In a tale that would probably be right at home in the lyrics on one of the involved party’s tracks, what is suspected to be a gang feud has lead to the death of an 18-year-old burgeoning rap star, and the inappropriate response of one of his foes has prompted a massive backlash and a police investigation.
Though the name Lil JoJo may not mean much now, the Chicago-based rapper was in the process of negotiating a record contract. According to The Sun Times, JoJo (real name Joseph Coleman) wanted to make enough money to move himself and his whole family to Florida. Alhough the teenager had become totally emerged in the rap lifestyle, and began getting under the skin of peers to create a Biggie Vs.Tupac type situation, according to relatives he did not want the beef to get violent.
But that was just what it became when on Tuesday evening a late model Ford pulled alongside Coleman, who was riding tamdom on a friend’s pushbike, and opened fire, squeezing off 6 to 7 shots before fleeing. Coleman was hit in the back and died on the scene very soon after, despite paramedics efforts.
Soon after that, 17-year-old Chief Keef (a rival of Coleman) tweeted about the shooting, joking at the teen’s death, even commenting ‘LMFAO’. This led to a massive backlash from Keef’s supporters, who even contacted his management in disgust. Rovan Manuel, Keef’s manager, spoke up after the tweet, stating that “A lot of the stuff Keef does, that’s just cause he’s a kid…People forget that he’s a kid, a teenager … and kids make mistakes. He makes mistakes the hard way,” even though earlier, his camp had stated that the account had been hacked.
The deleted tweet read “Its Sad Cuz Dat Nigga Jojo Wanted To Be Jus Like Us #LMAO.”
The backlash gave police a new lead in the ongoing case and has resulted in the discovery of several connections between Keef and Coleman, the most notable being that they were each part of enemy gangs currently feuding in the inner city area. Keef, representing Black Disciples aka #300, and Coleman, representing BDK (Black Disciples Killers) suggesting ties with the Gangster Disciples outfit. The two also had a mutual connection who attended the same high school as Coleman.
Coleman had featured in several amateur YouTube videos depicting acts of intimidation and violence, even brandishing high-powered guns and quoting: “These nigga’s claim 300 but we BDK.” This lends credibility to the Police’s gang theory.
Although nothing has been proven and Police continue their investigation, it’s obvious that the beef between the two rappers was well known even to their families.
Keef was quick to turn his cross hairs to Lupe Fiasco who criticized the rapper’s image, resulting in a Twitter war. An out-of-the-blue tweet from 50 Cent shows that Keef could be in serious trouble with the upper echelons of hip hip for his actions, with Fiddy simply tweeting “if you still in New York come see me”.
