Mac Dre was an artist ahead of his time. Slaying victims Watkins and Akins were in Las Vegas for a Snoop Dogg concert at the Palms and were staying at the MGM Grand. Police in Cass County had received multiple tips that a small-time criminal named Elijah Taylor had been seen driving the car in the months leading up to the murder. Not feelin the heavy-handed tactics, Dre recorded Punk Police, proclaiming his innocence, in which he raps, They said some banks were robbed, and I fit the description / But thats drama, so save if for your mama / Im not criminal-minded, punk police / Ima dope rhyme dealer, not a money stealer, and You labeled us a ruthless G-A-N-G / But the biggest Gangstas are the VPD / They hate to see me drivin a car I bought / They hate how I talk, I cant spit on the sidewalk. He even went as far as to call out VPD detective David McGraw, the cop he felt was most responsible for the harassment. When Detectives first spoke with Davila, he maintained that he saw Mac Dre at the Atlantic Star on Halloween night, but left early to take his kids trick or treating. Salvatto said she had never even heard of Dow or Mathis. Subscribe to the newsletter to get the latest updates! The van was completely totaled. He was later convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of conspiracy to commit murder in 2008 (for the murder of Fat Tone and his friend, Jermain Watkins) and is serving a life sentence in a Nevada State prison. The news station contacted Kansas City police and the car was located by 6 p.m., about 15 hours after the shooting took place, and it, too, was totaled. When guys are incarcerated, they try to come up with these schemes and these stories to try and help themselves. Damon Whitmill could not be reached for comment. Almost 10 years later, Antwine was murdered in an incident eerily similar to Mac Dres death. Rappers. Despite the title of the song, it was a hit on local radio. His accomplices were convicted of attempted bank robbery and given 10 years. He called Whitmill back and told him and then Mac Dre ended up dead. I never discussed anything with anybody at Leavenworth. [2] Hicks is considered one of the movement's key pioneers that fueled its popularity into mainstream, releasing songs with fast-paced rhymes and basslines that inspired a new style of dance. The KCPD have never arrested or charged anybody with the murder and the high profile nature of the killing has continued to generate rumors and theories among hip-hop fans and true crime aficionados. Jailhouse snitches are notoriously unreliable. In 2011, Mac Dre received an influx of new fans after Drake gave him a shout out in his hit single, Motto featuring Lil Wayne. He was the first person to show my neighborhood that we dont have to sell crack anymore. I did seen Mac Dre on the turn knock out a cat three times his size. His mother, Wanda Salvatto, said she'd heard about her son's death at least three times before. The first real tip came the day after the murder, when Detective Babcock was contacted by the local media, who told them that a man had reached out with information about a car. He said he knows how it sounds, but thats what happened. He was released from Californias FCI Lompoc in August, 1996, and in the early 2000s he moved north to Sacramento to focus on music. His story completely changed in 2008, after he was arrested for drug conspiracy and looking at 30 years in prison. She also said hed paid to get the windows tinted and assumed some girl had rented it for him. Vlad blatantly said he knows who the prime suspect is based on interviews hes done, but he wont reveal the name as the individual has since died., We may already know, or we may never know who killed Mac Dre, or even Fat Tone and Cowboy, but what we do know is that Mac Dre is sorely missed; gone but certainly not forgotten. Young claims she is homeless and has been living in her car amid financial trouble Credit: Latanya Young/Facebook. But on March 13, 2006, Antwine finally admitted to detectives that he had been in possession of the black Infiniti used in Mac Dres murder. Dre ran with a local group of teens who referred to themselves as the Romper Room Crew named after the TV show, in reference to the crews youth. When paramedics arrived, however, Dre was dead, reportedly from a gunshot wound to the neck. Dre made a bunch of demo tapes that were popular in The Crest He was famous for his demo tapes, says Mac Mall but he first made waves in the larger Bay Area with his single Too Hard for the Fuckin Radio in 1989, while still a student at Vallejos Hogan High School. Get away from here. According to DJ, hip-hop historian, and co-founder of the Bay Area Hip Hop Coalition Davey D, There was a point when the Vallejo police arrested forty-odd people and they looked at music lyrics around Romper Room or the Compilation album [a Dre-led compilation of Crest-Side rappers] as part of a way to round up folks.. The record signing and radio appearance were both meant to promote the October 29 concert at the National Guard Armory. Bell told detectives hes not sure what to believe, considering that everyone said that they had something to do with the murder at some point. There, Laursen was seen in a gun shop nine days before the killing, where