Famous Dex was one of the most unique artists from Chicago to blow up in the late 2010s.
With cosigns from popular artists like A$AP Rocky and Rich the Kid,
it seemed like Famous Dex was on his way to doing big things.
But, recently the rapper has struggled with addiction problems
and legal situations that have put his whole career in jeopardy.
Here is a closer look at the criminal history and come up of Famous Dex.
Famous Dex was born in Harlem, New York.
But he had an older half-sister who was killed in a tragic shooting
on West 125th Street.
After that, the family relocated to Chicago and settled in the Inglewood neighborhood,
not far from O’Block.
He was the fourth of 4 children and the family often struggled to get by.
His father would be arrested and charged
with a bunch of gang-related crimes when he was young,
leaving him to be raised by his mother.
He played point guard on the basketball team at Robeson High School
but quit after his junior year and got sucked into the streets.
He worked as a salesman at Lids for a while,
but making minimum wage wasn’t cutting it.
So, he sold weed and started robbing to get by.
Around this time he would catch his first charge,
although it was only a misdemeanor.
He started rapping under the name Black Migo Dex
and got cool with rappers in the area like FBG Duck and Billionaire Black.
Some of Dex’s older brothers were GD’s
and many of the people he associated with early on were also in the gang.
But Dex claimed that he was never actually in the gang or affiliated with FBG.
I never was Fly Boy Gang and they know that.
But his associations with the GD’s
would explain why he never did a song with Lil Durk or Chief Keef
while they were blowing up, even though they grew up in the same area.
In January 2011, the street lifestyle would catch up to him
and Dex would end up getting stabbed six times after he was set up by his opps.
After being rushed to the hospital, he spent the next four days in a coma.
He eventually came out of it but had to undergo 8 months of rehab to fully recover.
After his near-death experience,
he decided to take music more seriously and found a way out of the street life.
He started releasing original tracks and remixes that helped him build a buzz in the city.
But, in 2014,
Dex’s mother would pass away from breast cancer,
which is when he dropped out of high school.
Her death pushed him even harder to pursue his passion for music
and become a famous rapper.
He would eventually get a tattoo of a pink ribbon on his face in honor of his mom.
He dropped his first mixtape Never Seen It Coming in 2015
and followed up right after with Dexter’s Laboratory.
He continued to drop music at a wild pace and released two more mixtapes –
Drippy and #OhmannGoddDamn - the following year.
In March 2016, he announced that he was signing to Rich the Kid’s label Rich Forever Music.
Shortly after, they released a collaborative mixtape called Rich Forever.
So, it seemed like Dex was on his way to doing big things in the rap game.
But later the same year,
a video surfaced online that almost cost Dex his whole career.
It was surveillance footage from a hotel room
that showed Dex physically assaulting his girlfriend after she allegedly cheated on him.
After the video leaked to the public, Dex tweeted out
“Me an my girl was fighting Ok Y’all **** happen
I’m not perfect (but) it’s God know that problem gone now”
“God Know Im sorry for flight her she wasn’t hurt my I cut my hand like wtf
I’m not like that she cheated on me and she was wrong God Know”
But that wasn’t enough to stop the internet outrage
and Dex came close to getting canceled.
He was supposed to appear on the 2017 XXL Freshman List
but was not included because of the video.
Dex later apologized for his actions
and admitted he was wrong during an interview with the Breakfast Club
and after a while, the controversy seemed to blow over.
I'm glad that everything kinda, you know,
it went a different way and didn't go over like far
I didn't go to jail for it she didn't get hurt.
She had my kid, she had my son.
And I just want to be forgiven about it you know what I'm saying?
He continued to make moves in the music industry
and dropped the track Pick it Up with A$AP Rocky in 2017,
which became his first song to chart on Billboard.
He followed up with the track Japan in March 2018,
which debuted at number 28 on the Billboard charts
and is still one of his most popular songs.
He released his debut album Dex Meets Dexter,
which also featured appearances from Diplo and Wiz Khalifa.
But throughout his rise to fame, controversy would follow him.
In October 2018, he caused a riot during a performance at UC Irvine
and ended up pulling a gun on a group of students as he was being driven off the campus.
