Last month, Orlando rapper 9lokknine was involved in a Florida State RICO case,
in addition to the five additional attempted murder charges the rapper is currently facing.
Smith, who faces an attempted murder charge for a separate drive by shooting
denied any involvement in a gang during our phone call this week.
But earlier this month, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office
announced a major gang investigation called Operation X Force,
which led to 34 people being hit with State Rico cases.
The charges come after a 9-month investigation the police had done into the ongoing gang war
between 9lokknine’s crew “AFNF” and 438,
a gang affiliated with rapper Hotboii.
It was already announced that 9lokk would face state RICO charges,
but now Hotboii is wanted as well and is currently on the run from law enforcement.
Let’s take a closer look at this beef and the investigation.
The deadly war between 438 and AFNF has been going on for a minute,
with both sides losing members and multiple innocent bystanders catching strays.
The beef has gotten so violent that it’s already been covered by the local news channel
and police announced months ago
that they were launching an investigation into the war between the two gangs.
On July 2nd the Orange County Sheriff’s Office
announced the results of their investigation in a huge RICO indictment
of members from both AFNF and 438,
as well as other local neighborhood gangs.
The investigation was conducted in partnership with other federal agencies,
including the FBI and ATF.
The sheriff leading the press conference
who were responsible for over 200 felony charges,
which included +30 shootings and several homicides.
Among those eight men listed were rappers Hotboii and 9locknine.
The sheriff mentioned 9locknine specifically
and said that he alone was facing 52 felony charges.
He also mentioned that, when police searched his house,
they found 13 auto-sears, a device used to turn a regular handgun or rifle
into an automatic weapon.
According to the sheriff, the ability to convert a regular gun
into an automatic
greatly increases the chances that innocent bystanders are going to get hit by a stray bullet
because the shooter has far less control over where all the shots are going.
He points to four homicides of innocent bystanders
who are believed to have been casualties in this gang war,
including 14-year-old Joshua Atkinson and 3-year-old Daquane Felix Jr,
whose murders remain unsolved.
Joshua Atkinson and another teenager were both shot back in September 2020,
while sitting on the porch of a house in the Pine Hills neighborhood of Orlando.
The other victim was critically injured
but survived while Joshua passed away from his injuries.
The killers were never caught,
but police believe that the shooting was tied to this beef.
Daquane Felix Jr was killed just a few days later inside his home on Drexel Ave,
also in the Pine Hills neighborhood.
Shots were fired into the home, hitting and killing Daquane,
who was only 3 years old.
Police believe that several 438 members lived in the residence,
which is why it got targeted and the toddler was just another casualty.
They originally offered $20,000 for any information on the murder,
but that case also remains unsolved.
In addition to both of these murders,
police believe that two other innocent bystanders were killed as a result of this beef,
including Ocoee football star Dexter Rentz and 16-year-old Tavyiah King.
Dexter Rentz was attending the memorial service for Wolph Luma,
an associate of Hotboii who was killed by AFNF Metemo,
who is friends with 9locknine.
The memorial service was allegedly shot up in retaliation for Metemo’s arrest.
Rentz was sitting in a car about to drive away from the scene
when bullets started flying.
He got hit several times and passed away while going to the hospital.
Renz was a promising wide receiver who had scored 15 touchdowns
and ran up almost 2000 yards in his football career at Ocoee High.
He had committed to playing at the University of Louisville the following year
and was only one month away from leaving home when he was shot and killed.
His death shocked the community because he was not affiliated with either gang,
but was simply paying respect to his friend Wolph, who was also killed in this deadly war.
Tavyaih King was a 16-year-old girl
who got caught in the crossfire of a gang shooting back in May 2021.
Tayviah and her friend were waiting to be picked up after a night out
when her friend’s brother drove by and offered them a ride.
While he was on the way to drop them off, another vehicle pulled up alongside them
and started shooting.
Tayviah was hit and brought to the hospital,
where she later died from her injuries.