she bought ammunition similar to that used to kill Watkins and Akins, according to grand jury testimony. The front desk clerk would later report seeing four males and three females leave the hotel sometime after 3:30 a.m. Nearly an hour passed before police arrived at the accident. He even set up a radio appearance and a record store meet-and-greet to help ensure the shows success. Along with his other admissions, Mouton wrote in a sworn declaration that hes actually from Hunters Pointa district on the other side of San Francisco. But instead of introducing the men to the rap superstar, he and an accomplice allegedly took them to a deserted cul-de-sac and riddled them with bullets from an AK-47. After that night, the black Infiniti was gone. Andre Louis Hicks, better known by his stage name Mac Dre, was an American rapper, hip hop pioneer, and record producer based in Vallejo, California. His mom didnt want him out there, but he didnt want to go home, Sleep Dank says. He asked Bussey if Whitmill was ever going to provide that DNA sample. 96. His name always came up," Babcock said. While there, he recorded raps over the Fresno county jail telephone, where he taunted law enforcement. After talking with the detectives I went back to my cell and laid down. He knew he was onto something so he stopped doing anything dirty. Mac Dres final album, released only 13 days before his murder, was meant to be the spiritual successor of The Macs first EP from 1988, The Game is Thick. Davila wanted to give detectives info about the murder without implicating himself. Could this be a cryptic way of saying it was Tone and Cowboy, or have others passed on, too? To my knowledge MD was never married, but he definitely has a daughter; that implies that he was likely close to the daughter's mom at one point in his life, however, I can't find anything about her mom with a quick Google search, and we can't really be sure how close they really were - really not unheard of for famous or rising (in MD's case) One song was sent to representatives of fellow Bay Area rapper Too Short for an upcoming compilation, Nationwide: Independence Day, but was not selected. The character arc of Fat Tone could be viewed as a prime example of what happens when keeping it real, goes wrong. Mac Dres fans, friends, and the Bay Area rap world was devastated. He was "Fat Tone the Untouchable." He died on Halloween night and I was throwing a Halloween party the night before and what makes it even crazier is that Fat Tone shows up to my party and gets into a fight with someone later that night. The police verbalized that while Hicks was at a motel, his friends were allegedly casing a bank but had changed their mind when they saw a local Fresno TV News van in the bank's parking lot. Coolio remembers several interactions with the police: They used to come through sweatin us. When Mac Dres friends saw the news crew, they called it off, according to documents provided by the FBI. To many, this was a grave injustice. The posthumous. In 1992, after a surge of local business and bank robberies began taking place by a crew referring to themselves as The Romper Room Gang, knowing Dres affiliation with the crew, police began dissecting his lyrics, hoping to find clues to the robberies. If Andre was alive he would definitely be capitalizing and making as much money as he could.. In early October, he started a production company named Honeybear Productions, and enlisted the help of Kansas City rapper 40 Kal, who introduced the Bay Area artists to Whitmill. The hard part for us was we didnt really get a chance to grieve or mourn privately, because once he got killed he became an even bigger public figure.. They parked the car and took out masks, but as they did, a television news crew whod caught word about the heist on the police scanner arrived. Born Andre Hicks on July 5, 1970, in Oakland, California, he was raised in Vallejo, California in the Country Club Crest neighborhood, often called The Crest, or Crest Side by its residents. Officers accused of theft and illegal searches return to plainclothes work that fueled a scandal years ago. Or did he clear him publicly, but perhaps not privately, amongst his comrades? In an interview conducted this past January, Davila denies ever speaking about his case with other inmates. But I dont think he did it.. Mac Dre responded thats not my job, and the clubs security reportedly shut it down. Coldest thang was Diggs started pimping Mac dre daughter when she turned 18. In January 2021, DJ Fresh said he doesnt remember Whitmill at all and that he normally doesnt remember people if he only worked with them one time. However, numerous witness statements say this never happened and police were never able to confirm it. A dark-colored SUV had been seen speeding away; shortly after, Cowboys Saturn sedan, which Laursen had been driving, turned up burning in Richmond. He next called 41 Action News, the local television station, and told them he saw two black males between the ages of 20 and 30 ditch a black Infiniti behind his house, get out and then get into a faded blue van with tinted windows, before leaving. Ive really owned Thizz Entertainment and that business. Hicks, who grew up in Vallejo's hardscrabble Country