Coke Boys/Riot SquadmemberChinx Drugzhas reportedly been shot and killed in Queens, New York during a botched car jacking on Sunday, May 17, around 4 in the morning.
The rapper was sitting in his new Porsche Panamera when assailants approached and attempted to steal it. Chinx tried to pull away, but the would-be car thieves opened fire. His was struck by five bullets.
A Queens-born rapper was killed and another person wounded early Sunday after someone opened fire on a car in Queens.
The victim, shot multiple times in the torso, has been identified as 31-year old Lionel Pickens of Ozone Park, known as Chinx.
It happened just after 4 a.m. at Queens Boulevard and 84th Drive in Briarwood.
Police say the victims were driving a Porsche westbound on Queens Boulevard when a second vehicle pulled up to them at 84th Road, where a gunman from the second vehicle fired multiple rounds inside the first car, striking the driver and the other person.
The wounded person is in critical condition at Jamaica Hospital.
Investigators are on the scene searching for any clues that could lead to the shooter.
So far police have no motive.
Chinx got his start with late Far Rockaway, Queens emceeStack Bundles, as a part of theRiot Squad, along withBynoeandCau2G$.
He later joined French Montana'sCoke Boys team and was building steady momentum with songs like "Dope House" featuring Jadakiss.
Chinx's last full length release was the well received mixtape entitled Cocaine Riot 5.
Rest in peace Chinx.
**UPDATE**
Legion Media Group has released a statement on Chinx's passing.
"It is with a heavy heart that The Legion Media Group and 4 Kings Management announce the passing of Lionel "Chinx" Pickens this morning. He was 31. Few details are available about his passing but his management confirmed his passing this morning. The rapper from Queens, New York was a member of French Montana's Coke Boys. Chinx's dedication, humor and vision will always be remembered "Chinx was one of the most talented, professional, and determined rappers this industry had to offer," said Publicist Chanel Rae, "Further more, he was a friend."
There is also footage from the murder scene below.
**UPDATE** May 18
As fans paid their respects at a makeshift memorial in Queens, police detained and are questioning two men from Far Rockaway in connection with the shooting death of Chinx Drugz.
Authorities still have no motive in the shooting, although some residents in the neighborhood believe it may have something to do with jealousy.
“He was headed to the top,” Alex, a fan of the rapper told CBS New York. “He was with the right team. And some people didn’t like that.”
Chinx had just finished performing at Club Red Wolf in Brooklyn, New York at 2:30 a.m. Afterwards he dropped off a friend at a train station in Queens. A short time later tragedy struck.
Witness Raymond Rivera saw the shooting from down the block. He said Chinx fell to the ground afterwards.
Raymond Rivera witnessed the shooting
“It was a black Mercedes that came right next to that car and they let off shots,” Rivera told CBS New York. “Police came. They put a blanket over him. They came took him in the ambulance."
Luis Lopez, manager of Club Red Wolf told The New York Daily News that Chinx didn't have any problems while at the event.
"He was very good," Lopez said. "He was here with four or five guys. Then he left. He didn’t fight with anyone."
BOSTON (Associated Press) — The death sentence jurors imposed on Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sets the stage for what could be the nation's first execution of a terrorist in the post-9/11 era, though the case is likely to go through years of appeals.
In weighing the arguments for and against death, the jurors decided among other things that Tsarnaev showed a lack of remorse. And they emphatically rejected the defense's central argument — that he was led down the path to terrorism by his big brother.
The Friday decision — which came just over two years after the April 15, 2013, bombing that killed three people and wounded more than 260 — brought relief and grim satisfaction to many in Boston.
"We can breathe again," said Karen Brassard, who suffered shrapnel wounds on her legs.
A somber-looking Tsarnaev stood with his hands folded, his head slightly bowed, as he learned his fate, sealed after 14 hours of deliberations over three days. His lawyers left court without comment.
His father, Anzor Tsarnaev, reached by phone in the Russian region of Dagestan, let out a deep moan upon hearing the news and hung up.
The 12-member federal jury had to be unanimous for Tsarnaev to get the death penalty. Otherwise, the former college student would have automatically received life in prison with no chance of parole.
Tsarnaev was convicted last month of all 30 charges against him, including use of a weapon of mass destruction, for joining his now-dead brother, Tamerlan, in setting off two shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs near the finish line of the race. Tsarnaev was also found guilty in the killing of an MIT police officer during the getaway.
Seventeen of the charges carried the possibility of a death sentence; ultimately, the jury gave him the death penalty on six of those counts.
