RAPPERS THAT ARE KILLERS (King Von, Gucci Mane, Snoop Dogg)

Pretty much every rapper nowadays talks a big game in their lyrics – gang affiliations, sex, drugs, even murder. And while most of these artists are all talk, some of them have actually done what they rap about – including taking a life. Not sure which artists are telling the truth and which are exaggerating about their criminal activities? Here’s an exclusive look at three rappers that are actually real-life killers. King Von Born as Dayvon Bennet in 1994, Chicago native King Von spent most of his childhood on O-Block, the most dangerous streets in the whole city. Plagued by gang violence between the Black Disciples and the Gangster Disciples, this block is a hotspot for crime and violence of all types. A few lucky ones made it out, though, like Chief Keef and Michelle Obama. Von got involved in gangs early on since the neighborhood was basically run and patrolled by them. Joining up with the Black Disciples was more of a way to get some protection than anything else. But this gang is widely known as one of the most dangerous and violent street gangs in Chicago. They specialize in gun and drug trafficking, illegal gambling, kidnapping, and yes, even murder. King Von was always in trouble growing up, but as he got older, the charges became more and more serious. By the time he was nineteen, he was already in over his head when it came to his crimes. In 2014, Von was at a house party with some friends in a nearby neighborhood. One of the guys at the party, Malcolm Stuckey, kept looking over at Von, sizing him up. This kept happening throughout the night, with Von saying the man was “steady eyeballing him” during the party. Von didn’t like the way he was being stared down by this guy, so he came up with a plan to set him straight. A few hours into the party, Von left with a friend, Michael Wade. They headed off in a grey car and returned almost an hour later. However, instead of pulling into the driveway as they had before, they parked the car in a nearby alley and headed back towards the party. This time, they were armed. Then went to the house, finding Malcolm and a couple others on the porch outside. Without hesitation, Von and Wade pulled out their loaded guns and started firing at the three people sitting on the porch. The main target of the shooting, the staring Malcolm Stuckey, took off running down the street with another man. They were both shot while running, and the last person on the porch was shot as well. All three of the victims were taken to the hospital in critical condition. Later that day, Malcolm Stuckey passed away from a gunshot wound to the head. The other two survived. While the victims were taken to the hospital, Von and Wade took off in the gray car, but of course, there were tons of witnesses at the party that had seen precisely what had happened and who exactly had done it. It only took a couple of days for them to get arrested. Though both King Von and Michael Wade were armed, Wade was the one that admitted to doing all the shooting; Von kept his mouth shut during interrogation. Still, they were both charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. Three years later, the trial started, and in five days the jury found Wade guilty. King Von’s charges were dropped, and he was a free man. Gucci Mane Gucci Mane is one of the pioneers of trap rap and has put out a ton of original music, including 72 mixtapes and 13 studio albums. But before he was Gucci, he was Radric Davis growing up in Atlanta, getting into trouble as a teenager. Even when his music career started really getting going, he couldn’t stay out of trouble. Back in 2005, Gucci was in the middle of a feud with fellow rapper Young Jeezy. The two had been throwing disses at each other, and fans were invested in the drama. In May, Jeezy released a track called “Stay Strapped,” where the lyrics basically put a bounty on Gucci Mane’s signature ice cream cone chain. The person who handed in the chain to Jeezy would get a payment of ten thousand dollars. We’re not sure if the bounty was supposed to be taken literally, but some people decided it was worth the risk to go for it. A group of five unknown men showed up at Gucci Mane’s place and attacked the rapper, trying to take his chain. He tried to fight them off and got hold of a gun. Reports don’t say where that gun came from, whether it was the rapper’s or the attackers’, but it ended up in Gucci’s hands anyway. He fired off a shot to get them off him and ended up hitting one of the guys, a rapper named Pookie Loc, also known as Henry Clark. He ended up dying at the scene. Three days later, his body was found behind a nearby middle school, and cops were called. Once it was discovered who was shot, it wasn’t long before they put out a warrant for Gucci’s arrest on a charge of first-degree murder. When he found out about the warrant, he turned himself in since he was clearly caught. He told officers that he had been acting in self-defense and that Pookie and four other men were trying to rob him. He must have been pretty convincing because he was released a few days later on May 24, 2005, after posting a $100,000 bail. The charges hung over his head for a while until they were dropped in January 2006 due to a lack of evidence. Snoop Dogg Snoop Dogg is kind of known as the fun uncle of rap at the moment. From his weed-smoking chef sessions in the kitchen with Martha Stewart to his youth football league, his popularity has grown with a broader audience more than any other rapper in the industry. He hasn’t always been so accessible, though, and we forget that he had more of a colorful past than we’d like to think. He was raised on the streets and had been a hardcore Rollin 20 Crips member since he was a kid. So even though he was in the middle of recording his debut album Doggystyle and trying to get ahead in the growing hip-hop industry, he still found himself in the middle of a major crime that ended up with one man dead. In August of 1993, Snoop had been having some run-ins with rival gang members. After an altercation earlier in the day, Snoop pulled up on a group of rivals as they were eating at a picnic table on the wrong block. Sitting in the Jeep next to him was his bodyguard, Malik. When they pulled up to the group, one of them, Philip Woldermariam, stood up. In response, Malik stood up in the open-top Jeep, staring Philip down. Feeling intimidated, Philip reached behind him to grab the gun in his waistband. Malik was faster, though, and pulled out his own pistol, firing from where he stood. Philip dropped to the ground, and Snoop sped away in the Jeep. After a couple of days, Snoop felt too much guilt over the incident and turned himself in, facing charges of first and second-degree murder. Of course, Snoop and Malik claimed they acted in self-defense since Philip was reaching for his own weapon. That weapon was hidden by Philip’s friend before the cops arrived, so it wasn’t evident that Philip was strapping. Later, though, another associate testified that Philip did have a gun and that it was removed to protect him. That, plus the police’s incompetence when processing the scene, made it an easy decision for the jury to make: both Snoop Dogg and his bodyguard were both found innocent and were acquitted of all charges.