( I E o i € zln { n .t o = '9 = lll 4 UI E r ;{o ,>E il F 0 ;i o ;{i= fi i> :;1,{ N: { -:!n :ro -tnf! E -a F -o \| D 3 ,\ hen Kenneth" Supreme"M cGriffis led Flashy hustlers like Ronald "Bumps" Bassettw ere becoming neigh- downf rom hisc ellt o a closet-sizceo n- bothood role models, flauntingan alluringlifestyle beyond the reach ferenceroom, his mood shiftsfrom jovial of working-classQ reens. to fierce." Peoplein heret hink I should Soon McGriff formed a small crew of his own, selling retail be very angrywith you," McGriff says, amounts ofcoke in SouthJamaica'sB aisleyP arkH ouses.H e reclris- pulling a chair up. "They sayt hat you tened himselfSupreme in the Five Percenttradition and dubbed his madem el ook-" he'pausesse, archinfgo r crew the Supreme Team. At first the crew was conflicted about the right word-'buffoonish." embracing both the Five Percentersa nd the Qreens underworld. "A Supremeis n ot beingo versensitive. lot of the brothers and sistersd idn't like the idea that we hustled Just before ourJanuary meeting at the Metropolitan Detention becausei twas contrary to the lessons,' remembersc lose childhood Centerin Brooklyn,I had come outwith abo okcalledQyeensR tigns friend Knowledge, who askedu s not to discloseh is government Supreme: Fat Cat,5o Cent,and the Riseofthe HiVHop Hustlnthat chron- name. But the drug money in the early r98osp roved irresistible,a nd icled his stewardshipo f the crack-dealingS upremeT eam during the crew began growing into its grandiosem oniker. the r98os,i ncluding a raid on a stashh ouse in which he was busted Crack's arrival in 1985l eveled the playing field between estab- with blow on his face. "Cocaine on my face, huh?" he sayss ternly. lished hustlers and ambitious NewJacks, throwing the rhythms of It should be a shit-your-pants encounter, but panic subsides when I size McGriff up: His slight five-foot-nine-inch frame is draped in a tan prison jumpsuit, and his graying beard makes him look older than his 45.yearsB. ut then Supreme'sp ower hasn ever been overtly physical; rather, it comes from streetw iles, charis- ma, and the implication of danger.H e jokesw ith guards,l aughing about the rap songs that referenceh im. One guard pokes his head into the room to ask," Are you gonna make him famous?" Too late, I call back. He's already famous. Supreme is a towering street legend, mythologized for his '8os crime exploits by Biggie,N as, and the Game; he wasa lsoa key figure in the November 2oo5 trial ofMurder Inc.'s Iw and Chris Lofenzo- the Gotti brothers-for laundering McGriff's drug money. (They were acquitted.) Now Supreme is looking at a trial ofhis own: He's accusedo f creating a violent drug:trafficking organization after his releasef rom prison in the mid-r99os. Federalp rosecutors contend that,like the SupremeT eami n the r98os,M cGriffcanied out Mafia- style m.urdersw hile moving kilos of coke. Though McGriffpotentiallyfaces the death penalry the charges against him (to which he pleads not guilty) will be overshadowed in hip hop circlesb y another accusation( forwhich he hasn otbeen indicted): that he ordered the shooting of5o Cent in zooo. Despite Supreme'sf earsomer ep, in person, he seemsf ar from a typical thug. On his cell.tablea re Salman Rushdie'sS halimart he Cloun andJimmy Carter's Our EndangeredValues : Ameica's Moral Cnsr. He's even capableo f self-deprecation,a rare quality in a hus- the streett rade into chaos.I t alsoa ttracteda lot ofheat. Supremew as tler.'!7hen I remind him that Irv Gotti said that upon meeting him arrested on state narcotics chargesi n 1985a nd so ceded power to he realizedt hat Supremew asj ust "this little green-eyedm other- his nephew, Gerald "Prince" Miller. Theywere raisedl ike brothers, fucker," Premel aughs." People alwayss ayt hatwhen they meet me," but their leadership stylescouldn't have been more different. McGriff he says," they think I'm gonna be six-feet-eight,z 5o pounds." wasa meticulous organizerwho formed strategica lliancesa nd tend- ed to use force coldly and carefully in or{er to preservep ower. But a stellarr eputation aso ne of Prince, a volatile figure two yearsy ounger than his uncle, took the South Jamaica's best and organizationin a brutal new direction. brightest. He was a talented student, an avid football player, and a One violent summer under Prince'sr eign, SupremeT eamm em- = welcome presencei n his Qreens neighborhood. He came from a bersb utcheredf our Colombian cocained istributors in a BaisleyPark two-parent home (both were transit workers), and by the time he apartment and then stuffed them into garbageb ags.Y et few in the rqachedh igh school in the late '7os, he and his friends were prepar- Supreme Team were worried