Lil Reese is one of the godfathers of drill music and was right there with Chief Keef,
Fredo Santana, and Lil Durk when the scene first exploded.
But the rapper is also a respected Chiraq Savage who built a name for himself in the streets
way before his music.
Here is a look at the come-up and criminal history of Lil Reese.
Lil Reese was born Tavares Lamont Taylor
on January 6th, 1993.
Not much is known about Lil Reese’s early life because he doesn’t do many interviews.
But he grew up in the Calumet Building on 62nd and Calumet,
right across the street from O’Block.
He says that he was gangbanging since he was 5 years old and there is even a picture online
of him throwing up a gang sign when he was around that age.
He would later end up joining the BD set Lamron, which is just Normal spelled backward,
one of the blocks where the gang is based.
His whole family was involved in the streets and he grew up around crime and violence.
His mother had 5 kids and his father had another 5 or 6,
so altogether Reese grew up in a big family.
His mother grew up on the 300 blocks and his dad grew up in Calumet,
so he had connections all over,
which is how he linked up with dudes like Chief Keef and King Von.
He got kicked out of school in the 11th grade, which is when he decided to start rapping.
Not long after that, he would get kicked out up for the first time.
In early 2010, Reese would be arrested on burglary charges at just 17 years old.
He was still a minor at the time,
so there isn’t much information available about the charge.
But he pled guilty and was eventually sentenced to two years of probation.
Lil Reese stayed out of trouble for a while.
But then his life would change forever after he hopped on Chief Keef’s hit song
“I Don’t Like” in 2012.
Keef was already building a buzz in Chicago but I Don’t Like was an instant hit
thanks to the viral music video that was directed by DGainz
and the remix which features Kanye, Pusha T, Jadakiss, and Big Sean.
Suddenly Keef, Reese, and everyone in their crew was world-famous
and drill was the hottest sound in the country.
All the attention earned Reese a deal with Def Jam Records.
It seemed like Reese had hit it big and could finally get out of Chicago.
But, he would hit a major roadblock early on that would almost ruin his career.
In October 2012, a video leaked to the internet that allegedly showed Lil Reese
assaulting a woman at a party.
The woman in the video tries to get Reese and his friends to leave,
which is when he ends up assaulting her.
The rapper apologized for the video and said that it was from a long time ago.
But this was the early days of cancel culture
and the bad publicity definitely hurt his momentum in the music industry.
In April 2013, Reese was arrested again after a police officer who was patrolling the area
found Reese sleeping in a parked car on the side of the road.
The officer ran his name in the police database
and found out that Reese had a warrant out for his arrest.
The warrant was related to the incident where the viral video was recorded.
Reese was charged with criminal trespass to a residence, battery,
and mob action for the events that went down that night.
He was brought to the Champaign County Jail, where he was held on a $100,000 bond.
But he posted bail and was released shortly after and didn’t end up serving any time for the charge.
Not long after that,
Lil Reese would be arrested again for misdemeanor theft in June 2013.
The charge stemmed from an incident of motor vehicle theft
where Reese was pulled over and was unable to prove ownership of the BMW 750Li he was driving.
An unnamed 44-year-old man claimed that he was the owner of the vehicle
and never gave Reese permission to register it in his name.
The case was later dropped, and Reese was not charged with anything.
But Lil Reese just couldn’t catch a break and he would be arrested again just a month later.
Reese was chillin with some of his homies on Eggleston Ave when police came by to patrol the area.
When Reese saw the cops, he turned around to walk away.
The cops followed him down an alley and claimed that they saw him remove a plastic bag
with green plant-like material inside.
This gave them enough probable cause to stop and search him.
They ended up finding a little over $2000 in cash and a small amount of weed.
When the cop asked Reese where he got the money he responded by saying
“It’s mine, I got a lil weed. So what?
There’s serious crime out there. This ain’t a big deal. I’m gangsta.”
The cops obviously didn’t see it his way
and Reese was arrested and charged with violating the terms of his bail
and possession of marijuana.
But it wasn’t that serious of a situation and Reese was able to get the charges dropped.
But, the police harassment wouldn’t stop there and about a year later,
Reese would be arrested for allegedly concealing a handgun.
Reese was driving around Chicago when he was spotted by police, who pulled him over.
The police claims that when he came to the window, Reese was trying to conceal a handgun.
Reese was immediately arrested and charged with felony possession of a firearm.
He was held on a $50,000 bond, which he quickly posted.
But he would later be acquitted of the charges
after the cops failed to prove that he actually had a weapon on him.