The speed with which the jury reached a decision surprised some, given that the jurors had to fill out a detailed worksheet in which they tallied up the factors for and against the death penalty.
The jury agreed with the prosecution on 11 of the 12 aggravating factors cited, including the cruelty of the crime, the extent of the carnage, the killing of a child, and Tsarnaev's lack of remorse.
From left, Martin Richard, 8, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Lingzi Lu were killed in the two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2013.
"Today the jury has spoken. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will pay for his crimes with his life," said U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz.
With Friday's decision, community leaders and others talked of closure, of resilience, of the city's Boston Strong spirit.
"Today, more than ever, we know that Boston is a city of hope, strength and resilience that can overcome any challenge," said Mayor Marty Walsh.
In weighing the mitigating factors, only three of the 12 jurors found Tsarnaev acted under the influence of his brother.
The defense argued that sending him to the high-security Supermax prison in Colorado for the rest of his life would be a sufficiently harsh punishment and would help the victims move on without having to read about years of death row appeals.
Massachusetts is a liberal, staunchly anti-death penalty state that hasn't executed anyone since 1947, and there were fears that a death sentence for Tsarnaev would only satisfy his desire for martyrdom.
But some argued that if capital punishment is to be reserved for "the worst of the worst," Tsarnaev qualifies.
Tsarnaev's chief lawyer, death penalty specialist Judy Clarke, admitted at the start of the trial that he participated in the bombings.
But Clarke argued that Dzhokhar was an impressionable 19-year-old led astray by his domineering 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan. The defense portrayed Tamerlan as the mastermind of the plot to punish the U.S. for its wars in Muslim countries.
Tamerlan died days after the bombing when he was shot by police and run over by Dzhokhar during a chaotic getaway attempt.
Prosecutors depicted Dzhokhar as an equal partner in the attack, saying he was so coldhearted he planted a bomb on the pavement behind a group of children, killing an 8-year-old boy.
Jurors also heard grisly and heartbreaking testimony from numerous bombing survivors who described seeing their legs blown off or watching someone next to them die.
Killed in the bombing were Lingzi Lu, a 23-year-old Boston University graduate student from China; Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager; and 8-year-old Martin Richard, who had gone to watch the marathon with his family. Massachusetts Institute of Technology police Officer Sean Collier was gunned down in his cruiser days later. Seventeen people lost legs in the bombings.
Tsarnaev did not take the stand at his trial and showed a trace of emotion only once, when he cried while his Russian aunt was on the stand.
The only evidence of any remorse on his part came from the defense's final witness, Sister Helen Prejean, the Roman Catholic nun and death penalty opponent portrayed in the movie "Dead Man Walking." She quoted Tsarnaev as saying of the victims: "No one deserves to suffer like they did."
U.S. District Judge George O'Toole Jr. will formally impose the sentence at a later date during a hearing in which bombing victims and Tsarnaev himself will be given the opportunity to speak.
Tsarnaev probably will be sent to death row at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, where Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh was put to death in 2001.
Check out the full version of A$AP Rocky's "What's Beef." His new album entitled At.Long.Last.A$AP will be released on June 2nd. Check out the cut up top and let us know what you think in the comment section below.
After releasing Loyalty earlier this year Soulja Boy is back! with "Swag the mixtape" from Rich Gang. Still showing no signs of stopping in 2015.
Tracklist
1.Lingo (Watch Me Swag) 2.Yeen Heard ft. Migos 3.Cake (prod by. ISO beats) 4.PeeWee checks in (RichGang) 5.Money Be Coming In 6.Came And Got Rich 7.Way Up ft. Johnny Cinco 8.Rollin ft. Chief Keef 9.Salute ft. Ca$h Out 10.Money I Get ft. Troy Ave 11.G.O.D. ft. Packstrong 12.Gettin Dough ft. Paul Allen 13.Water 14.I Never Say Sorry 15.Fleek ft. Chella H (Produced by DaRealHeatMaker) 16.No Hesitation 17.What I Know 18.Hella Klips 19.Hot Shit 20.Broad Day 21.Da Swag ft. Calico Jonez 22.Free Base ft. Calico Jonez 23.Beach 24.Bitch Shut Up 25.Syrup ft. Paul Allen Kyle Massey 26.A Billion
Dom Kennedyis preparing to release his new self-titled album on June 2. The West Coast rapper revealed the cover for the project via his Instagram account. Check it out up top.
