Yungeen Ace and the ATK gang
have attracted a lot of attention over the past few months
with their track Who I Smoke.
The song exposed the world to their beef
with the KTA gang,
lead by the rapper Foolio,
which has led to multiple murders
and extremely disrespectful songs.
Here is a look at the life and career of Yungeen Ace up to this point
and what made him one of the most feared rappers in Duval County.
Ace had a pretty rough childhood.
He was born in East Chicago, Indiana
but moved with his family to Florida while he was still young.
He has 10 other brothers and his mother struggled to support the family.
They were constantly on the move,
getting evicted from apartment after apartment,
moving in with family or living in hotels,
and doing whatever they had to do to get by.
Ace’s father was in prison for most of his childhood
and he didn’t end up meeting him until he was around 17.
Ace has said in interviews that growing up,
his family struggled so much that he’d never had fun in his life.
The only things he and his siblings had to entertain themselves
was music and the streets.
Ace took to rapping as a way to escape from the difficult circumstances.
Early on he was inspired by artists like Lil Boosie,
Kevin Gates, and Michael Jackson.
But, coming up in Jacksonville,
he was also surrounded by crime and poverty
and he quickly adapted to his environment to survive.
He got sent to juvie a few times when he was younger
but didn’t get locked up for anything serious
until after he started rapping.
With his father locked up,
one of his uncles became like a father figure to him.
But his uncle died when Ace was around 14,
which is when he started getting serious about the music.
He got his rap name from his uncle,
who compared him to Ace from the movie Paid in Full.
Being one of the youngest in his family,
the name Yungeen just stuck.
Yungeen Gang was also a music group
that was founded by some of his older brothers, which Ace joined later on.
In 2017,
he released the track Go To War
along with the Yungeen Gang,
which started to build him a buzz in the city,
getting 100,000 views in the first week on YouTube.
He dropped his first solo single
No Witness later that year
and started building a name for himself
as one of Jacksonville’s hottest up and coming artists.
Although Florida has produced plenty of superstars over the past few years,
most of them were coming out of Miami and Broward County.
No one from Jacksonville had really blown up on a national level
and Ace was in a good position to represent the city.
But, his beef with another popular rapper from Jacksonville
named Foolio is what would make the whole world check out his music
and learn about their violent beef.
In 2017,
Ace was arrested and charged with accessory to a crime after the fact,
for serving as a getaway driver during an attempted robbery.
The charge stemmed from a 2016 home invasion
that involved Ace and his friend Deontrea Thomas aka Trae Shordy.
Trae allegedly attempted to rob two people who were selling weed.
During the robbery,
he let off several shots
which went into a nearby apartment building.
No one was hit,
but the bullets just missed a 12-month-old child
who was sitting in a highchair eating dinner.
Ace served as the getaway driver
and was considered an accomplice in the shooting.
He was later arrested and spent almost a year in jail
and was sentenced to 31 months of probation.
While in jail,
Ace told DJ Vlad
that one of his homies from Yungeen Gang snitched on him,
which led to the group going their separate ways.
Oh nah, it moved apart before then,
that is when I went to jail.
Someone had told- one of them had told on me.
Trae Shordy would avoid getting arrested for the robbery
until he was brought in for a different crime
that would spark the war between KTA and ATK.
Trae would eventually get picked up
for the murder of Zion Brown,
Foolio’s cousin.
According to witnesses,
Thomas threw a brick through a sliding glass door of the victim’s home
and started shooting into the living room.
Zion Brown, as well as his two sisters,
were all shot.
The girls survived, but Zion did not.
Zion Brown was the only adult in the home
along with two teens, a 9 year old, and a 6 year boy.
Trae would eventually be found guilty of the murder
and be sentenced to life in prison.
Deontrae Thomas was the shooter, they charged him with murder.
KTA and ATK
were already beefing at that point,
but things weren’t all that serious.
After Zion Brown was killed,
it was an all-out war.
His murder wasn’t just a normal gang hit
where they caught an opp lackin' out in public.
Trae Shordy targeted Zion at home
in the middle of the night
and just started spraying the place up,
hitting his little sisters in the crossfire.
So, it’s understandable why KTA took it so personal.
There is no evidence to suggest
that Ace was with Trae the night he murked Zion.
But, the cops said that they do believe he had an accomplice.
