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Home , Bad Boys II (soundtrack), Bad Boy Records, Barbershop (soundtrack), Craig Mack, Harlem World, Harlem World (group)

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The Rise and Fall of

Chauncey “” Hawkins was hustler royalty, a hit-writer for LoonPuff Daddy and a crucial part of the family. He looks back at the wave that took him and the wreckage it left behind

by Thomas Golianopoulos

The music video for “ (Part Two)” One”: The fans on the set—the women in friendliest prison guards man the front desk. is peak Puff Daddy absurdity, a guys’ night ­particular—weren’t there merely for Puff. “It A bit past nine a.m., Muhadith, the man who out of epic proportions that begins with a he- was amazing to hear people actually screaming revived Puff Daddy’s music career after writ- licopter landing and ends at a mansion party for me,” Loon recalls. “It was everything I had ing the “I Need a Girl” series, enters the room. featuring a girl-to-guy ratio of about 10 to one. worked for, everything I had strived for.” His standard-issue uniform consists of drab For Chauncey Hawkins, then known as the Then it all changed. Just as Hawkins had ­olive-green khakis, a matching button-down rapper Loon, it was the first time he felt like become Loon, Loon became Amir Junaid shirt and black Nike sneakers. For a man of 41, a hip-hop star. ­Muhadith, and then, in July 2013, he became Muhadith sports a privileged, tight hairline. Loon arrived on the Miami set that Febru- a federal inmate in North Carolina. Far from And though he’s gained 17 pounds since being ary 2002 afternoon with a plan. First, he se- the private helicopters and champagne flutes, incarcerated, he’s still in excellent shape lected his motorcycle for the video, settling on ­Muhadith is loath to discuss the journey—his thanks to daily calisthenics, cardio and the a Harley-Davidson­ chopper with ape-hanger debauched life as ’s wingman; the requisite lifting routine, though only to stay handlebars that not only looked cool but pro- horrors of crack-era Harlem that he barely toned. “I can’t get prison swole,” he jokes. But vided a stable ride. He also decided to play to ­escaped; the sex, drugs and violence. what’s most striking is his majestic beard, an the camera. In his previous video with Puffy, “How can I explain this without glorifying unruly gray-speckled mass that extends half- “I Need a Girl (Part One),” Loon at times it?” he says. way down his chest. faded into the background. This time around • • • Since this is a minimum-security build- he was more confident, brazenly elbowing his Situated about 20 minutes north of Durham, ing, little trouble brews here. Sure, tempers way into shots—dancing, champagne flute North Carolina, the Butner Federal Correc- occasionally flare, as is natural when some in hand, surrounded by women; leaning on tional Complex emerges like a squat concrete 300 men share any institutional facility, but a Ferrari 360 Spider as if he owned it; weav- box from the verdant undergrowth. It’s a sunny nobody would risk being sent up the road to ing through the streets of Miami on his bike spring morning, and the visiting room is awash a higher-security building. Muhadith scans alongside Puff and the R&B singer , with friends and family of inmates. A little the room. “I know all these guys,” he says. appearing to be every bit as much a girl plays Connect Four against a man with “You can tell who’s in here for drugs and who’s as his more famous collaborators. tattooed knuckles. A woman wearing a Tom in here for white-collar crimes.” Jesse Jack- But something else had changed since “Part Brady jersey hugs an inmate. The world’s two son Jr. served time here. Bernie Madoff is in

