“The Chargesare Bulls%&T”
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HEN BObbY SHMURDA, THE “Tough times charismatic star of the surprise don’t last forever,” says Shmurda, 2014 hit “Hot N—a,” emerged who performed at from the back of a New York Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on Oct. 30, County Supreme Court room in January, 2014. “God makes his wthe 20-year-old looked sad and serious. toughest battles for his Shmurda sat very still at the defense table, strongest soldiers.” showing none of the viral persona that was responsible for 102 million YouTube views, a $2 million record deal and the interna- tional “Shmoney Dance” craze. Today he was just another young man before the judge, one of 13 reputed members of the East Flatbush, Brooklyn, alleged gang GS9 (“God’s Sons”) to have his case called. “When I see the judge and the DA, I just see a bunch of people trying to take my life away for being blessed,” says Shmurda, who talked with Billboard from the Manhattan Detention Complex, where he has been held since December. “When I look at them, it looks like a bunch of haters.” Four months ago, Shmurda was racing around a Midtown soundstage, sunglasses and gold chains glinting, as he performed “Hot Boy” (the “Hot N—a” radio edit) on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. With him were lifelong GS9 friends, beaming, and two female dancers in “Shmoney Team” &T” crop tops. The same month, “Hot Boy” reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100. “THE CHARGES ARE BULLS% “Everything felt like the best moment of my life,” Shmurda says. “Everything.” But as Shmurda’s wildest dreams were coming true, the New York Police Department was closing in on him. At about 4 a.m. on Dec. 17, nine days after the rap artist appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to promote his Shmurda She Wrote EP, cops stormed Times Square’s Quad Studios, where Shmurda was recording (and where 2Pac was shot in 1994). Police also executed search warrants in East Flatbush. In total, they rounded up 15 GS9 members, including Shmurda’s older brother, Javase, 22. Officials claim they seized 10 weapons in the sweep, along with a small amount of crack. The following day, in a joint press confer- ence, the NYPD and Special Narcotics Prosecutor’s Office delivered an indict- ment based on a yearlong investigation that Police led Shmurda to accused GS9 members of 69 counts (later an NYPD precinct on upped to 101), including conspiracy, second- Dec. 17, 2014, after he was arrested at Times degree murder (for a 2013 bodega shooting), Square’s Quad Studios. attempted murder (for a 2014 shooting that In a call recorded by struck an innocent bystander) and reckless investigators, Shmurda allegedly called himself endangerment (for June gunfire outside a “Two Socks Bobby,” with Brooklyn barbershop). Also during the press “sock” as code for “gun.” conference, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton alleged that GS9 stood for “G-Stone Last summer, Bobby Shmurda landed a $2 million deal with Epic after his “Shmoney Dance” vine went viral. Five months later, the 20-year-old from Brooklyn was arrested on a battery of gang-related charges, ranging from weapons possession to conspiracy to commit murder. Now, speaking from the Manhattan Detention Complex, the hip-hop star tells Billboard he feels targeted for his fame, abandoned by his label and changed by jail: “It’s survival of the fittest” BY ADA CALHOUN 42 BILLBOARD | fEbrUarY 21, 2015 FEbrUarY 21, 2015 | WWW.BILLBOARD.COM 43 Crips” adding, “This gang ... gloated about murder, with attempted first-degree murder the same month Antoine, allegedly a rival-gang member, but the shooting and drug-dealing in YouTube videos and Ackquille was born. In 1995, Johnson was sentenced dead boy’s mother, Rudelsia McKenzie-Hassan, viral dance moves.” to life in prison. resents the aura of celebrity the rapper provided to Further, the accusation alleged that “the driving As a kid, Shmurda was always coming up with GS9: “He was their meal ticket. Without him, they force behind the GS9 gang and organizing figure songs. “If there was a stage, he’d get on it,” his would be nobody. They would be scums on the within this particular conspiracy” was one Ackquille mother says. At 18, shortly after being let out of street killing people. That’s what they do best.” Pollard, aka Bobby Shmurda. (“He ‘murdered’ detention on a 2012 gun charge, he wrote “Hot Kenneth Montgomery says that his client is every track he did,” his mother says about her son’s N—a,” with a beat from producer Jahlil Beats. The no gang