Because Ace and Trea Shordy
were clearly cool and running around in the streets together,
KTA may have assumed that Ace
was the other person there.
Or maybe they knew they couldn’t get to Trae
because he was locked up, so they went after his homie.
After getting out of jail for the robbery,
things were looking up for Ace.
He signed a deal with Cinematic Music Group
and was in a good position to do big things in the industry.
But in June of 2018,
Ace’s life would change forever,
after he was the sole survivor of a drive-by shooting
that left two of his friends and his blood brother dead.
18 year old Trevon Bullard,
19 year old Jercoby Groover, 18 year old Royale Smith.
They lost their lives late last night.
After Zion Brown was killed,
Foolio and the rest of KTA were out for blood.
Around that same time
Ace revealed in an interview
that the opps had already shot up his house once before,
but they missed their target.
This used to be my room right here.
Somebody shot my house up
out right there in the back me and my brother Quan Quan.
They shot my house up from right here.
Then on June 5th, 2018,
Ace, Quan Quan, and two of their friends 23 and 4 went
out for a birthday celebration at Wasabi,
a Japanese steakhouse in Jacksonville.
It was 23’s 18th birthday
and Quan Quan, who was Ace’s closest brother in age
had also turned 18 a few weeks before.
As they were driving away from the shopping center,
another vehicle pulled up alongside them at a stoplight
and started letting off shots.
In an interview with DJ Vlad,
Ace said that he tried to shield his brother from the bullets with his body,
but it didn’t make a difference.
And I tried to like,
shield my little brother.
23, it was his birthday.
I tried to shield him and **** and make sure he was good
I couldn't shield everybody tho know what I'm saying but,
I tried to shield him and get out of there at the same time.
He was the only one to survive,
even though he was hit 8 times
and the three others passed away.
The murders of Quan Quan 23 and 4
would turn Ace’s heart cold
and force him to direct his rage at Foolio
and the rest of KTA,
leading to a string of retaliation killings.
To make the whole situation even worse for Ace,
he would end up getting arrested for violating his probation
while in the hospital recovering.
Police say Keyanta Bullard
who is also known by his rapper name,
Yungeen Ace, is charge with violation of probation.
The rapper’s face was shown on the Jacksonville news
during coverage of the shooting,
And a retired military officer who ran a gun store on University BLVD in Jacksonville
would recognize him from his picture
and submit an anonymous tip to the Crime Stoppers online.
He said
that Ace and his homies had come into his shop earlier that same day.
Even though they hadn’t bought anything,
they all played with the weapons.
The owner said that he remembered Ace specifically,
because of his distinctive hairstyle.
Ace was still a convicted felon
and still on probation from his previous arrest,
so he wasn’t allowed to possess a weapon.
Police checked the surveillance footage from the gun store
and found footage of the rapper holding one of the weapons.
Even though he didn’t buy the gun –
which he couldn’t do legally anyway as a felon -
it’s still considered possession if you hold a weapon in your hand.
It seems like the cops
were afraid that if the rapper was let back out on the streets,
he might seek revenge.
So, they arrested him for violating his probation
and he was sentenced to 12 months in prison.
But, he was set free from jail later that month
and required to stay on house arrest for the next six months.
During that time,
Ace would focus on music and released his debut mixtape,
Life of Betrayal in 2018.
After that,
the War in Jacksonville was in full effect
and both sides would continue to go at each other in songs
and in the streets.
In February 2019,
Ace’s right-hand man and main shooter Ksoo
allegedly killed Foolio’s 16-year-old brother Bibby
in the parking lot outside of his apartment complex.
Gunfire erupts inside the Northwest Side apartment complex
that leaves this 16 year old dead.
The neighbors say the shooting sounded like a warzone.
Ksoo would later be arrested for the murder
of another KTA affiliate named Lil Buck
the following year and charged with Bibby’s murder while locked up.
A local rapper linked to a violent gang in Jacksonville
Is in jail on two separate murder charges.
Hakeem Robinson was charged in connection with the 2019 murder,
of 16 year old Adrian Gainer Junior.
Check out our video on Ksoo: Yungeen Ace’s Shooter
for a more detailed breakdown of his involvement in this ongoing war.
A few weeks after Bibby was killed,
Ace survived another shooting
that left one of his people dead.
