Rap is a genre that originates in the streets
and therefore crime is a common subject in music.
Some rappers talk about past crimes, while others rap about things they’ve seen
or just imagined.
There is also a third category of rappers who talk about real events
going on in the streets while they record their music.
Here are some of the most popular rappers who snitched on themselves
in their own music.
YNW Melly
Jamell Maurice Demons, aka YNW Melly,
is a rapper and singer from Gifford, Florida.
Melly is best known for his deep, emotive singing voice
and breakout tracks like Murder on My Mind and Mixed Personalities, featuring Kanye West.
Melly’s career was on fire
and he was in a good position to become one of the raps biggest up-and-coming stars,
until he was arrested for a double murder in February 2019.
Two of his close friends and co founders of the YNW collective,
Anthony “YNW Sakchaser '' Williams
and Christopher “YNW Juvy” Thomas,
were killed back in October.
Melly and the fourth member of YNW,
Cortlen Henry also known as “YNW Bortlen'',
originally claimed that the two were killed in a drive-by shooting.
However, authorities claim that there is substantial evidence
to prove Melly and Bortlen
killed their friends and conspired to make it look like a random shooting.
Melly has denied the accusations and has entered a not guilty plea,
however, the case has yet to go to trial.
After Melly was arrested, fans began to look back at his music
for clues as to whether the artist is truly capable of murdering his childhood friends
in cold blood or if it is just a conspiracy to put a rising rapper behind bars.
Fans have noticed shocking similarities between the lyrics to Murder on My Mind
and the events that unfolded in real life.
The song was originally written in 2016 and released in 2017
and the crime he is accused of committing occurred in 2018,
so it can’t be a straight-up confession.
But the plot of the song and the events that unfolded
have eerie similarities that show that perhaps Melly was capable of such a crazy murder.
In the song, Melly describes shooting a close friend
and holding him in his arms as he bleeds out.
In the song Melly says “Yellow tape around the body, it’s a ****** homicide
His face is on a T-shirt and his family traumatized
I didn’t even mean to shoot him, he just caught me by surprise
I reloaded my pistol, cocked it back and shot him twice.”
According to police,
the killing of YNW Juvy and Sakchaser was no accident,
it was a premeditated murder.
Neither of the two snuck up on him
because he is accused of having shot them from the backseat.
But Melly continues by saying
“I told him it’s too late, my friend, it’s time to say goodbye’
and he died inside my arms, blood all on my shirt”
Melly claims that he was locked up for gun charges
and drug possession at the time he wrote the song.
However, the chilling nature of the lyrics and the detail he gives about watching his friend die
have led many to believe that if he didn’t kill Sakchaser and Juvy,
he may have killed a friend in the past.
Another detail that has led many to speculate that he may have committed the crime
is a handshake that he performs in the video for the song.
Melly is allegedly a member of the Bloods.
In a documentary released to his YouTube just a few weeks after the shooting,
Melly performs a crazy blood handshake with YNW Juvy.
In the video for Murder on My Mind,
he performs the same handshake with the friend he accidentally killed.
The video, which now has over 425 million views on YouTube,
was released in August 2018,
just two months before Juvy and Sakchaser were killed.
So, while Murder on My Mind isn’t a straight-up confession,
it does reveal that Melly clearly has either thought about
or potentially committed the murder of a close friend.
The case is still ongoing and Melly maintains his innocence.
The trial has been delayed due to coronavirus,
which Melly himself contracted while in prison.
There is a lot that has yet to be revealed in this case
and it may be a while before the facts come to light.
But for now, internet investigators are using his past lyrics to search for clues.
But Melly isn’t the only up-and-coming rapper to snitch on themselves.
This next rapper spent 7 years in prison
after rapping about real crimes being committed in the streets of Brooklyn.
Let’s get right into it.
Bobby Shmurda
Ackquille Jean Pollard, better known as Bobby Shmurda,
is a rapper and convicted felon born in Miami, but raised in Brooklyn, New York.
Shmurda is best known for his hit song Hot N****,
as well as his signature shmoney dance.
But like YNW Melly, just as Bobby was reaching the top of the charts,
he was arrested for crimes that he committed while his career was heating up.
Bobby grew up primarily in a rough part of Brooklyn called East Flatbush.
He was allegedly a member of the G Stone Crips
and part of a gang/music crew called GS9.
Bobby’s breakout hit was the track Hot N****,
a remix of the Llyod Banks song Jackpot that was released in 2012.
Bobby released the video in August 2014
and was arrested along with 14 others just a few months later for a slew of charges,
including conspiracy to commit murder,
reckless endangerment, and drug and gun possession.
Bobby what do you have to say to you fans?
Bobby, anything?
After a long legal battle,
Bobby eventually accepted a plea deal for one count of third-degree conspiracy
and one count of weapons possession.
He was sentenced to 7 years in prison and was just recently set to be released.