Club Crest neighborhood, first gained radio airplay as a teenager with a song titled, ironically, "2 Hard 4 the (expletive) Radio." The white van allegedly belonged to Savino Davila, a 27-year-old man who prosecutors say was at the head of a drug trafficking organization that brought more than 330 pounds of cocaine into Kansas between 2000 and 2006. I put that on everything. One of the men convicted of killing Fat Tone was a fledgling rapper and rap promoter named Andre Mac Minister Dow, who recorded the spoken word portion of the intro to The Games sophomore album, Doctors Advocate, while on the run for killing Fat Tone. The tragedy of this thing is that assuming [Laursen] was killed as retribution for being a witness, thats three people dead over a financial matter over an amount of money that wouldnt pay for a weekend in Vegas, says Babcock, the Kansas City detective who cleared Fat Tone of Mac Dres murder. Savino Davila was at the Atlantic Star earlier in the night, before he left to take his kids trick or treating. Later that night, he said that he was following his white van as the driver, Harold Piersey, took Mac Dre back to The Sheraton after leaving IHop. Ghetto Stardom 11. Or maybe Tone was cleared by Diggs and Babcock because he didnt personally pull the trigger, but maybe he had something to do with it, such as send his goon, Cowboy? Dre began rapidly producing material and grew a diverse following, selling thousands of CDs all over the country, and even places like France and South Africa. Detectives eventually counted 30 bullet holes on the drivers side of the van, with copper bullets still lodged in two of the holes. Detective Babcock noted that he didnt believe Antwine was being truthful. Never one to miss an opportunity to capitalize on his gangsta, his next album cover was a picture of him ina hospital bed giving the middle finger. Photos courtesy of Kansas City Police Department / Patrick Johnson. San Francisco police records show his true name is Antoine Cantrell. Get Right 9. He knew what happened to Mac Dre and felt partly responsible, but couldnt bring himself to testify in court. During the interview, they begged her to cooperate, even promising to help her get her life back on track, but she refused. He is a former metro editor and longtime reporter at the paper whose chief topics included policing, civil rights, public corruption and big-wave surfing. He incorporated his sense of humor into his music, in part by creating characters, such as Ronald Dregan and Thizzelle Washington. He wore a large afro, and big, oversized stunna shades, and he created the Thizz Dance, a funky dance that holds no specific rules. O tom, ako pouvame vae informcie, sa dozviete viac v naich zsadch ochrany osobnch dajov a zsadch pouvania sborov cookie. Gray said he was inclined to look into the case because Mouton claimed to know Dow from growing up in San Franciscos Western Addition. In any case, Yukmouth and Keak would later admit to Vlad that the atmosphere in Kansas City was tense.. On top of that, Mac Dres crew of over 20 people rushed the stage mid-show, creating a security concern, and causing everything to get shut down. I saw a JT the bigga figga interview where he was saying he got mac dre daughter home +2 2 years ago '19 #182: WestPittsburg 15 K 3 K. kobraman said . The complete story of how, why and who killed one of the greatest rappers of all time is laid out in more than 1,200 never before seen documents requested from the KCPD. They pulled up early so they could participate in typical Vegas activities, like girls and gambling. Less than a month later, on March 26, Mac Dre was arrested for conspiracy to rob a bank. DJ Fresh had gotten hired to do the show about a week in advance after receiving a call from a man who introduced himself as Big D. According to Babcocks police report, Fresh later picked Whitmill out of a photo lineup, confirming that he was the promoter that had hired him. So much so that Babcock summonsed Tone to Kansas City police headquarters for an interview. He was once charged with the murder of 17-year-old Shameka Posey and her unborn child, but he was released 9 months later after charges were dropped due to uncooperating witnesses. However, that didnt stop Fat Tone from facing deadly consequences over the unfounded rumors and on May 23, 2005, seven months after Mac Dres killing, Fat Tone and his friend, Jermaine Aikens, were murdered in Las Vegas in what is widely believed to have been retaliation for Mac Dres death. According to reports, Corleone had rented a house there, and hed been pimping 21-year-old Lee Danae Laursen, from Payson, Utah. July 5 Rapper #4. Detective Babcock met with Antwine numerous times in the years after the murder and he repeatedly denied having any involvement. He later appealed his sentence, saying that prosecutors unfairly argued that putting him to death would be cheaper to taxpayers than housing him on death row. After witnessing the shooting, Davila said he turned off his phone, took the nearest exit, went home and went to sleep. When they finally left, Mac Dre got in the back of the van and instructed Piersey to drive them to his hotel. Most Popular #19016. Laursen, meanwhile, ended up in the Bay Area, where she lived out of hotels at times and offered her services -- as "Alana" -- over the Craigslist Web site, police say. Piersey claimed that he never heard a sound from Mac Dre. The witness didnt see the driver. Be sure to follow Mike and The Cell Block on social media at @mikeenemigo and @thecellblockoffocial. Still, as his driver moved through Kansas City in the dark a year ago, a stolen black Infiniti G36 pulled alongside and someone opened fire, police said. The relationship between the two scenes is also a testament to Mac Dres allure. There were three spent 7.62X39 Wolf shell casings found in the backseat the same kind located at the crime scene. 