illustration by Jimmy Turrell

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a medium-­security building. “A spy, Spanish He is, in other words, firmly in the ith was 14, one of his friends was shot outside guy, Dominguez, was here,” Muhadith says. ­present—though at times he’s like an old building number four. “He told me stories about [former Panama- guy at a bar, reminiscing about his heyday. Fearing for her grandson’s safety, Evelyn nian dictator Manuel] Noriega.” “I’m actually grateful that those things hap- sent him to live with his godfather, the movie Muhadith’s trip here began in December 2008 pened,” he says, “because all those events led producer George Jackson (Krush Groove, New when he quit the music industry, converted to me to where I am now.” Jack City), in Beverly Hills. Suddenly Muhad- Islam and renamed himself Amir Junaid Mu- • • • ith was the original Fresh Prince. He was still hadith. In 2010 he moved to Egypt, where he The Harlem of Amir Muhadith’s formative angry, though, and still hobnobbed with the subsisted as a television host and nascent voice years didn’t resemble the glories of the Harlem wrong crowd. He was classmates with Angelina on the ­religious-lecture circuit. Then, in No- Renaissance or the gentrified neighborhood it Jolie and other rich kids at Beverly Hills High vember 2011, he was arrested in Brussels Air- is today; some of the brownstones featured on but gravitated toward the Mansfield on port on felony drug charges. The indictment Million Dollar Listing were crack the West Side. He was nicknamed Loon, as stated that Muhadith “knowingly and inten- houses when Loon walked these streets. In in “loony Loon,” for doing crazy shit, mostly tionally conspired…with others, known and his Harlem, kids grew up fast; Muhadith spent fighting, and he lived up to the moniker. “I beat unknown, to possess with intent to distribute” his boyhood fighting, selling crack, smoking the wheels off this white boy on my track team in North Carolina between 2006 and weed, snorting coke, shooting dice and having for putting his feet on me at practice,” Muha- 2008. He pleaded guilty upon his extradition sex with older women. “I grew up exposed to a dith recalls. Embarrassed, Jackson threw him to the . According to Muhadith, lot of criminal behavior,” he says. out after than a year. he had two felonies already under his belt and His parents, William “Hamburger” Hughley Back with his grandparents in Harlem, risked getting 25 years to life if he went to trial. and Carol Hawkins, were dubbed the Bonnie ­Muhadith slung crack. “I started hustling He couldn’t take that chance. He was sentenced and Clyde of 116th Street, hustlers who profited to be in the streets with my mother. In some to 14 years in prison. from Harlem’s heroin epidemic in the 1970s. sick, sadistic way that was my way of being Muhadith calls it “guilt by association. Burger was sporty, stylish. He also may not be with her,” he says. “Me and my mom are like brother and sister—that’s com- mon where I come from. But she put me through so much.” Loon was a perfect fit for Carol Hawkins gambled, stole crack from dealers and even bad boy. cool, cocky and hand- helped herself to her son’s stash, which was hidden in a hollowed- some, he personified turn-of- out stuffed animal. “My mom stole so much money from me the-millennium harlem swag. that it put me in debt to some malicious guys,” Muhadith says. Once he’d paid back his suppli- ­Everything was hearsay. There was no tangi- Muhadith’s biological father. Carol worked for ers, he made a deal with his mother: “I told ble evidence.” To hear him tell it: One night the , dubbed “Mr. Un- her, ‘If you stop using drugs, I’ll stop selling at Hot Beats Recording Studio in , a touchable” by Magazine. drugs, because you are about to get me killed.’ rapper he was advising asked Muhadith to in- When she became pregnant, Carol says, Barnes From that day on, my mother was drug-free, troduce him to a heroin supplier. Muhadith threw her a million-dollar baby shower. and I left the streets. I never sold drugs again.” complied, which he says was the end of his in- Born in 1975, Muhadith had everything • • • volvement but enough to place him under the growing up but supervision. “I was a great Although hip-hop was born nearby, in the umbrella of conspiracy once federal charges provider, because I hustled,” Carol says. “It Bronx, Harlem wasn’t fertile ground for rap- were brought against the other artist. didn’t change until he was about five, which pers. Rap was considered a reach, while crack, Muhadith says there are discrepancies in was when a lot of the crackdown started. Then on the other hand, was making a lot of people the case, including one that should have got- that crack demon came along.” Barnes was a lot of money. That route closed for Muhadith ten it thrown out: The indictment states that sent away in 1978, a few years before crack with his mother’s sobriety. he was involved in this conspiracy from 2006 ­replaced heroin as the neighborhood scourge. He started by writing rhymes in a diary. to 2008. But, he says, he didn’t meet the indi- By the time that transition was complete, in Eventually, after filling “notebook after note- vidual until 2008. Why did he even make the the mid-1980s, Carol, once a budding queen- book,” he found the courage to spit for hip-hop introduction? “That, um, was just me being pin, was a junkie. pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, a friend of George Jack- stupid, really,” he says wistfully. “It was just While Carol battled addiction, her mother, son’s and the host of Yo! MTV Raps. Freddy a brief introduction. It cost me 168 months.” Evelyn Hawkins, a pious beautician, and wasn’t impressed. “That’s a freestyle,” he said Muhadith, who sprinkles his speech with her father, John, a World War II vet, raised dismissively after each rhyme. However, he Arabic and verses from the Koran, remains ­Muhadith in Esplanade Gardens. The 1,872- did offer some constructive criticism: Write upbeat despite his long sentence. “The thing unit complex situated on the Harlem River complete concepts and complete stories. With that makes this easy for me is my religion,” was originally sold as a middle-class oasis that advice in hand, the newly named Loon set he says. “As long as I accord to what Islam with an Olympic-size swimming pool and out to pursue a career in rap. teaches, it doesn’t matter where I’m at.” the subway at its doorstep. But when Muhad- In 1997, Harlem finally produced a bona

