Wavy Navy Pooh was one of Quality Control Records'
most promising up-and-coming signees.
But news just broke that he allegedly lost his life
in an ambush attack in his hometown of Miami.
Let’s take a closer look at what happened.
According to the Miami Herald,
a man was shot to death after being ambushed
while in a car driving in West Kendall near the Miami Zoo.
The victim was stopped at a red light at the intersection
of Southwest 152nd Street and 127th Avenue.
He was driving a Toyota Camry with an adult woman and two young boys
who were one and five years old.
While they were stopped at the intersection,
a gray four-door Lexus pulled up on his side and opened fire, killing the driver.
The woman and two children ain’t get injured but was likely traumatized by what happened.
Miami Dade police ain’t identified the victim yet,
but rumors started to spread on social media that it was Miami rapper Wavy Navy Pooh.
Wavy Navy Pooh is a rapper signed to QC Records,
known for tracks like Money on My Head and Guwop.
QC is the label behind major names like Lil Baby, the Migos, Lil Yachty, and City Girls.
It was founded by Coach K and Pee, two Atlanta music industry OGs
who have close ties to Gucci Mane.
Over the past 10 years, QC has been behind some of the biggest stars in the game.
Wavy Navy Pooh was one of the label's newest up-and-coming rappers
and was in a good position to be their next major star.
But unfortunately, it looks like Wavy Navy Pooh is another rapper
who tragically lost his life before he could reach his full potential.
The official Quality Control Instagram account
confirmed the news by posting a pic of the rapper that said Rest in Peace,
along with a caption that read
“It is with great sadness & a heavy heart
that we announce the loss of one of our beloved artist, Wavy Navy Pooh.
Our thoughts & prayers are with the family at this time. #RIPWavyNavyPooh”
They also posted a photo that said
“Your Music Will Live On”, above the covers of his two albums
Endangered and Miami (Murder is a Major Issue).
Pee, one of the label’s founders also took to social media to mourn the loss, posting
“Sad Day Bra. May God Keep Your Family”.
So it’s been confirmed that Pooh had passed away.
In an interview with the Dirty Glove Bastard,
Pooh talked about growing up in the rough streets of Miami.
He was from the Liberty City neighborhood, an area known for crime and poverty.
He said that growing up, he had it fine.
But there was so much death and violence around him at all times,
that it was hard not to get sucked into it.
It felt like every week someone he knew got killed, which would only lead to more violence.
In high school, he played football, which mostly kept him out of trouble
and out of the streets.
But as he got older it got harder and harder.
He jumped off the porch around 16 or 17.
When he found out the only school
where he could get a football scholarship was all the way in North Dakota,
he felt like he had no other choice.
He also worked in construction for a few years before rapping.
But, he was always dangling with the music.
He said it just came naturally to him
and his homies always encouraged him to take it seriously.
He was inspired by rappers like 50 Cent, Chief Keef and Lil Wayne.
But when he signed to QC, he ain’t even have any original songs out yet.
He was just releasing remixes to popular songs by rappers like Lil Durk and Kodak Black.
Then, he connected with Pee through Instagram after networking in the DMs.
He started going through the followers of another popular rap blog / IG account called Teatenders
and started sending his music to the people she followed.
He came across a dude who was a Zoe.
Pooh is also Haitian, so he reached out to him and sent over his remixes.
The dude liked his music, so he started reposting it
and one of the first songs he put up was liked by Pee from QC.
After that, Pee DM'd Pooh and told him to send over some music.
Pooh sent him his number and they eventually hopped on the phone.
Pee told him to work on some original music and then connect with him to talk business.
That eventually led to the rapper signing a deal with QC,
which allowed him to quit his construction job and pursue music full time.
In April 2020 he dropped the song and video for M.I.A.M.I. (Murder is a Major Issue),
which became his breakout track.
He followed up with his debut album of the same name not long after.
The artwork featured 16 photos of people he lost to gun violence.
But his come-up was far from easy.
Since coming into the game,
Wavy Navy Pooh continued to deal with drama in his own city.
In May 2020 he was shot while driving on the 3100 Block of Northwest 88th Street.
He was hit in the thigh and leg but survived.
When police arrived on the scene, he told them that he fired back in self-defense
after someone in a passing car shot at him and several other dudes
chilling outside of a nearby house.
According to police, Pooh is also suspected of being involved in a series of shootings
that happened in North Miami Dade over the past year.
Authorities was already preparing for retaliation attacks
over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
But the shooting ain’t stop his grind.
In September 2020, Pooh linked up with Gucci Mane for the track Guwop,
which took his career to the next level.
His connections at QC
helped him secure a verse from one of the most influential rappers in the game
for his first official feature.
He followed up with his second project Endangered in May 2021.
The album featured Moneybagg Yo on the song Money on My Mind,
which became another one of Pooh’s biggest songs.
So he definitely had star potential
and was already linking up with some of the biggest artists in the game.
But unfortunately, Pooh never made it far enough in the rap game
to make it out of his own city.
He claimed in interviews that he was paranoid living in Miami
because so many people around him had that crab in a barrel mentality.
Now that he was doing well with his music, he was dealing with a lot more hatred and jealousy.
Even though Pooh tried to distance himself from the streets,
he has been guilty of dissing opps in his music.
He claims Chief Keef was one of the artists in his age bracket
who inspired him to really start rapping.
He also compared Miami to Chicago with the way that rappers
diss each other’s hoods and dead homies in their music.
The exact motive behind the rapper’s murder ain’t been determined.
But based on the circumstances, it seems like the shooting was targeted
and was probably motivated by jealousy or past beef.
Wavy Navy Pooh had a bright future ahead of him if he could have just left the beef alone
and focused on his rap career.
He had all the right people behind him and seemed committed to changing his life.
But unfortunately, he never had that major hit that allowed him to leave his city
and avoid all the drama.
But he left behind a solid catalog of music that will carry on his memory.
RIP Wavy Navy Pooh.