seven days earlier, allegedly by members of the South Side
Compton Crips. Kody would later interview Tupac's alleged murderer,
Orlando Anderson, for a December 1997 Vibe Magazine article about Tupac's
murder, in which Anderson denied being involved in the rapper's murder.
After being captured by police, Kody was sent to Pelican Bay State Prison, where
he spoke with Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, who was also incarcerated at
Pelican Bay for a parole violation stemming from his participation in the
assault on Anderson. According to the Vibe Magazine article, Kody, upon
hearing that Tupac had been shot, initially suspected that Suge Knight had
set him up because Tupac was planning to leave Death Row Records to start his own
record label. In the article Kody stated that he was
incredulous after hearing Knight's claim that Tupac died owing him money despite
selling over $60 million USD worth of albums for Death Row Records, and that
he knew that all of Tupac's possessions, including his home and his cars, were in
Knight's name. At the end of the interview Knight told Kody that Orlando
Anderson was indeed the person who killed Tupac. Orlando Anderson was
killed on May 29, 1998 in an unrelated shooting.
Since 2000 In March 2007, Shakur, already sought by
police for parole violations and named on the city's most-wanted gang members
list, was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department for allegedly breaking
into the home of an acquaintance and beating him in order to steal his car.
The charges represent a possible third strike that could send Shakur back to
prison for life. In May 2008 Shakur pleaded no contest to
carjacking and robbery charges, and was sentenced to six years in state prison.
Also in 2008, Shakur made his fiction debut with the publication of T.H.U.G.
L.I.F.E.. He was released from Pelican Bay after serving two-thirds of his
6-year sentence in August 2012. In November 2013, Shakur published a
book of essays titled Stand up, Struggle Forward: New Afrikan Revolutionary
Writings on Nation, Class, and Patriarchy.
References External links
https:www.youtube.com