Tavyaih happened to be the niece of Regina Hill,
Orlando’s police commissioner,
who shared a post on Facebook after her death, claiming Tayviah was an honor student
who wanted to become a veterinarian.
Police later arrested two suspects for the murder,
Anthony Barnes and Jacarious Simpson, and at the recent press conference,
one of the officers conducting the investigation
announced that they had arrested a third suspect as well.
The press conference also revealed that several of the men wanted in the investigation
are still in demand,
including Hotboii, who is currently on the run.
Hotboii is being charged with one count of racketeering
and one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering.
Racketeering refers to a broad range of crimes that include: murder, kidnapping,
extortion, drug crimes, and even gambling.
We’ve seen the Feds hit popular rappers affiliated with the streets
with these kinds of charges before,
including Bobby Shrumrda, Casanova and YFN Lucci,
so it’s nothing new.
The RICO act was created to convict mob bosses of crimes committed by people under them.
More recently it’s been used to convict large national gangs
and now smaller neighborhood gangs for creating illegal criminal organizations
that profit from acts of violence.
That way, they can pin the most popular rapper as the ringleader of the group
and convict them of crimes committed by their affiliates
that they may or may not have participated in.
Conspiracy is just an agreement between two parties to commit a crime in the future.
So, all they have to do is prove that Hotboii or 9locknine knowingly participated
and profited from a lifestyle that was fueled by crime to convict them of the charge.
So far, this is just a state RICO case and has not been picked up by the federal court system.
State cases have a lower conviction rate than Fed cases,
so it may be a positive for 9locknine and Hotboii.
Although the fact that the Feds assisted in the investigation
may mean that prosecutors have more than enough evidence to convict them.
The investigation is still developing and many of the subjects are still on the run,
including HotBoii.
It seems like only a matter of time before the rapper turns himself in,
considering he’s a pretty-popular rapper at this point with a VERY distinct look.
It would be tough for him to just flee the country and never return again,
although anything IS possible.
Hopefully, he met with his attorneys and is preparing to turn himself in,
because even if he beats the case, he’ll likely be fighting it for a while.
The wild thing is: before all the drama, 9lokknine and Hotboii were cool.
Way before they started terrorizing the city, they used to chill together
and even recorded a song called “Hooligans with LBP Poody.”
Hotboii started off in the streets and was locked up for breaking and entering back in 2016
and spent two years in a juvenile detention center.
The rapper was making music since 7,
but started releasing music online with the help of his mother the same year he got locked up.
While he was behind bars, he decided to take music more seriously
and began to focus on his songwriting and rapping skills.
But, while he was in juvie, his former friend,
9locknine would start building a buzz of his own.
His breakout track “JailHizeeBluez” debuted on WorldStar in 2018
and he followed up with the tracks “10 percent”
and “223’s” featuring YNW Melly not long after.
The rapper quickly signed a deal with Cash Money Records
and even was compared to Kodak Black: the king of Florida rap.
Many thought that 9locknine would be the next hot rapper out of Florida
and for a while, he was on top of the world.
But when his old friend Hotboii was released from jail in 2018,
he was determined to be the king of Orlando, and things took a turn for the worse.
Once free from jail, Hotboii was quickly releasing singles like “Life of a Dog” and “YG’s”.
But, on April 20th, 2020, his close friend Wolph Luma
was killed at a house party by AFNF Meetmo,
which inspired his breakout single “Don’t Need Time”.
The video was filmed at Wolph’s funeral
and ended up with more than 24 million views in the first few months.
The track was so popular that it was remixed by one of the biggest rappers in the game,
Lil Baby, and sent Hotboii into the spotlight.
But just as both rappers were blowing up,
jealousy over success and anger from the recent deaths
occurring on both sides would force them to get deeper and deeper into the beef.
After unsuccessfully trying to get revenge on 438 at Wolph Luma’s funeral
and accidentally hitting Dexter Rentz,
AFNF would attempt a more targeted hit and go after Hotboii’s friend and right-hand man:
Vanshawn Sands.