Bobby Shmurdafound himself in the middle of a brawl at Otis Bantum Correctional Center in New York City last month, according toTMZ.
Bobby, real name Ackquille Jean Pollard, and three of his Crip associates threw down with 2 Bloods before guards were able to break up the fight using pepper spray.
The 20-year old"Hot Nigga" rapper has been locked up since December 17, 2014, when he and other members of the GS9crew were arrested as part of a 15-person, 69-count indictment.
Bobby is charged with conspiracy to commit murder, multiple weapons possession, and reckless endangerment.
DJ Smallz recently sat down with Lil Scrappy to get his opinion on 50 Cent'sEFFEN Vodka. It was Scrappy's first time tasting the drink. After downing a shot of the regular blend he gave his honest opinion on it compared it to Ciroc.
"Wow...whoa. That shit hit me different," Scrappy said after downing a shot of EFFEN. "That shit hit me all the way fucking different. I like it. It's smooth, but it will hit you. That shit went straight through to my brain piece. And my brain piece is motored right now. I fuck with this shit."
Scrappy admitted to liking a couple ofCiroc'sflavors, but said the straight blend doesn't compare to EFFEN's.
"[EFFEN} tastes better that the regular Ciroc. Because the regular Ciroc for some odd reason tastes like you're drinking alcohol, rubbing alcohol. [Effen] tastes like you're drinking water with some other shit in it, but's it's smooth though."
Fabolousis back like he never left with an instant classic freestyle. The Brooklyn, New York rapper hops on the instrumental toNas' Pete Rock-produced"The World Is Yours."Turn you speakers up and enjoy.
Hot Boy Turk speaks with Mikey T The Movie Star about the earlier days in Cash Money when BG saved the Label and Trading Bars with Lil Wayne on his earlier releases...Stay Tuned for the Official "You Mad Yet" Remix from Turk Dropping Featuring Lil Wayne..Log Onto www.HotBoyTurk.com for More Info..
Follow us on Twitter @HotBoyTurk32 @MTMovieStar @1stClassFilms
MovieStarManagement@Gmail.com to Contact Mikey T The Movie Star
The Infamous Mobb Deep duo of Havoc and Prodigy team up with ESPN to release a new version of "Survival of the Fittest." The record will be used on NBA Countdown during the Western Conference Finals.
Styles P a.k.a. The Ghost continues his freestyle Friday run by dropping off two new ones. The first is called "Off the Ghost," followed by "Ghost Fuck Up Everything." Give them both a listen up top.
Snoop Dogg was the musical guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The Doggfather performed "So Many Pros" off of his new album entitled Bush. You can purchase it now from iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/ca/album/bush/id961256177.
Taylor Gang boss Wiz Khalifa just dropped a new song entitled "The Play." The song was produced by Harry Fraud. Take a listen to the track up top and let us know what you think in the comment section below.
Young Thug's "Barter 6" album has received both praise and criticism from bloggers, musicians and industry insiders alike- even our own Vlad has taken a liking to the "Lifestyle" rapper after his latest release. Charlamagne Tha God, however, isn't stepping on the Thugger bandwagon just yet. "I have no desire to hear it," he says on the "Barter 6." "I have nothing against Young Thug, [I] don't know the young man- [I'm] just not interested in his music.
"I like rappers that I can actually understand," Charlamagne continues. "The shit he's on, I ain't on it." The radio and television personality feels like Young Thug is setting himself up for failure as he tries to emulate Lil Wayne, especially after he tried to take Wayne's name for his own project. "Carter is Lil Wayne's last name- it's an iconic series and you just jump out there and say 'Hey, I'm gonna call my album the Carter 6'? That shit's kinda corny to me," Charlamagne states. And it's not like he's exactly siding with Wayne, who did the exact same thing with Juvenile's "400 Degreez" - Charlamagne says he didn't like Lil Wayne's album '500 Degreez' either. "'500 Degreez' sucked to me compared to '400 Degreez."
At the end of the clip, Charlamagne offers Young Thug some honest advice: "Be the best Young Thug you can be, because people f*** with Young Thug. Whatever fanbase you do have, keep capitalizing off of that. You can't be that young man Lil Wayne." Charlamagne even thinks his Rich Gang affiliate Rich Homie Quan has more staying power than him. "I like Rich Homie Quan better than Young Thug," he says.
Do you believe Young Thug's "Barter 6" has officially paved a way for him in the game, or do you feel his beef with Lil Wayne has put him in a 50 Cent/Ja Rule-like situation? Let us know if you side with Vlad or Charlamagne below.
