DThang is one of the biggest names in the Bronx drill scene.
He just started dropping music two years ago, but he blew up fast with tracks like Caution and Talk Facts
and became one of the coldest rappers in the city.
But right when he was about become mainstream,
he got hit with some legal trouble -
and now he’s caught up in a massive indictment with 22 other members of the River Park Towers gang
that could end his career.
Here’s what’s going down.
On Tuesday, May 24th,
the NYPD issued a 65-count indictment against the RPT YGz
that included charges for conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, and more.
That alone was bad enough,
but seven members got hit with a separate indictment for a shooting back in 2020.
And a third indictment was issued against five of them for allegedly jumping a Crip in Rikers Island last year.
Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said
“These defendants allegedly engaged in gun violence,
committing six shootings, one which injured a rival gang member.
They allegedly fired wildly on the streets without regard for the lives of anyone else.
They allegedly possessed a gun used in shootings
that they posed with on social media and rapped about the violence.”
The conspiracy indictment is the one that Dthang is wrapped up in, and it’s probably the most serious.
New York State usually lets the feds handle cases like this under RICO,
but a state conspiracy case is almost as bad for the dudes who have to fight it.
It’s usually easier to beat a murder case than conspiracy or RICO.
Because if someone you’re affiliated with commits a crime,
you can end up going down with them even if you wasn’t directly involved.
Aside from the more serious charges, they also got hit with an animal cruelty misdemeanor.
According to the indictment, a few RPT members was live streaming a pigeon
and said it was like a Crip who came to the wrong hood.
One of them said “If we get a hundred views, we’ll kill it.”
And when their Facebook Live hit a hundred viewers, they used a cane to beat the pigeon to death.
RPT is a blood set that’s linked to the Young Gunners or YGz,
and this ain't the first time the cops have tried to take them down.
Back in 2014, 20 RPT members was targeted in a huge investigation that shook up the whole organization.
According to the 2014 indictment, the RPT YGz started selling crack,
weed, and other drugs in the area around 2010.
They also “engage in robberies and acts of violence to assert the gang’s stats.”
The River Park Towers complex has security guards that patrol the area
and try to keep people from slanging drugs, but even they’re not safe from RPT.
In May 2014, an RPT member named Face started taunting a security guard
and punched him in the face.
This sparked a huge brawl between RPT and other guards,
then the head of the gang pulled out a gun and threatened them.
A dude named Meme was RPT’s leader at the time,
but he got replaced by a member named Fox after he got arrested for killing two people in car jackings.
What’s wild about Meme is how much work he was still putting in even though he was running the crew.
He could have just sat back and collected the bread from everyone else,
but instead he went out and hit his own licks - which eventually earned him a life sentence.
According to court documents,
a dude in Meme’s crew named Tommy Smalls snitched and testified against him.
Smalls told the court that in August 2014,
Meme wanted to rob a McDonald’s.
So Meme, Smalls, and two other dudes met up
and made plans to carjack someone and bring guns to use in the robbery.
That night, they got a cab and told the driver to go to an empty dead-end street in the Bronx.
Meme pulled out his burner and told the driver to get out,
but he refused.
Then Smalls dragged the driver out of the car and Meme shot him in the back of the head.
They left his body in the street, then used the cab as a getaway car
when they robbed a convenience store and a Dunkin’ Donuts later that night.
Meme and his crew killed another cab driver a week later,
but the plan went sideways and they couldn’t use the car for another robbery.
A surveillance camera caught them dumping evidence in a dumpster,
and the cops found a pair of gloves they traced back to the crew.
Smalls and the two other dudes all plead guilty,
but Meme took it to trial and ended up with a life sentence plus 34 years.
Everyone in the gang paid Meme for permission to move weight,
but clearly they was careless about who they sold to.
The indictment lists over 30 times that dudes from RPT sold crack, weed, and other drugs to undercover cops.
The 2014 crackdown obviously ain’t work,
because it looks like RPT never slowed down.
This also ain’t the first time Dthang has had trouble with the cops.
On November 11th, 2021,
he was pulled over with three other dudes and the cops found a loaded pistol with the serial number scratched off.
Dthang got hit with a 2nd-degree weapons possession charge and sent to Rikers,
which definitely won’t help him in this new case.
New York is cracking down hard with gun charges right now
to try and slow down the violence.
During the pandemic,
shootings rose by over 160% compared to 2018 and 2019,
and the rate is still climbing through 2022.
Dthang already got a long rap sheet for drug and weapons charges,
so it’s probably going to be hard for him to get out of this without jail time.
Dthang grew up in the River Park Towers,
so linking up with the YGz made sense when he hopped in the streets.