leader, just the most famous person in a stage name.) Prosecutors charged Shmurda with song, a boastful anthem about GS9’s fearlessness crime-ridden area. “Mr. Pollard is not accused of conspiracy to commit murder and assault, weapons and firepower, is full of lines like “I been sell- shooting or assaulting anyone, nor was he found possession, reckless endangerment and criminal ing crack since like the fifth grade.” In the past, in receipt of any drugs,” he says. “It’s sad to me use of drug paraphernalia. While the prosecu- Shmurda has said his songs are autobiographical. that this kid is facing the possibility of his career tion has not identified a GS9 hierarchy, it says his Now, he insists his lyrics aren’t literal. “I just want to being ruined over something like this. He’s a “status” made others defer to him. “That shit is be like 50 Cent or Jay Z,” he says. “Fiction rap.” bright and talented young kid.” (“The charge is bullshit,” insists Shmurda. Asked about the charges, “I do know that Bobby Shmurda isn’t proud of conspiracy,” counters Special Prosecutor spokes- he says, “Bullshit.” He offers, “I come from a bad his background,” says Ebro Darden, morning woman Kati Cornell. “Not just the people pulling neighborhood. They’re upset that somebody my Top: Leslie Pollard (left) the trigger are responsible for the shootings. was escorted from her Individuals play different roles.”) son’s court hearing in New York on Dec. 18, Shmurda hopes bail will come through. (In court, 2014. Left: Bryan Antoine, prosecutors estimated the rapper’s net worth at 19, whom prosecutors say “When I see the judge and the DA, I just see a bunch of people trying to GS9 members fatally shot $500,000 — his mother says it’s less than that, with inside a Brooklyn bodega Shmurda adding, “I haven’t been around for a year, on Feb. 8, 2013. ”He was take my life away for being blessed,” says Shmurda from jail. “I come going to be the next so I didn’t make $2 million.”) There initially was talk LeBron,” says Antoine’s of Epic putting up money, but not now. “They’re not from a bad neighborhood — they’re upset somebody my age made it out.” mother, Rudelsia standing by me that much,” Shmurda says. “Every McKenzie-Hassan. ”He didn’t deserve to die time I call them, there’s excuses about [parent com- show host at WQHT (Hot 97) New York. “When the way he did.” Right: pany] Sony. I haven’t gotten a visit from one of them Shmurda in 2014. age made it out and is making so much money.” we broke his record, he expressed that to me. He yet. At first I thought it was love. Now everything At the arraignment, a district attorney painted a doesn’t want to just be what his neighborhood is is all business.” His label may be distant, but other vivid picture of an apartment door opening last June about — just a statistic. He was trying to have fun.” artists aren’t: While in custody, Shmurda has talked to reveal the then-19-year-old sitting on the couch in Early in 2014, Shmurda and his GS9 squad filmed with Meek Mill, French Montana and Migos. “Shout / S Y a “known trap location” (a place where the DA says a no-budget video for “Hot N—a” on the streets After “Hot N—a” went viral, Shmurda spent 2014 W out to everybody showing love.” arr É: L C GS9 allegedly stored weapons), showing a loaded outside their apartments, mugging for the camera touring nonstop, leading caravans of friends and Matthe “It’s sad how something like this could hap- N O Y eto B automatic pistol to one of his co-defendants, the air and intermittently pantomiming firing guns. About fans from Brooklyn to shows all over the country. Be pen,” says “Hot N—a” collaborator Jahlil Beats. Be E : N I rife with pot smoke. The defense, meanwhile, says halfway through the clip, posted to YouTube in “He was very much overwhelmed by everything : V “Hopefully he can get back to making music. That ce N ollard A Shmurda is an easy scapegoat because he’s famous. March, Shmurda casually flings his Knicks hat into happening all at once,” says his mother. DJ Mustard . D kid is a star.” E S B W “They’re looking to make an example of this kid and the air, folds in his shoulders as if to indicate the hit him up on Twitter, Drake brought him onstage to Ne Even Shmurda’s fellow inmates agree. “Every Y Youtu : ail . THIS SPREAD: P MZ S put a feather in their cap,” says Shmurda’s attorney unbearable weight of his own awesomeness and perform and French Montana invited him to video K D for years: “He made the gangsters dance.” his brother got into an argument outside a Brooklyn time I walk the halls, I see people and they yell out, W , T Ne Yor Y ideo Kenneth Montgomery.