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Left: Loon (right) in 2003 with music industry legend L.A. Reid. Right: Now known as Amir Junaid Muhadith, Loon resides in the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina.

fide rap star, —a former high school verses or hooks. “I saw an opportunity in that dered; Burger died of cancer when Loon was a ­basketball player who shelved his hoop dreams blackboard,” Muhadith says. What was meant teen. Puff and Loon bonded, and one night in to hit it big with Puff Daddy’s Bad Boy Records. to be a four-day gig stretched into a two-week- the studio Puff spilled his guts about his re- After his 1997 debut album, , long residency that produced 11 songs and a cent breakup with . “This was went quadruple platinum, he asked Loon to relationship that would alter both of their a broken guy,” Muhadith says. “He’s telling me anchor a rap group also named Harlem World. careers. Loon even postponed his wedding, the story of him and J. Lo. ‘I lost my girl. I got There was a problem: Loon and Mase were en- scheduled for the week after he first arrived it all and no one to share it with.’ Then it hits gaged in a cold war of sorts. The two rappers in Miami, to write for Puff. me.” Loon took Puff’s tragedy—the personal shared a similar voice and flow, which in the “Every day he said he was coming home. anecdotes, the feelings, the emotions—and provincial world of ­Harlem—and hip-hop in ­Finally I was like, ‘All right, what is going on?’ crafted “I Need a Girl (Part One),” a post- general—was a violation. Still, Loon joined He was like, ‘I can’t leave. I have to finish this breakup love letter from Puff to J. Lo for the forces with his longtime frenemy. The group’s album.’ This was days before the wedding,” entire world to hear. album tanked, and Mase left the music indus- says his wife, Nona Crowd. “He convinced me First we were friends then became lovers try for the church shortly thereafter. we weren’t canceling the wedding, just post- You was more than my girl, we was like Following a string of failed deals at Sony poning it, because this was his big chance.” The brothers and Arista, Loon turned to ghostwriting for wedding was postponed for nearly nine years. All night we would play fight under covers artists including Shaquille O’Neal and Puff Puff was impressed with Loon’s drive. “Puff Now you gone, can’t love you like I really Daddy. Then, in the summer of 2000, he found loved the work ethic—well, Puff likes whoever wanna himself in Miami, writing for Puff Daddy’s can make him money,” says Loon’s former But every time I think about your pretty ­upcoming album The Saga Continues…. It Harlem World group mate Michael “Blinky smile was an important comeback attempt for Bad Blink” Foster. “He also likes people who don’t And how we used to drive the whole city wild Boy following the B.I.G.’s death, complain. If Puff didn’t like what he wrote, Damn I wish you would’ve had my child.… Mase’s retirement and the disappointing Loon would just write another verse.” sales of Puff’s previous album, Forever. Noth- The two Harlemites shared more than am- “I Need a Girl (Part One)” and its sequel, “I ing was left to chance. At Circle House Stu- bition: Their fathers, it turned out, had been Need a Girl (Part Two),” both featuring Loon, dios, a blackboard loomed on the wall, marked friends—and largely absent from both of their were Puff’s biggest hits in years, peaking at with song titles and progress reports denoting lives. Puff was three years old when his father, number two and number four respectively on which songs were complete and which needed a hustler named Melvin Combs, was mur- the chart. Bad Boy Records