When Vlad informed Swizz Beatz that Sir Mix-a-Lot's popular track "Baby Got Back" has made over $100 million since it's release in 1992, he wasn't surprised. "I don't think people realize that type of money can be made, period," Swizz states. "For an artist like Sir Mix-a-Lot to be the conversation in 2014, it shows you how powerful music is."
Swizz Beatz knows the power of music all too well. Since his early days at Ruff Ryders Entertainment, the 36-year-old has seen most of the ups and downs in the music industry- and unfortunately some of the down times had him losing out on rightfully-earned pay. During his time at Ruff Ryders, Swizz was in his late teens/early twenties and making a big name for himself. The producer remembers a time when a friend of his from ASCAP congratulated him on making $800,000, which was money Mr. Dean never got to see.
"Come to find out, we had this particular lawyer working with us," Swizz Beatz began, stating that while he received little to nothing in the mail at his mother's home, "all the real stuff was going to this particular person," who decided to divvy up the money how he saw fit. "A lot of these people that we feel are in power to protect us, [are] really abusing the power to protect us. And since then I've been on a different type of mission, man."
Swizz, who says he won't expose the lawyer because "people change in their life" ultimately just wanted to "lay him down" but realized then that he just needed to watch the company he kept. "From that point on I knew to pay attention to certain things."
Watch on as Swizz talks more about the experience and admits that he still has some growing to do in this exclusive clip.
LAS VEGAS (Associated Press) — B.B. King believed anyone could play the blues, and that "as long as people have problems, the blues can never die."
But no one could play the blues like B.B. King, who died Thursday night at age 89 in Las Vegas, where he had been in hospice care.
Although he kept performing well into his 80s, the 15-time Grammy winner suffered from diabetes and other problems. He collapsed during a concert in Chicago last October, later blaming dehydration and exhaustion.
For generations of blues musicians and rock 'n rollers, King's plaintive vocals and soaring guitar playing style set the standard for an art form born in the American South and honored and performed worldwide. After the deaths of Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters decades ago, King was the greatest upholder of a tradition that inspired everyone from Jimi Hendrix and Robert Cray to the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton.
King played a Gibson guitar he affectionately called Lucille, with a style that included beautifully crafted single-string runs punctuated by loud chords, subtle vibratos and bent notes, building on the standard 12-bar blues and improvising like a jazz master.
The result could hypnotize an audience, no more so than when King used it to full effect on his signature song, "The Thrill is Gone." After seemingly make his guitar shout and cry in anguish as he told the tale of forsaken love, he ended the lyrics with a guttural shouting of the song's final two lines: "Now that it's all over, all I can do is wish you well."
His style was unusual. King didn't like to sing and play at the same time, so he developed a call-and-response, and let Lucille do some of the talking.
"Sometimes I just think that there are more things to be said, to make the audience understand what I'm trying to do more," King told The Associated Press in 2006. "When I'm singing, I don't want you to just hear the melody. I want you to relive the story, because most of the songs have pretty good storytelling."
The blues is a lifetime gig and King kept at it even as his health declined, playing more than 100 shows a year well into his 80s. He believed touring extended his lifespan. "I got a chance to ride today on a very nice bus and from my window I can see how beautiful this country is and how nice it is to be alive," he said once. "That to me is like extra vitamins."
From 1950 to 1970, he traveled about 300 days a year and spent the remaining days in the studio. In 1956, he and his band played 342 one-nighters. By 1967, he had made 30 albums and 225 singles. Even in 1989, he was away from his Las Vegas home about 300 days, but it was no longer mostly one-night stands.
Keith Richards would recall touring nonstop with the Rolling Stones during the mid-1960s, then adding "That's nothing. I mean, tell that to B.B. King and he'll say, 'I've been doing it for years.'"
King enjoyed acclaim and considerable commercial success, acting the gentleman onstage and off. The blues was born of despair, but King worked in many moods, and he encouraged black youngsters in particular to make positive choices.
"Most of the time when people say blues, it's pretty negative," King told a Houston audience in February 1992. "But I'm here to tell you, blues is a label that people put on a music that was started by black people, and you can choose between the negative and the positive."
King was named the third greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone magazine (after Hendrix and Duane Allman, who died in their 20s, an age when King was just getting started). He won 15 Grammys and sold more than 40 million records worldwide, a remarkable number for blues. He was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His album "Live at the Regal" was declared a historic sound and permanently preserved in the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.
