He made the men drop everything and then told them to leave. Coldest thang was Diggs started pimping Mac dre daughter when she turned 18. Cancers. A dark-colored SUV had been seen speeding away; shortly after, Cowboys Saturn sedan, which Laursen had been driving, turned up burning in Richmond. Jailhouse snitches are notoriously unreliable. [17] In the early 2000s, Dre's change in sound became influential in the hyphy movement. 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. He remembers first meeting Mac Dre in 1986. Dows attorney said his client adamantly maintains his innocence., Were going to keep fighting it, DeMarco said, but I am hopeful that he will ultimately be vindicated., Michael Barba can be reached at [emailprotected]. He wanted more from me. His father was murdered when he was just a kid. | Susan Tripp Pollard/MediaNews Group/East Bay Times via Getty Images, By clicking Subscribe you confirm you have read and agree to our. Andre Louis Hicks (July 5, 1970 - November 1, 2004), known by his stage name Mac Dre, was an American rapper from Vallejo, California. I told him we expected retribution, Babcock says. He would later tell Detective Babcock that Whitmill was angry after Mac Dre left without performing. Will we ever know why he was actually killed, and by who? While the tips regarding Fat Tones culpability continued to flood in, Detective Babcock was convinced that he had nothing to do with it and started spending his time on more credible theories. learn more about mike and his books at thecellblock,net, where you can also follow his blog, the official blog of the cell block. That appeared to be a type error, wrote KCPD Detective Mike Jones in an investigative report dated November 4, 2004. Know Your City! VALLEJO It's been eight years since her rapper son Mac Dre was shot to death leaving a Kansas City club, and Wanda Salvatto said Wednesday she is still searching for peace. Whitmill said that hed need to check with his lawyer, Kansas City defense attorney Carl Bussey, before submitting to a mouth swab. 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. When he was three, he moved 30 minutes north to Vallejo, a city of just over 120,000, famous for having the first United States Navy base on the Pacific Coast. This is a carousel. The 21-year-old prostitute - a possible witness to the killings of Watkins and Akins was shot and killed Nov. 4 in Fairfield. 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., Freeway Tearfully Reflects On The Jacka's Passing: 'His Death Affected Me', Travis Scott Accused Of Punching Sound Engineer During $12K NYC Nightclub Rampage, T-Pain Reveals He Got Paid When Other Artists Used Auto-Tune: 'It Was Nuts', Rich The Kid Says He Was Once Signed To TDE, Dr. Dre & Big Sean Shower Michael B. Jordan In 'Creed III' Praise, OTF Rapper Doodie Lo Wins $11M Lawsuit Against Ex-GF Over Child Sex Abuse Claims, 50 Cent Accused Of Confronting Ex-Drug Lord At His Home Over $1B Power Lawsuit. For a while up, for Id say up to about eight years after he passed, his daughter and I kind of like went into seclusion,Wanda Mac says. Dre made numerous references to The Romper Room, and in one song he rapped about a harrowing credit union robbery. 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. So much so that Babcock summonsed Tone to Kansas City police headquarters for an interview. Several months later, Watkins denied in a rap song that he had killed Hicks, but "the rumor was that he admitted it," Babcock said. The van was completely totaled. But Dre had that gangster side, too. Hicks claimed he was rapping about attempts to "wake up the neighbors. He was released from Californias FCI Lompoc in August, 1996, and in the early 2000s he moved north to Sacramento to focus on music. There was white paint all along the passenger side of the car, suggesting that it had been used to ram a white vehicle. He is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole in a Nevada prison. This isnt how youd expect someone to act after witnessing their own van being shot up with a friend and family member inside. That was always the big payoff moment for me as a detective, he says. That friend was Savino Davila, who says he first met Mac Dre in the late 1990s through palling around with Yukmouth. He said they feared that the interview would only cause more problems for the people involved. 