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in the distance. When he went inside to un- pack, the three seagulls landed on his balcony. “Something really special was happening in my heart,” Muhadith says. His mind swam with the recent positive exchanges he’d had with Muslims in Senegal, Kazakhstan and Dubai. The solution to his problems became clear. He ran to the lobby, asking, “How do I become a Muslim?” A man led him in reciting the shahada,­ the Muslim profession of faith. From then on he decided to abstain from past sins—drugs, alcohol, adultery and music. Crowd saw an immediate difference. “He was more caring, honest. He paid more attention,” she says. “Seeing the changes he was making was an inspiration.” Being a Muslim in Butner isn’t that bad, ­Muhadith says. Inmates can prepare their own food and are provided with a meal be- fore dawn during Ramadan. As the prison imam, Muhadith continues to study Islam and teaches Arabic. “You see this guy behind us? Military guy,” he tells me without lowering his voice. “He Loon (left) with Puff Daddy at the premiere of II in in 2003. said some derogatory remarks about Muslims that got back to me. I didn’t get mad. I ap- proached him and said, ‘Seventy-two percent of Americans have never met a Muslim. Is it safe to say that you’re one of them?’ ” was back, armed with a new star. “Loon gave or marketed properly because, he says, he Muhadith places his hand on my shoul- Bad Boy a boost,” says former Hot 97 DJ Mis- was receiving­ a higher percentage of royalties der. “Look, I don’t want people to think I’m ter Cee. “ ‘I Need a Girl’ dominated radio. It than most Bad Boy artists. “I had a few heated a square,” he says. “I’m not a holy roller. I got the Bad Boy train rolling again.” ­moments with Puff. I wanted to fight him,” still have a personality. I still have a sense of • • • Muhadith says. “But I liked Combs; humor.” His high-pitched giggle and dead- At first glance, Loon seemed to be a perfect I wasn’t really a Diddy fan.” In December­ pan wit—“It’s my cheat day,” he says when fit for Bad Boy. Cool, cocky and handsome, he 2004, he left Bad Boy “on a good note.” (Combs selecting an Almond Joy from the vending personified turn-of-the-millennium Harlem and Bad Boy president Harve Pierre declined ­machine—are apparent. “I just have bound- swag. His music also slotted nicely into the requests to comment.) aries. Before, I had no boundaries.” space left vacant following Mase’s departure: Loon grew frustrated as he attempted to • • • sly wordplay and a lethargic flow—which, yes, ­reignite his career out from under the shadow Soon after his spiritual awakening, Muha- was similar to Mase’s—over bubbly produc- of Bad Boy. Performances and royalties paid dith’s life took another significant turn. For tion built for the clubs. the bills, but he lived check to check. He was years he’d heard whispers that Joseph “Jazz” Loon’s ascent continued with cameos on drinking more, smoking more weed, playing Hayden, a former associate of Nicky Barnes’s hit records from , Toni Brax- video games all night. In interviews he lashed who’d served 13 years for manslaughter, was ton and 3LW, but the business of music inter- out at Mase and others. He hit the rapper 40 his biological father. After hanging out with fered when Bad Boy’s transition from Arista Cal with a shovel during an altercation at a Hayden, Muhadith noticed similarities. to Universal delayed his solo album. There Harlem . He felt overwhelmed: A “Something about his style,” he says, “the were also artistic differences. Loon was un- hit record meant he’d have to write another way he walked, the way he talked.” Muhadith comfortable being the label’s token - hit record and another after that. There was hopes to take a DNA test soon. boat ­rapper—“the wedding singer,” as he calls no end in sight. Who does he think is his father, Burger it—and yearned to make grittier records simi- “I was empty,” Muhadith says. “I hadn’t Hughley or Jazz Hayden? “I don’t know. I’m 41 lar to his 1995 single, “Scotch on the Rocks,” cried in a long time. I hadn’t felt in years old and I’m not sure who my father is,” or “You Made Me” from the Harlem World a long time.” He was searching for something, he says. “It doesn’t matter. Both are hood roy- album. But, he says, Puff frowned whenever and he found it early one morning while on alty.” He then smiles. “Ask my mom. I’m curi- Loon strayed from his lane. tour in Abu Dhabi. ous what she’d say.” Released in October 2003, Loon’s self-­titled The story of how Loon converted to Islam is Two weeks later, I meet Carol Hawkins on debut was a modest success, peaking at num- neat and convenient, almost like a superhero the corner of 116th Street and Adam Clayton ber six on the before plummet- origin story. From his balcony at the Emir- Powell Jr. Boulevard, outside the First Corin- ing. He believes the album wasn’t promoted ates Palace hotel, he saw three seagulls flying thian Baptist Church, where she worships.