Although the lyrics to his song were not direct evidence used against him in court,
the song did allow police to string together a case that GS9 was more than a music crew,
and was a violent street gang.
Here is a look at some of the lyrics that got Bobby hemmed up.
In the song Hot N****, Bobby raps:
“On Truey on some hot n****
Like I talk to Shyste when I shot n****”
Shyste was Bobby’s childhood friend
who was gunned down by a rival gang called Brooklyn’s Most Wanted,
or BMW, in 2011.
This led to a violent beef between the G Stone Crips and the BMWs.
Police used this line to prove that Bobby was involved in the conflict.
Bobby continues by saying
“And Monte keep it one em he done dropped n****”
Nicholas “Monte’ McCoy was one of the members of GS9 who was arrested
along with Bobby and police used this line to prove his affiliation with the gang.
Later in the song, Bobby says
“I’m with Trigger, I’m with Rasha, I’m with A-Rod
Broad daylight and we went let them thing bark.”
Rashid “Rasha” Derissant and Alex “A-Rod” Crandon
were suspected to be involved in the killing of a 19-year-old member of the BMW
back in February 2013.
They were caught on a surveillance camera running into a bodega
and letting things off in broad daylight, just like Bobby says in the song.
They received some of the harshest sentences of any of the GS9 members,
with Rasha getting 98 years and A-Rod getting 53.
The most damaging line is also the most famous when Bobby raps
“ Mitch caught a body bout a week ago!”
Deshain “Mitch” Cockett is another member of GS9
who was accused of shooting at a group of BWM members on East 52nd Street in Brooklyn
and hitting a 22-year-old female bystander in the neck.
The woman survived,
but Mitch was charged with attempted murder in the second degree.
Police used this line to convict Mitch of the shooting.
Check out our video on The Lyrics That Got Bobby Shmurda Arrested
for a more in-depth look at the lyrics and the case.
The evidence against the GS9 crew was pretty damaging
and ultimately, they all ended up doing time.
Even though Bobby was not guilty of committing some of the more serious crimes,
he was painted by prosecutors as the right leader and responsible for orchestrating the crimes.
He could have taken a lighter plea, but he agreed to 7 years to ensure Rowdy Rebel
and Monte got a similar sentence.
Because he remained true to the street code and never snitched,
Bobby has become a modern legend in New York hip hop.
As of February 23, 2021 Bobby is out of jail and a free man.
Only time will tell if he can stay out of trouble
or if he’ll get sucked back into the street life.
But Bobby Shmurda isn’t the only young rapper to self-snitch.
This next artist almost ruined his career with a questionable lyric in an unreleased track.
Let's check it out.
Rich Homie Quan
Dequantes Devontay Lamar, known by his stage name Rich Homie Quan,
is a rapper and singer from Atlanta, Georgia.
Quan originally got mainstream attention for his song Type of Way
and his association with Young Thug and Rich Gang.
He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia,
and had an interest in creative writing and music from an early age.
He got a job at a nearby airport after dropping out of college
and began to pursue his music career.
But after he was fired, he took to the streets to support himself
and ended up serving a 15-month sentence for burglary.
After he was released from prison, he started taking music seriously.
He released Type of Way in August 2013 and Lifestyle with Young Thug in 2015,
both of which made his career red hot.
But just as Rich Homie Quan was taking off,
a questionable lyric from an unreleased track caused a major controversy
that almost derailed his career.
In May 2015,
100+ unreleased Rich gang songs were released to the internet illegally by a hacker.
Among them was a track called I Made It featuring Young Thug.
On the track, Quan says “I don’t want your ***,
just want the coochie from her How you gonna tell me no
You know who I am?”
Many saw this lyric to be condoning ****
and Quan found himself in a major controversy.
He later apologized for the bar, claiming that it was in bad taste
and that it was never supposed to leave the studio.
However, only a few weeks later,
another track was leaked with an even more obvious reference to ****.
In the song Day 1, he raps
“Chances ain’t **** if you don’t take one
mansion full of ******* bout to **** one”
This track was part of the same batch of unreleased songs that got leaked
but it came out a few weeks later than the others,
which reignited the controversy.
In an interview with DJ Vlad, Quan reflects on the situation
and says that he knows the lines weren’t cool.
He says that songs were just unfinished reference tracks that he recorded years prior
and that he would never have released them himself.
He blames it on the fact he was young and just saying wild **** to be cool
but admits he crossed a line.
No females ever came forward to accuse Quan of ****
and therefore he was never charged with anything of that nature.
But the controversy did slow down his career trajectory.
He split from Rich Gang not long after.
He and Thug claim the split was over creative differences,
but the leak may have contributed.
Quan continues to release music
and still has a solid fan base despite the controversy.
However, he still hasn’t had the same kind of mainstream success
as he did before all the drama.
If you liked this video check out some of our previous videos!
From rappers in gangs to the lyrics that got Bobby Shmurda locked up,
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