On July 7th, 2020,
a group of AFNF affiliates planned a drive-by shooting on a house where Sands was staying.
Stands was armed at the time and started firing back, killing AFNF Baby Joker.
Even though police believed that the shooting was in self-defense,
they still arrested Sands for possession of a firearm as a convicted felon.
They ended up tracking him down
and swarming him in the parking lot of a mall almost a month after the shooting.
When police arrived, Sands immediately surrendered,
but some of the people he was with took off running.
One of those men was 22-year-old Salaythis Melvin,
who was chased and eventually shot by police, even though he wasn’t guilty of anything.
Melvin ended up dying from his injuries,
which sparked accusations of police brutality,
as the shooting took place just a few months after the killing of George Floyd.
Melvin was a friend of HotBoii and the video for the “Don’t Need Time” remix featuring Lil Baby
included news footage from the shooting and focused on the topic of police brutality.
The rapper dropped his debut mixtape “Kut Da Fan On” in May 2020
and has continued to collaborate with major artists in the game like Polo G and Future.
Unlike his rival 9locknine, Hotboii has tried to keep a low profile
and avoid getting himself involved in the beef.
In an interview with DJ Vlad back in September 2020,
the rapper denied that he even knew who 9locknine was
and that there was no beef between them.
And you kinda have these beefs or whatever else that's ussaly not based on ****
it's usually just based on competitiveness-
Nah I ain't competing with nobody tho
You want to know who I'm competing with?
You want me to really tell you who I'm competing with?
Who's that?
Deep down, don't tell nobody okay?
Don't tell nobody. I'm not going to tell anybody.
Between you and me and all the people that are watching.
Alright.
I'm competing with myself.
That doesn’t mean he wasn’t aware of what was going on in the streets,
but it shows that he knew how to keep his mouth shut about beef and deal with the media.
At this point, the rapper’s strategy was working pretty well.
He got out of Orlando
and was focused on collaborating with all the hottest artists in the game
and building a bigger name for himself than his rival.
Even though 9locknine blew up first,
the rapper had slowly been losing momentum
since he continued to get arrested for more and more serious charges.
In 2018, he was arrested for grand theft auto, possession of a concealed weapon,
and drug charges.
In 2019 he was arrested for marijuana and possession of an illegal firearm.
Then in 2020 and 2021 he was charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder,
that came from an incident where he shot up the house of his cousin Kuttem Reese,
while five of his family members were inside.
Check down our full breakdown on the 9locknine Rico Case
for more info on this charge.
So not only was he wasting time going in and out of jail,
when he could have been in the studio…
but, all those lawyer fees have to be hurting his pockets.
Although 9locknine is a popular rapper,
he’s still building a name for himself
and doesn’t have a dedicated fanbase that is going to keep his name alive
while he’s fighting case after case.
At the moment, the odds of Hotboii beating the RICO case or at copping a plea deal
seem much better than 9locknine’s.
At this point, it doesn’t seem like he actually participated
in some of the more violent crimes committed by 438,
he’s just the biggest name associated with the gang, so he’s being labeled as the leader.
But, it’s not entirely clear what kind of evidence the police have against the rappers.
Allegedly there are hundreds of pages of arrest affidavits
that are being withheld from the public
because some of the suspects are still on the loose.
While on the run, Hotboii teased a song on his instagram
captioned with some emojis that make it seem like he knows exactly what’s coming.
Most likely, he’s just enjoying the last few days of freedom before turning himself in.
This case is still developing,
and more news is likely to come once Hotboii surrenders
and the court paperwork is made available to the public.
With 34 people potentially going down from rival gangs,
there is likely to be all kinds of allegations made and snitching going on
that will reveal what’s really been happening in the streets of Orlando.
Sadly, two more talented rappers are potentially risking their careers and freedom
over a petty beef that could have easily been squashed.
Florida police aren’t playing around,
and any florida rapper who is really “living that life” should think again.
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