The rapper and his crew
were staying at a Hampton Inn in Waycross, GA
when they were ambushed by another group.
Around 3:30 am,
guests of the hotel reported an attack
going on in the parking lot.
Police arrived to find one victim dead by the pool
and another suffering from a gunshot wound inside one of the rooms.
The man who died was named Ralo
and both victims were friends of Yungeen Ace.
Three men were later arrested,
and it was determined that they were from Jacksonville,
making it clear that it was payback for the beef with KTA.
Just two months later in May 2019,
ATK would get their revenge for Ralo’s murder
and go after Julio’s friend Teki.
Teki was shot and killed in a tan SUV
not far from the Hilltop Apartments
where Bibby was murdered.
Not long after that,
Zion Brown’s sister
was also shot 14 times for identifying Trea Shordy as her brother’s killer
and agreeing to testify against him in court.
She survived the shooting
but was left in critical condition.
An ATK affiliate was arrested for the shooting
but later released after he was able to provide an alibi.
But it just shows how out of control the beef was getting
and even innocent family members could get caught in the crossfire.
While all this was going on,
Ace was focused on the music
and would leave the street business to Ksoo and other members of the ATK crew.
Around this time
another KTA affiliated rapper named Lil Nine
was gunned down in broad daylight.
The rapper was the passenger in a car
that was driving down Atlantic BLVD in Jacksonville.
Another vehicle pulled up alongside them
and fired 12 shots from a rifle into the passenger door
hitting Lil Nine and causing the driver to crash the vehicle
into a nearby rim shop.
The driver who survived would record a video inside the shop
and post it to social media,
letting the opps know that things were about to get ugly.
But, Ksoo would turn around
and use this video to mock Lil Nine,
reposting it with the caption
“p**** boys wanna cry now”
with a bunch of emojis.
He would then take the disrespect to another level
by making a music video for a track
Been Dead that featured a tiny version of Lil Nine
created with visual effects
getting put in a microwave and then into a blunt that Ksoo smokes.
The move was extra savage
because Lil Nine wasn’t just Ksoo’s opp,
he was his blood cousin.
But to Ksoo nothing was off-limits
and he wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to taunt his opps,
even if he was family.
Not long after the Lil Nine murder,
Ksoo would end up getting arrested for the murder of Lil Buck.
While locked up
he would also be arrested for Bibby’s murder as well.
He is currently fighting both cases
and is being held until the trial.
This means that KTA lost its alleged main shooter
and Yungeen Ace would have to continue on without his right hand man.
A week after Ksoo was officially charged with Bibby’s murder,
Ace and his homie Spinnabenz,
Whoppa Wit Da Choppa and Fast Money Goon
would drop what many consider to be one of the most disrespectful songs of all time,
Who I Smoke.
The track samples the classic pop song A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton.
In the music video,
the four rappers are messing around on a golf course
while smoking cigars.
Even though the beat is catchy and upbeat,
the verses are a lot more aggressive
and contain several references to dead KTA members.
The worst is the chorus,
which is sung by Yungeen Ace and features the phrase “Who I Smoke?”
followed by the names Bibby, Teki, and Lil Nine,
three of the most high-profile murder victims in this beef.
The song immediately went viral
and currently has close to 25 million views on YouTube,
receiving both support for its creativity
as well as criticism for its blatant disrespect of the dead.
There is something extra sinister
about making that kind of song over such a cheerful instrumental.
But it caught people’s attention
and brought the beef to a whole new level.
Foolio followed up with his diss When I See You,
which remixes the song of the same name by R&B singer Fantasia.
The track has a similar vibe,
with Foolio disrespecting the dead
while also singing a catchy melody.
To make it even worse,
he printed out a picture of Quan Quan, 23 and 4
from the news coverage of their murder
and can be seen rapping to the poster throughout the video.
It seems like both rappers are trying hard to outdo each other
by creating the most disrespectful music possible, aimed to go viral.
These two songs captured the world’s attention
and brought both rappers into the spotlight.
Both sides have continued to release music
and capitalize on their viral opportunity.
As of yet,
there haven’t been any major incidents of violence
between KTA and ATK
since the tracks popped off.
But with so many lives already lost
and so much disrespectful music already online,
it seems like only a matter of time before something else happens.