Reese would stay out of trouble for the next few years and keep a pretty low profile.
He would continue to release music,
but never left Chicago and moved to LA or Atlanta like many of his friends and people in the industry.
He would be arrested for the final time in May 2018
after the Chicago PD and the FBI raided his apartment.
Police uncovered about $2000 worth of weed, a scale, and $100,000 cash.
Reese was charged with felony drug possession, but, he accepted a plea agreement.
He eventually pled guilty to the charge and was given a $5,000 fine and one year of probation.
Since then Reese has avoided trouble with the law.
Although he’s still very much in the streets of Chicago and is still at war with his opps.
On November 11th, 2019, Reese was shot in the neck and critically wounded
while stopped at the intersection of Markham and Country Club Hills Road.
Tavares Taylor better known as Lil Reese
is in critical condition at this hour at Advocate Christ Medical Center
with a gun shot wound to the neck
WBG Tom Megivic is there live with our report tonight
He was pursued by another driver during a chase, who waited until he was stopped in traffic.
Witnesses say that a man dressed in a hooded sweatshirt got out of a light-colored Sedan
and fired approximately two-dozen rounds at his car with an AK-47.
Police arrived at the scene to find Reese’s vehicle and fresh blood all around the driver’s seat,
but the rapper was nowhere to be found.
Another man had driven him to the hospital, where he made a full recovery
despite getting shot in the neck.
The gunshot messed with his voice for a while, but even that couldn’t silence Lil Reese.
The rapper would be right back on social media to show off his battle scars.
He would also respond to a fan on Twitter, to tell DJ Vlad and other media outlets
that he would need $1million to tell his story.
He even released a diss track called Come Outside aimed at the people who shot him,
showing the world that he wasn’t backing down.
Many have wondered why after all this time why Reese would stay in Chicago
after getting himself wrapped up in all these crazy situations.
But it seems like the rapper fell in love with the streets
and won’t give the lifestyle up for good.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Reese would be shot again over a stolen Dodge Durango.
Three people were shot on the near northside this morning, one of them, rapper Lil Reese.
He was grazed by a bullet and this is not the first time he has been the victim of gun fire.
He was also shot in 2019
WGN Rob Sneed has reaction from downtown neighborhood
On May 15th, 2021, Lil Reese and two other men were injured
during a shootout in a parking garage in Chicago
and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
A video of the aftermath of the shootout was released to social media.
It showed Reese sitting on the ground, bleeding from his eye,
while the person recording screams at him and throws up gang signs.
Plus, the details that emerged about what went down were even more confusing.
The shootout took place in the parking garage of the building where Lil Reese’s girlfriend lives.
According to him,
he had just gone down to meet up with the guys in the Dodge Durango to buy some weed,
when suddenly a fight broke out and someone started shooting.
Apparently, the owner had tracked it using a GPS device.
The father of the car’s owner spotted them in the parking lot and confronted them.
While they were speaking, someone else came up behind him with a loaded weapon
and started firing into the vehicle.
The Durango tried to get away but ended up smashing into a pillar.
The men driving ended up hopping out and exchanging shots,
with Lil Reese getting grazed in the eye during the shootout.
Some how, Reese bounced back again and made a full recovery.
It seems like Reese was just at the wrong place at the wrong time
and got caught up in a situation that he had nothing to do with.
The exact details of the shooting are still unclear
but it doesn’t seem like Reese has been charged with any crimes related to the incident.
The video showing Reese bleeding outside the parking garage
only added to the confusion.
In the video, the guy recording claims to be the owner of the car
but also keeps taunting Lil Reese and even throws up a gang sign in front of his face.
This led many to speculate that the shooting was gang-related
and went deeper than a stolen car.
But at this time it’s all just internet rumors
because no new information has come out since the incident.
Since then Lil Reese has stayed lowkey and hasn’t been in the spotlight too much.
Other than occasionally beefing with 6ix9ine, the rapper has stayed away from the drama.
Hopefully, Reese has learned his lesson and will be smarter about how he moves in the future.
At this point, he’s one of the most famous drill rappers to still live in the city of Chicago
and as long as he stays there, anything could happen.
Another drill pioneer Edai 600 was just shot and killed in the city,
even though he wasn't as active in the streets as he used to be.
So Reese should maybe consider moving somewhere else.
But he seems like a dude who just loves his city
and isn’t as interested in the fame and Hollywood lifestyle.
Cause if getting shot in the neck and face isn’t enough to make you leave the city,
then nothing can.
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