Hip Hop News: Street Justice For Rap Artists Continues With Young Dolph (2024)

Another incident tied to Shakur was the 1995 murder of Randy “Stretch” Walker. The MC/producer was a co-founder of Tommy Boy Records act The Live Squad who had worked on Shakur’s first two albums, as well as albums by Thug Life and Nas. He was with Shakur at the 1994 Quad Studios shooting. One year later—almost to the minute according to The New York Times—Walker was fatally shot in Queens. “The shootings were one year and about five minutes apart,” Lieutenant Vito Spano told the newspaper. “It’s weird.” Ed Lover, a onetime friend of both Tupac and Stretch, has pointed to the two men falling out—which led to a dispute. That murder remains unsolved.

Little Shawn Describes The 1994 Tupac Shooting & Insists He Was Not Involved (Video)

Earlier this month, Jemarcus Johnson pleaded guilty to charges of acting as an accessory in the killing of Dolph. According to ABC 13, the brother of aforementioned suspect Justin Johnson admitted that he took his sibling’s phone and car to create an alibi. He potentially faces between six and 12 years in prison for the role. The three other suspects, including Joshua, Cornelius Smith, and Hernandez Govan are expected in court next month, on July 13.

Last year, Paper Route Empire released Paper Route Frank, a posthumous Dolph album featuring Gucci Mane, Key Glock, and 2 Chainz.

Last week (June 14), a man deemed a “person of interest” related to Young Dolph’s 2021 murder was found dead in the Orange Mound section of Memphis, Tennessee. The body of Joshua Taylor was discovered Wednesday afternoon in an automobile at Spottswood Avenue near Buntyn Street. Responders say the victim had succumbed to gunshot wounds. According to WREG, nearby witnesses believe that Taylor was shot on Tuesday, over 12 hours before his discovery by authorities.

Local news affiliate Fox 13 reported that Taylor was found shot to death inside a car. Reports suggest that he was thought to have been a friend of Justin Johnson, one of the two alleged shooters who have been charged in the 2021 killing of the platinum artist born Adolph Robert Thornton, Jr. While Taylor was never charged by police, investigators were reportedly seeking to speak with him since February 2022, regarding knowledge of the fatal attack inside a Memphis cookie bakery. Four men have been charged with wrongdoing in that killing.

Big L’s Accused Killer Shot To Death In Harlem

According to the Associated Press, Taylor—known in the streets as “CEO Teezy,” was wanted on several unrelated charges, including theft of property between $10,000-$60,000 and possession of a prohibited weapon. Reports also confirm that Taylor was the father of two.

Street justice is not a new phenomenon in Rap music and Hip-Hop culture. Historically, several persons of interest or outright suspects have been confronted with violent fates ahead of arrest or trial.

Ed Lover’s Tupac Stories Will Make You Cover Your Mouth (Audio)

In 2016, according to DNA Info, Gerard Woodley, a former suspect in the 1999 killing of artist Big L (aka Lamont Coleman), was fatally shot at almost the same location as Big L 17 years earlier. Woodley, while previously arrested before a case was dropped—reportedly due to lack of evidence. Woodley, a former associate of L’s, allegedly appeared in the photography inserts to the D.I.T.C. MC’s 1995 Columbia Records debut, Lifestylez Ov Da Poor and Dangerous.

The alleged killers of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. also met violent fates before legal justice. Orlando Anderson, the man Tupac and Death Row Records boss Suge Knight attacked outside an MGM boxing match, was named by the Las Vegas Metro Police Department as a suspect in the ensuing driveby shooting later that September 1996 night. In May 1998, Anderson was fatally shot in his hometown of Compton, California. He and another man died in the gunfire outside a car wash. According to The Los Angeles Times, the fatal incident stemmed from a dispute over money. At the time of the death, Anderson was named in a wrongful death civil lawsuit from Tupac’s mother, Afeni Shakur. Notably, Anderson testified in court that Suge Knight was not involved in the altercation caught on camera. Knight would ultimately serve over four years behind bars for the probation violation caught on camera in that 1996 event. In former Los Angeles Police Department detective Greg Kading’s book Murder Rap, he has witness testimony that Anderson pulled the trigger in the gunfire that fatally struck Shakur and hit Knight.

A New Video Shows Tupac’s Death Through The Eyes Of His Killer

In that same text-turned-documentary, Kading’s investigation of Biggie Smalls’ 1997 murder had sources alleging that Wardell “Poochie” Fouse was the shooter. Fouse (aka “Darnell Bolton”) was an associate of Suge Knight and a Death Row Records affiliate. In 2003, over six years after Biggie’s death, Fouse was fatally shot in Compton. Billboard covered the attack, reporting that 10 shots were fired into the Compton native as he rode a motorcycle in South Central Los Angeles. The publication then said that authorities linked Fouse’s death with a series of fatal attacks on Knight’s inner circle. Artists, including R&B singer Danny Boy, have spoken publicly about Fouse’s intimidating presence around the label in the 1990s. He was never charged with the 1997 crime, which remains unsolved.