1 / 10. Young, 38, said in an interview with the Daily Mail published on August 4 that she's living out of an SUV rental in Tarzana, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. The police subsequently charged him with conspiracy to commit robbery, although no bank robbery was conducted and Hicks was neither with his friends nor near the location of the purported bank. | Susan Tripp Pollard/MediaNews Group/East Bay Times via Getty Images, By clicking Subscribe you confirm you have read and agree to our. Spooked by the cameras, Diggs and Curt smashed back to the motel, picked up Dre, and headed back to the Bay. In the recent years Ive been more accepting of monetizing the legend, the name and Ive formed Andre Lewis Enterprise Company. It seems hard to believe that Mac Dre could end up lying dead in a muddy ditch for more than an hour after crashing in such a violent way. The majority of people who knew Dre and the crew say the same thing. The record store owner told detectives that fans were getting antsy and it all felt very unorganized. I remember everything about that case, Detective Babcock says. Sleep Dank looked up to Mac Dre. But to some it meant much more. A notorious ecstasy enthusiast, Dre began rapping about the drug and coined the term thizz, a slang word for ecstasy, and he pioneered the hyphy movement. He said that one day after July, the black Infiniti pulled up alongside him as he walked down the street, near 52nd and Paseo, in Kansas City. In a February 2021 interview, the Kansas City rapper Mr. Stinky said that he threw a show at the Atlantic Star the night before Mac Dres murder, which only added to the confusion later on. Whitmill said that hed need to check with his lawyer, Kansas City defense attorney Carl Bussey, before submitting to a mouth swab. Dow was with his 28-year-old girlfriend. But why make up that lie at all? In fact, serial killer Terry Blair had just been captured a few months prior after terrorizing the Prospect corridor and murdering at least 6 women. They were living in and out of hotels, offering Laurens services as Alana on Craigslist. By 2004, Kansas City and The Bay Area shared a mutual affection towards each others burgeoning hip-hop scenes, acting as the conduit to California for fledgling midwest rappers looking to gain access to a portion of the rap community previously unavailable to them. Fat Tone was West Coast-friendly, DJ Fresh says. I dont want to implicate myself in something thats not true, Davila says. "Mac Dre"s been dead for eight years, but he has a mother left, nieces left, a daughter," she said. I tell you, at the time, I would have put my hand on the Bible and been like, Nah, Dre had nothing to do with that. He was just somebody who was down with the neighborhood, and that neighborhood was getting profiled, and hes standing up for it. The talk with Drake opened Wanda Macs eyes to the significance her son had on music and helped her realize that she should celebrate his legacy. Telly 8. The van swerved across a grass median and four freeway lanes, then crashed into a ditch. There was a drought, in terms of the Bay Area, says Davey D. I mean, people were putting out records, but it didnt have the national attention that it did [before]. Mathis had rented a house less than five blocks from the murder scene. That was always the big payoff moment for me as a detective, he says. [3], On November 1, 2004, Hicks was killed by an unknown assailant after a performance in Kansas City, Missouri,[4] a case that remains unsolved. Thats just what they do. Dre paroled on August 2, 1996, eager to get back into the rap game. Hicks claimed he was rapping about attempts to "wake up the neighbors. Mathis "said he shot Watkins, then chased Akins into the street and shot him while he was on the ground pleading for his life," the warrant alleged. He would have easily adapted to the age of social media. Please take a second to donate on Patreon! For legal purposes, Im not sure what to say. To be fair, there are pieces of Davilas story that dont quite add up. I dont remember the exact details. Dre was just straight music. But on July 12, Corleone was arrested in San Francisco for allegedly beating Laursen. Hicks is considered one of the movement's key pioneers that fueled its popularity into mainstream, releasing songs . One of those informants was Gary Patterson, who told Detective Babcock that he became friends with Davila while they were housed together in 2007. The witness, Antione Mouton, came forward after Dow reached out to a prosecutor in Boudins office for help.

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