His playing style influenced performers from Otis Rush and Buddy Guy to Clapton, Hendrix, John Mayall and Mike Bloomfield.
Musicians even named a section of the guitar's neck after their blues idol, dubbing it the "B.B. box." Usually located from the 10th to 12th frets, depending on the key of the song, it's where King twisted and scorched many of his signature guitar licks.
"Mr. King's electric guitar can sing simply, embroider and drag out unresolved harmonic tensions to delicious extremes," The New York Times wrote in a review of a King appearance in June 1992. "It shrinks and swells with the precision of the human voice."
Among his Grammys: best traditional blues album: "A Christmas Celebration of Hope," and best pop instrumental performance for "Auld Lang Syne" in 2003; best male rhythm 'n' blues performance in 1971 for his "The Thrill Is Gone"; best ethnic or traditional recording in 1982 for the album "There Must Be a Better World Somewhere." A collaboration with Clapton, "Riding With the King," won a Grammy in 2001 for best traditional blues recording.
Riley B. King was born Sept. 16, 1925, on a tenant farm near Itta Bena in the Mississippi Delta. His parents separated when he was 4, and his mother took him to the even smaller town of Kilmichael. She died when he was 9, and when his grandmother died as well, he lived alone in her primitive cabin, raising cotton to work off debts.
"I was a regular hand when I was 7. I picked cotton. I drove tractors. Children grew up not thinking that this is what they must do. We thought this was the thing to do to help your family," King said.
His father eventually found him and took him back to Indianola. When the weather was bad and King couldn't work the fields, he walked 10 miles to a one-room school. He quit in the 10th grade.
A preacher uncle taught him the guitar, and King didn't play and sing blues in earnest until he was away from his religious household, in basic training with the Army during World War II. He listened to and was influenced by both blues and jazz players: T. Bone Walker, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, Django Reinhardt and Charlie Christian.
His first break came with gospel — singing lead and playing guitar with the Famous St. John's Gospel Singers on Sunday afternoons from the studio of WGRM radio in Greenwood, Mississippi.
But he soon split for Memphis, Tennessee, where his career took off after Sonny Boy Williamson let him play a song on WKEM.
By 1948, King earned a daily spot on WDIA, the first radio station in America to program entirely by African-Americans for African-Americans, as "the Pepticon Boy," pitching the alcoholic tonic between his live blues songs.
Until then, he had been known as Riley King. He needed a better nickname. The station manager dubbed him the Beale Street Blues Boy, because he had played for tips in a Beale Street park. Soon, it was B.B., and it stuck.
Initial success came with his third recording, of "Three O'Clock Blues" in 1950. He hit the road, and rarely paused thereafter.
King made his first European tour in 1968, played in 14 cities with the Rolling Stones in 1969, and made TV appearances, from "Sesame Street" to "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air." In 1989, he appeared in "Rattle and Hum," a film about U2, and toured with that band.
Music brought him from Mississippi's dirt roads to black-tie meetings with world leaders. He gave a guitar to Pope John Paul II, and had President Barack Obama singing to his "Sweet Home Chicago."
In 2005, the Mississippi House and Senate declared Feb. 15 to be B.B. King Day. The blues great said he had never set foot in the Mississippi Capitol until then. He wiped away tears, and described it as his most proud moment.
"I tell you I was in Heaven. I was so happy that I cried. I don't do that often in public, but the water just came. I couldn't help it," King said later.
King lived in Las Vegas, but Mississippi was his home.
In the early 1980s, King donated about 8,000 recordings — mostly 33, 45 and 78 rpm records, but also some Edison wax cylinders — to the University of Mississippi, launching a blues archive that researchers still use today. He also supported the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, a $10 million, 18,000-square-foot structure, built around the cotton gin where King once worked.
"I want to be able to share with the world the blues as I know it — that kind of music — and talk about the Delta and Mississippi as a whole," he said at the center's groundbreaking in 2005.
The museum not only holds his personal papers, but hosts music camps and community events focused on health challenges including diabetes, which King suffered from for years. At his urging, Mississippi teenagers work as docents, not only at the center but also at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.
"He's the only man I know, of his talent level, whose talent is exceeded by his humility," said Allen Hammons, a museum board member.
In a June 2006 interview, King said there are plenty of great musicians now performing who will keep the blues alive.
"I could name so many that I think that you won't miss me at all when I'm not around. You'll maybe miss seeing my face, but the music will go on," he said.
___
Associated Press writers Hillel Italie in New York and Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi contributed to this report.
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