He wanted to be a drill star.
He became a symbol in a culture war instead.
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The campus includes a school, ball fields, and dormitories with beds for 137 students.
He also had a melancholic side.
Unconditional love, McKenley said.
Ramaseur was preparing the kids for a trip down South that summer to mark the anniversary of the protests.
Come summer, he planned to join the Freedom Ride.
He went into the bathroom and texted Ingramm from there.
It was after 2 a.m.
The couple had been fighting.
What is after death, he texted.
Why should I live not even knowin where ima goo.
He pushed on: Like am I goin to hell for the shit I did.
WVTTZ, pronounced Watts, was a reference to the L.A. neighborhood.
C-HII, pronounced C-high, signified McKenleys allegiance to the Crips.
The rival groups each include a number ofdrill rappers.
(His father said hed been involved in a robbery as a minor.)
McKenley begins the song, DOA, DOA, DOA.
DOA, DOA, DOA, then adds, tauntingly, RahRah.RahRah.
In the second verse, he seems to refer specifically to Rah Gzs death.
Got caught in a cab and that little nigga died / Stupid nigga got his head fried.
Around 2 a.m., McKenley left the Airbnb to record a scene for the video.
(Fivio was close with Tdott Woo, the designated dancer of his crew.)
Noah was ambivalent, defending artistic license while critiquing drill rappers for their poor taste.
Why do you gotta make songs dissing a dead rival?
A decades-old debate resurfaced about whether certain hip-hop lyrics glorify or merely reflect violence.
By the summer, the mayor was having dinner with Rowdy Rebel, a Brooklyn drill pioneer.
I exercise to drill music, Adams told me recently.
I enjoy drill music.
New York drill, as told by …
19 artists who define the scene.
.The tragedy of Jayquan McKenley.
The sound itself.
The essential tracks.
Lawyers and lawmakers.
Drill, like any other ecosystem dominated by teenagers, plays by the rules of online engagement.
Countless factors were at play: access to firearms, peer pressure, institutional failures at every level.
When he heard the news, rival rapper Yus Gz hopped on Instagram too.
He shared a photo of McKenley overlaid with the text And Another #1 bites the dust .
Until he was 10,McKenley lived with his mom in the Bronx.
In 2014, he brought McKenley to Henderson, North Carolina, to join him.
Williams told me his intention was to keep his son from repeating his mistakes.
In 2018, McKenleys mother wanted her son at home, so he went back north.
(Naomi McKenley did not respond to interview requests.)
Camrin told me McKenley had an incredible work ethic.
He liked to be in the studio a lot, he said.
He liked to ensure he had a long list of songs done, not just one or two.
That day, Camrin said, McKenley had come with his lyrics written out beforehand, ready to go.
In late October, he was sent to Childrens Village, stalling his hip-hop career.
He wasnt a kid that was just kind of sitting around.
But he conceded that McKenley, the point guard, was the teammate the other players looked to first.
I aint gonna lie, I was more like the co-captain, Pena said.
He naturally had that leadership ability in him.
Pena was a day student and, unlike McKenley, was allowed to have his phone on campus.
During practices, Pena would lend it to him so he could text Ingramm.
By all appearances,Kay Flock, born Kevin Perez, has the career McKenley wanted for himself.
A year ago, the two of them were in photos on Instagram together, showing off their outfits.
Now Kay Flock has a deal with Capitol Records.
Kay Flock is also tied up in the feud between DOA and the YGz.
The term of art for this is spinning a rivals block.
They fight over real territory but are mostly preoccupied with gaining clout on social media.
The incentive to respond to each insult is heightened by its publicity.
Things can escalate until, as Maino puts it, the disrespect reaches a level you cant swallow.
(It is still before the State Assembly.)
I had asked them to show me how they connected drill rap to gang violence.
DelGardo picked an example from a related case, an investigation of a gang called the G-Side/Drillys.
In July 2020, he said, a 24-year-old named James Rivera, a.k.a.
DelGardo says Loc was a Crip and that e Drillys are Bloods.
Loc died at the scene.
In another song, Bet, Drilly mentions the knife again.
The detail about the dropped knife, caught on police surveillance video, would not have been public knowledge.
He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder in the second degree.
DelGardo and his team are aware that mining hip-hop lyrics is a bad look for police.
They repeatedly stressed that they use the music only as an investigative tool.
Everything we do is corroborated by further evidence.
Ravelo added, Some people think we just watch videos.
Drill lyrics, he argues, are being taken too literally.
Black music has always come under scrutiny I dont care if it was jazz, gospel, the blues.
And then during the mid-80s, early 90s, hip-hop artists, they had the hip-hop police.
His own scrutiny of the music isnt here we go again, he argued.
This is something totally different.
Adams accused the social-media companies of exploiting violent content for profit.
They know exactly what theyre doing.
They know what promotes clicks, he said.
Adams said hes in conversation with all the major platforms and meetings with them are forthcoming.
Police have notyet arrested anyone in connection with McKenleys death.
Savino said McKenley wasnt even on his departments radar until he was murdered.
We found him because RPT was posting so much thereafter, Savino told me.
The investigation is still open.
He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyer has suggested he acted in self-defense.
Theyre like, I got four more diss songs.
After that, Im not doing no more.
They feel like thats what people pay attention to.
They look at YouTube numbers.
Online, C-HII WVTTZ lives on.
As his death faded from the headlines, attempts to define his legacy also began to play out.
I love you Jay.
I deal with his mother and father; they dont even allow that jot down of stuff.
He found something that keeps him out of trouble.
He told her he would be going home in March.
There are not many boys who come and maintain good behavior their entire stay.
And you never did!!!
i wish you could of stay with me Gillespie sympathized, inviting McKenley to come by her classroom anytime.
okay be safe, he replied.
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