After spending most of his life in the trenches, he started dropping music in 2020.
According to Dthang, him and his homies started the whole Bronx drill scene.
But others say Ron Suno kicked it off when his track Pinocchio blew up in 2019.
Dthang is also related to one of the scene’s hottest rappers - Kay Flock.
But Kay Flock claims Sevside,
which is a gang that beefs with the YGz.
So even though they’re blood cousins, Dthang and Flock are really enemies.
Fans know about the diss tracks and shots they’ve sent back and forth on social media,
but their beef started with real violence.
Back in July 2021, a rapper named Ty Swish
was shot in the head and killed.
People who knew him said he was a good kid,
but Ty was allegedly from Sex Money Murder.
And a few days later, they got their revenge by killing a 13-year-old named Jaryan Eliott.
Jaryan wasn’t even in high school yet,
but he claimed the Rollin 80’s Crips
and had already got arrested eight times for robbery and assault.
Surveillance footage showed him walking down the street when a black car pulled up next to them.
Then a masked gunman hopped out and started letting off shots.
Jaryan was rushed to the hospital but later died from gunshots to the legs and chest.
On the same day Jaryan died,
a 16-year-old rapper named Rah Gzz got killed too.
He was from the 800 YGz and allegedly made fun of Jaryan’s death on social media.
A few hours later, two shooters pulled up on scooters and shot Rah Gzz to death.
Then a month later, Flock and Dthang made their beef public and started sending diss tracks.
Kay Flock dissed Dthang on the track Is You Ready, where he said
“Boy ask my opps, it could get ugly
I could do shhh like Ice did Sonny.”
This is a reference to the movie Paid in Full,
where a character named Ice sets up his nephew Sonny and gets him killed.
So Flock made it clear that even though they related, Dthang can still get it.
Then a rapper affiliated with Flock named Naz Rolla was killed
and Dthang dissed him on social media.
And around this same time, he clapped back at Flock with Talk Facts
the song that really made him blow up.
It looked like the beef was just going to keep escalating,
but then both of them ran into legal issues that put their street activities on hold.
First, Dthang got hit with a weapons charge.
Then a month later, Kay Flock got arrested
for allegedly killing a dude named Oscar Hernandez outside of a barbershop in Harlem.
According to the police, Flock walked by the shop’s open door
and asked Hernandez what he was looking at.
Then the two got in an argument that ended with Flock pulling out his burner
and killing Hernandez with a shot to the neck.
Some fans thought this might be the end of Flock’s career and freedom,
but he recently posted an update on social media
that makes it look like he could get out soon.
Back in March, Flock posted a video on Instagram that showed a New York City correctional facility
and a photo of himself with the caption “All good
don’t believe the blogs or the internet, everything trendy, forever DOA.”
He made the post just a few days after he hired Jeffrey Lichtman,
AKA the lawyer who represented El Chapo
during his US federal trial.
So with one of the most powerful lawyers in the world on his side,
it looks like Kay Flock might actually get released soon.
Unfortunately, we can’t say the same thing for his cousin Dthang.
It ain’t clear what the cops think Dthang actually did.
But since he got hit with the conspiracy charge, he could end up behind bars for something he ain’t even do.
The District Attorney’s statement says
“According to the investigation, the defendants agreed to engage in acts of violence
including murder and the assault of members of rival street crews.”
So if the murder and other serious charges stick, all 23 of the RPT crew could get hit with life sentences.
According to the indictment , the conspiracy case involves seven different shootings
and eight gun possessions.
And one of the guns the cops recovered
was linked to three shootings that dudes in RPT talked about on social media.
The second indictment was also for a shooting in 2020
where seven RPT members allegedly let off eleven shots into a building
and barely missed hitting an opp in the head - but Dthang ain’t apart of that case.
But another thing working against him is the fact that he’s a drill artist in New York.
New York been at war with drill music for the past couple of years,
and the District Attorney in Dthang’s case is still trying to fight it.
In the statement he made after the RPT indictment was issued,
he said “I am calling on rappers from the Bronx to stop using music to encourage shootings
and use it to better the community.
I am asking to have a summit with aspiring rappers
and the rap stars who come from the Bronx, record companies, radio stations and social media
so we can find solutions to prevent further violence.”
Hopefully Dthang gets a good lawyer who can help him out of this situation.
Its unclear what the cops think he did,
but we’d hate to see a talented artist like him get locked up for someone else’s dirt.
But unfortunately, New York State conspiracy charges can be tough to beat,
so he could be facing serious time if things don’t go his way.
More news about this story could break any day, so stay posted for updates.