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She wears furry Steve Madden boots, khakis was Burger. It kept away a lot of hurt and ex- with his wife, who works as a chef in North and a plaid shirt with a cream wool sweater plaining.” Hayden, now a community activist, Carolina and visits him regularly, and his coat over it. Her hair is pulled back in a tight did not respond to e-mails. seven children, and he hopes to return to the ­ponytail. We drive uptown in her black Nissan We sit quietly in the Pathfinder. Then she lecture circuit to share his story with Muslim Pathfinder before parking on 148th Street in calls her parents. “You wanna go up and meet youth. A move overseas, once it’s possible, is front of Esplanade Gardens. Then she tells the them?” she asks me. more than likely. He won’t write or record new story of how she met Nicky Barnes. Hawkins exits her car gingerly. She’s 61, and music, though he does admit to sometimes One day on her way home from tennis, she her knees are shot. As we make our way to the thinking about rap, comparing the sensation spotted a handful of police officers with bin- entrance, she gives an improvised tour of Es- to what a recovered alcoholic must feel when oculars at a gas station on 150th Street. As she planade Gardens. “This is the smoking cor- walking past a liquor store. And sometimes walked toward her building, she recognized ner,” she says. “It was my smoke corner, then it’s unavoidable. At one point during the af- Barnes, by that point a notorious neighbor- my kid’s, then my kid’s kids.” ternoon, the visitation-room radio blasts “Mo hood figure, at the bus stop. She warned him On the 27th floor sits the Hawkinses’ three- Money Mo Problems” by the Notorious B.I.G., about the surveillance and offered to hide his bedroom apartment; a balcony offers stun- Mase and Puff Daddy. stash in her parents’ apartment. “Ever since ning views of Harlem to the west and Yankee Muhadith was disappointed to learn about then, I was holding drugs,” she tells me. “After Stadium to the north. “My mother loves them the current Bad Boy reunion tour. “What kind I started making all that money, I didn’t want damn Yankees,” Hawkins says. And here she of reunion will it be?” he asks. A fair question to go to school no more.” is, Miss Hawkins, 86 years old but still going considering Biggie is gone, has She met Burger Hughley soon after. He was strong. She wears a shirt that reads when reportedly joined a religious cult, and Loon older, at least 15 years her senior, and he show- god closes a door, he opens a window. She and G. Dep are incarcerated. When asked ered her with money, clothes and attention. makes sure I see the ASCAP award her grand- why so many former Bad Boy artists either The fact that he was married didn’t affect son won for “I Need a Girl.” find religion or become incarcerated (or, in the relationship. “I wouldn’t have cared if he had five wives,” Hawkins says. “He was making me happy.” “I told her, ‘if you stop using The drug game was lucrative, and Hawkins soon owned fur drugs, i’ll stop selling drugs, coats, a Cadillac, a Mercedes. Sometimes they’d drive to the because you are about to get airport and, on a whim, pick somewhere warm to fly. San me killed.’ I left the streets.” Juan, Vegas and Acapulco were among their favorite destina- tions. When I ask her what specifically the Miss Hawkins plans to write a character let- ­Muhadith’s case, both), he says, “I don’t attri- money was like, all she can do is look up and ter for Muhadith later in the week. “Oh God, I bute it to Puff. Being on Bad Boy you’re riding mutter, “Oh God, oh man.” A beat passes be- miss him,” she says. “He calls me, sometimes this tidal wave that you can’t prepare for. Like fore she turns and says, “I used to make more twice a week. I said, ‘You see this situation you most people who ride waves of that magnitude, than $20,000 a day.” in now? That’s what I tried to get you to by- they often wipe out.” It didn’t last, of course. “I got up with pass. That’s why I worked so hard with you. The wave no longer appeals to Muhad- that crack,” she explains. After her son’s That’s why I brought you up in the church.’ I ith, but the fame is residual. Just before ­proposition—he’d stop selling drugs if she’d was very disappointed with his situation.” visiting hours end, a young inmate and his stop using them—Hawkins went to rehab in Later, on our way out, Carol Hawkins greets ­girlfriend—long black wavy hair, green eyes, Rochester, New York, where she found God. nearly every person she passes. ballet flats, skinny jeans, stunning curves— She is now sober and works for a community “You know everyone,” I joke. approach Muhadith.­ “Hey, man, she saw you health organization. A devout Christian, she “Yeah,” she says. “I been round here a long and wanted to meet you,” the other inmate tells me she’s nothing but supportive of Mu- time.” says. Muhadith appears embarrassed. The hadith’s conversion to Islam. “He has found • • • woman is starstruck, standing on her toes, peace in his life,” she says. “He found a god Although he’s not scheduled for release until head tilted, big smile, giggling nonstop. “Uh- he loves and serves. Even though he calls him August 2021, Muhadith is doing everything oh, I better watch her around you,” her boy- Allah, he’s the same God I love and serve.” he can to expedite things. He has applied for friend cracks. I ask if she knows definitively who fathered ­executive clemency, a pardon that would ar- Muhadith laughs afterward. The encoun- Muhadith. “No, I don’t, to be honest,” she says, rive during President Obama’s final days in ter reminds him of a past that shaped him but speaking deliberately. “I do know for sure that ­office. It has happened before—George W. no longer defines him. “This whole situation I was in Vegas with Jazz and the math added Bush pardoned John Forté, the ex– has been a purification for me,” he says. “My up to Jazz, but I didn’t want to hurt Burger’s ­associate who was serving 14 years in prison life from the streets to the music industry was feelings because he was walking around being for smuggling cocaine. always ripping and running. It was nonstop. such a proud dad. I don’t know. I was young. I Muhadith already has plans for when he’s This has become a vacation. Am I over this made an executive decision to just say that it a free man. He’ll reestablish his relationship ­vacation? Yeah, I am.” n

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