about the prospect of getting caught; ing for college. law enforcement was preoccupied with Mafiawarfare, and federal Butwhen McGriffdiscovered the teachingsofthe Five Percenters- drug-relatedp rison sentencesw ere still lenient. = an offshoot ofthe Nation oflslam that espousesa black-supremacist All that changedi n 1988,w hen an NYPD rookie named Edward ideology-he began envisioning himselfas a different kind ofleader. Byrne was shot in his patrol car while he guarded the home of a pz vlBe Guyaneseimmigrant who hadcomplained to thepolice about Loren- Supremew ast he menacings treetb oss,w ho movedm illions in zo "FatC at" Nic-hols'hse nchmenC. opsb eganc rackingd own,a nd cocaine". I took a liking to him instantly,"S upremes ayso f Gotti. thef edst argetedQ reens'r eigningh usdersP. residenRt eagansi gned 'TV'e'db eo ut, andh e'db el ike,' Yo,I gotto goa ndp icku p my rnoth- toughn ewf ederadl rugs entencingla ws,a ndO fiicerB yme'sf ather, er.'T hat struckm e asb eingr esponsible-tob e out with your dudes Matthew,a ttendedt he White Houses igningc eremonyB. oth Fat ands topd oingw haty ou'red oinga ndg op icku p your mother." Cat andS upremew erei ndictedb y the fedsf or runninga continu- .Afteryeargsr indingatTVTandt hena tDefJamG, otti scoredh its ing criminal enterprise( the so-calledk ingpin charge)a, nd while withJaRule and DMX andwas rewarded with alabel ofhis own,Mur- FatC atreceive4do y earsS, upremep leadedo ut to a p-yearsentence. derlnc.H is riseo fferedMcGriffthec hanceto applyhish ustlingskills As McGriffsatinprison,t hem yth onlygrewc, elebrateidn songs into a legitimateb usinessA.n d havingS upremea roundg aveM urder like Nas's" MemoryLane( Sittin'in daP ark)":* Somefi endss cream Inc. streeta uthenticitya nd an implied fearf actor." Fundsu nlimit- aboutt he SupremeT eam, aJamaicaQ reenst hing." But the world ed,"JaRule freestyled on aDefJam compilation, "backed by my Preme outsidet hep enitentiaryw allsw asc hangingI.n 1993P rincew ass en- Teamc rimer epresentatives." tencedt o sevenli fe sentencefso r variousc hargesfr om murdert o drugt raffickingA. fewm onthsl aterM cGriffwasr eleaseodn parole, Murder Inc. was grating to facinga dismandedd rugb usinessa ndh ostilityf rom a newg enera- many-and no one found it tion of hustlers.L iving in his father'sh ousei n SouthJamaicah, e more initatingthan 5o Cent, who, unlike Gotti, spenthis adolbscence tried to subsisbt y sellingpomograpihipci cturest o inmates." I was pitching $5 crackv ials in Supreme'so ld SouthJamaicat erritory. dead broke," McGriff says." And everybodyf rom the original IJ7hetheri twas true animosity or opportunism-a beefwith the label SupremeT eamwahs omew aitinglike,'Supreme,whateverysoauy .' could help him make a name for himself-5o wasn't shy about mak- And I'm like,G oodl uckony'allventure.Iwantedto bea blet owalk ing his feelings known. According to Supreme partner Chaz W"rlliams, just := on the streeto r go to a club by myselfandn ot haves ecurityI. 5o's vendetta originated whenJa Rule brushe{him offbackstage at 3= wantedt o be a regularperson." a Qreens concert featuringJay-Z. Atthatpoitt, Williams claims,5o r> In prisonM cGriffhadi mmersedh imselfint heg rimys treent ov- took offense and deemedM urder Inc. his mortal enemies. ={ nq elso f DonaldG oinesa, ndh is dreamw ast o tum oneo fthem into a The drama escalatedi n early zooo, whenJa Rule was robbed of E: jewelry =H movie.H e figuredh isb este ntr€ein to thef ilm businesws ast hrough his outsideh is Qreens home.5o, who wast hen 24, seiied *; hip hop. His callingc ardw ouldb e hisn otoriety. on the incident as proof that despite their alliance with Supreme, .o Latert hat yearM cGriffhad a friend introduceh im to Irv Gotti Murderlnc. rappersw eren't safei n their own neighborhood.5o even at a videos hoot.G otti, then anA erRr epa t TVT Recordsw, asa dif- clainied that a fi end ofhis wasthe perpeffator. But McGriffcontends ferentbreedT. heywerefr omrivals ectionso fQreensa ndm oret han that it was a young thug who grew up under the SupremeT eam* ho *I a decadea parti n age,a nde achh adc arvedo ut vastlyd ifferentr epu- committed the crime. alwayss eet hesea rticlesw here 5o is say- == tations.G ottiwast heg enia"l DJI w," who soldm ixtapesfo r $ro,a nd ing that his man robbedJa,l Supremes ays." But that's rn1 man.l YTEG 123 raised him." Supreme got him to return the jewelry. ening the Murder Inc. franchise just as Supreme had begun to see The incident becamea flash point for tensions between Murder his movie dreams come true: Gotti had agreedt o help finance.his Inc. and 5o, and it was alsoc ited to support the FBI's theory that next project, a straight-to-DVD version of Goines's Crim:eP artncrs.