The rapper was set to open for YG at the school’s annual Shocktober concert.
The school had already faced criticism for allowing Dex to perform
despite the domestic abuse video.
But they allowed him to do the show anyway.
After his performance, he jumped into the audience area
and fans started swarming the stage to get close to him.
This caused a massive stampede that had to be shut down by campus security.
Police then claimed that the stampede was a safety hazard
and that they had to shut down the event before YG could perform.
This only angered the students even more,
who started chanting “YG”
and started rioting once it was clear he was not coming out on stage.
All the drunk college kids
started spilling out onto the campus looking for something to do at the same time
that Dex was trying to make his escape.
The kids started swarming around his car, making it impossible for the driver to get out.
At one point, Dex gets so frustrated that he opens the car
and points a gun at a bunch of students to get them to back off.
This caused the school to release an emergency alert to all students,
telling them that there was a 25-year old man of 5’11” height
who had been seen with a gun on campus.
But by that point, Dex was already gone.
No charges were filed against him for pulling the gun,
but he was probably never invited back to UC Irvine to perform.
Check out our video on rappers ready for opps at shows
for more info on this crazy night.
If that wasn’t enough, just a few weeks later,
a member of his entourage sued a hotel in Denver
over a shooting that happened back in 2016.
Dex and his friend N’Sangue Augustine
filed a lawsuit against the Hyatt Place at the Denver Airport
for allowing an unruly group of fans to get into the hotel,
leading Augustine to get shot in the knee.
Dex and Augustine checked into the hotel after a performance on August 16th, 2016.
They left to get dinner and told the hotel staff that Dex was a famous artist
and they did not want to be disturbed.
But a crowd of people was allowed to enter the hotel
and somehow found out where Dex’s room was.
They gathered around outside, asking for autographs
and the hotel staff made no attempt to protect them.
When Augustine asked the crowd to leave so they could get some sleep,
one of them pulled a gun and shot him in the knee.
So, Augustine ended up suing the hotel for damages and attorney fees.
It seemed like for a while, everywhere that Dex went, chaos followed.
In 2018, Dex would also be arrested in New York City over an outstanding warrant.
He was staying at the Royalton Park Avenue Hotel in Manhattan
when police began questioning a group of people
over an alleged incident of credit card fraud.
When they questioned Dex, they ran his name and found out
that he had an outstanding warrant over missing a court date
for a public drinking violation.
Dex was also charged with possession of marijuana
but was not charged with anything related to the fraud.
So, Dex just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time
and got arrested over something that should have been a minor charge or ticket.
After that, Dex’s career started to cool off.
In late 2018, he started beefing with Rich the Kid,
claiming that Rich did nothing for his career and was a selfish label owner.
I said I appreciate everthing he did for me bruh,
but you are selfish bruh.
Why you think me and Jay Critch don't be around you because you selfish bruh.
You are a selfish ass *****
You selfish bro.
But they would eventually make up and appear together on Rich Forever 4
in August 2019.
On November 1st, 2019,
Dex suffered an epileptic seizure
in the middle of a performance at 1 Oak in West Hollywood.
Although the exact cause of the seizure was not announced,
Dex had been struggling with addiction to lean and Xanax
since before he started rapping.
In an interview with Say Cheese TV early in his career,
Dex admitted that he had spent over $100,000 on lean in his life
For $400,000
and I ain't speaking about these bros, these bro prolly smoke me up.
I smoke myself so like me personally,
me spending my own money.
and don't give a **** if its a deuce or a pound
I sent over a $100,000
that's on my momma, yeah.
and spent $250 to $300 per day, just on weed.
I spend $250- $300 a day on weed.
$300 a day? Yeah that's fasho,
$300 a day. In Chicago. In Chicago.
So, it seems like all the substance abuse was starting to catch up with him.
After recovering, he continued to drop music.
He released the track What I Like with Rich the Kid and Tyga in April 2020,
then followed up with Couped Out featuring Fivio Foreign in July.
But not long after that, Dex would begin a downward spiral
that would land him in rehab and then eventually jail.
In late 2020,
a photo of the rapper looking out of it
and clearly under the influence of hard drugs
began making its way around the internet.
Fans pleaded with Dex to seek help,
because many felt that he was on the verge of overdosing.
Dex denied that he was on hard drugs
and snapped back at anyone suggesting he needed help.
But, he eventually gave in to the pressure
and checked himself into rehab later that month.
He returned 30 days later and claimed to be sober,
but many fans had their doubts because he posted a strange video of himself
flexing and dancing shirtless without any music in the background.
Then, in March 2021,
Dex was allegedly robbed at gunpoint for a $50,000 watch and cash.
The watch didn’t even belong to Dex,
but he had borrowed it from a friend for a video shoot.
After leaving the video shoot, Dex claimed he was followed.
When he stopped his car, a few men with guns ran up on him
and demanded the watch and the thousands of dollars in cash that was in the car.
TMZ reported that Dex had called the police and filed a report after the incident,
but Dex claims the story was all cap
and he was never robbed or spoke with authorities.
But, Dex was later sued by the man that owned the watch,
who claims the rapper borrowed it to take pictures and flex,
then took off and never returned it.
Dex then started dodging his calls,
but eventually claimed the watch had been stolen.
The man who filed the lawsuit confirmed that Dex had reported it to the police,
although he does not believe that the robbery actually happened
and was suing him for $90,000 in damages.
To make matters worse, that same month,
Dex was arrested in North Hollywood for carrying a concealed weapon.
He was the passenger of a vehicle that was pulled over for not having a rear license plate.
During the traffic stop,
Dex allegedly tried to sneak away but was stopped by police.
A search of the vehicle
revealed that a gun was hidden under the seat where Dex was sitting.
He was then arrested and later released on a $35,000 bail.
But things would only get worse for the rapper and a few weeks later,
it was announced that Dex was actually facing a total of 19 charges –
which stemmed from 3 different incidents.
The gun charge he caught in Hollywood was only the most recent,
but the other two are even crazier.
Back in November 2020,
police responded to a domestic disturbance at Dex’s home and when they arrived,
they found a woman with cuts on her.
The SWAT team had to be brought in
because they believed Dex had barricaded himself in the house with weapons.
But it was later discovered that he had already left by the time police arrived.
For that incident, he was charged with domestic violence, weapons possession,
dissuading a victim from reporting a crime, and defacing property.
But, at the time of that arrest,
Dex had already been accused of assaulting a different woman only a month prior.
The details of that charge are not clear.
But, he was charged with corporal injury domestic violence, threatening a domestic partner,
exhibiting a firearm, inflicting bodily injury,
dissuading a victim from reporting a crime,
defacing property, and illegal possession of a firearm.
The woman also filed a restraining order against him,
which is why he was not allowed to possess a gun,
even though he wasn’t a convicted felon.
So, when they pulled him over in Hollywood,
it only made his legal situation that much worse.
While he was in court facing 19 different charges,
he was arrested again for allegedly violating the restraining order.
So, he was immediately booked and held on a $200,000 bond.
Earlier this month, Dex was sentenced to 364 days in jail without bail.
Although originally set to be released in late November,
it seems like Famous Dex finally caught a stroke of good luck.
Recently, he was released early after serving just 9 days.
According to DJ Akademiks,
Dex was released early because of overcrowding in the prison system.
It’s not clear at this time whether Dex is still fighting any other charges
or if there are any conditions to his release.
But at least for now, it seems like he’s in the clear.
Famous Dex is yet another rapper who had a lot of potential
but just couldn’t stay focused and away from negativity.
Even though he almost lost his entire career once over a situation of domestic violence,
he didn’t learn from his mistakes and it nearly cost him everything.
Plus, all the drug use over the years
has likely had a negative impact on his decision-making and impulse control.
At this point, Dex should just avoid the spotlight and focus on getting his life together.
It’s going to be hard for him to make a comeback as a rapper
after the year he’s had,
and all the pressure and criticism could make his drug problems worse.
Hopefully, Dex can get the help he needs so he can get back on the right path
or at least avoid being sent right back to jail.
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