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. While most of Dres Bay Area rap associates left Kansas City the next day, Dre stayed because he had booked a walk-through at a club for the following night, October 31Halloween. He was 34. [10] Vallejo police began focusing on the Crest Neighborhood as a source of the crime. Antwine and a friend asked them if they wanted to go to a rap concert on the night Mac Dre was murdered, according to the anonymous tip. Here are the main Damu & Crips in Carson/Barson. Seventeen people have been killed so far this year compared with 16 at this time last year, Deputy Police Chief Drennon Lindsey said. Hes been shouted out at least twice by hip-hop superstar Drake;My city loves me like Mac Dre in The Bay, and Shoutout to Mac Dre in The Bay. Rap superstar Rick Ross has shouted him out as well; Rest in peace Mac Dre, throwing up Thizz. Mac Dres impact on hip-hop culture has been undeniable as fans celebrate him around the world, still to this day. His album, Back in da Hood, was a result of these recordings, as were several guest verses he recorded for other rappers. Hicks had performed in that city two weeks prior and decided to go on the trip so that he could re-visit a woman he knew there. He called Whitmill back and told him and then Mac Dre ended up dead. Detective Babcock also spoke with several jailhouse informants that Davila had allegedly been communicating with while awaiting trial at the Leavenworth Detention Center. She also said hed paid to get the windows tinted and assumed some girl had rented it for him. Mac Dre and three friends flew from Sacramento to Kansas City, with a quick layover at LAX, on October 27, 2004. He said that the promoter, Damon Whitmill, who Patterson referred to as Damon or Big D, became mad at Mac Dre after he refused to perform, instead showing up late only to do a 30 minute walk through before leaving. "Every shooting that happened (in Kansas City), you would get calls saying, 'Fat Tone did it, Fat Tone did it.' This monumental EP is the quintessential Bay Area deep cut; a springboard that launched the pimp archetype that artists like Mac Dre, Too $hort, Suga Free and E-40 would later expand on, and in some cases, perfect. 1 / 10. Once Dre finished the Halloween-night walk-through, he and Thizz artist Major Dubee Norton (there may have been others) got into a white van and left the club; Dubee drove and Dre rode shotgun. Taylor wasnt surprised to be speaking with detectives, having seen the black Infiniti on the news during reports of Mac Dres murder. That cant be true, Davila says. Most Popular #19016. Parts of it are right, parts of it are wrong.. Gray grew up in the neighborhood and said he didnt know Mouton. Jeffrey Vandergrift, a radio host at San Franciscos Wild 94.9, is still missing, and there has been no activity on his cell phone or credit cards. Despite the title of the song, it was a hit on local radio. 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. [22] He was given a public open-casket viewing, and then buried at the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. As you know, we were really depressed, really hurt and really traumatized by his death and everything. Lee Laursen. He has a lengthy criminal record in Missouri dating back to 1999, when he was first arrested for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school in Kansas City. He always called me if he was coming through K.C. Wide Open 14. When Mac Dres friends saw the news crew, they called it off, according to documents provided by the FBI. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Airfare, hotels and food while Mac Dre and crew were in town also landed on Whitmill, who sent a contract and the first payment early in October. Over 1,200 documents from the Kansas City Police Department help shed light on one of hip-hops biggest mysteries. [8][bettersourceneeded] Hicks recorded his first three EPs as Mac Dre between 1988 and 1992. With Rob Aston, Jonathan Sway Calloway, Davey D, DJ Quik. His image as a violent gangster helped him sell records, which is ironic, considering that music was probably one of the few hustles helping Fat Tone escape a life of crime. English. In the recent years Ive been more accepting of monetizing the legend, the name and Ive formed Andre Lewis Enterprise Company. Davila said he asked Mac Dre if he needed anything else. [2] "The tragedy of the whole thing is that, assuming (the woman killed in Fairfield) was killed as retribution for being a witness, that's three people dead over a financial matter over an amount of money that wouldn't pay for a weekend in Vegas," said Babcock, who would not elaborate on the alleged dispute except to say that Watkins was not a suspect in Hicks' death. Less than a month later, on March 26, Mac Dre was arrested for conspiracy to rob a bank. To be fair, there are pieces of Davilas story that dont quite add up. The Toyota Tercel, investigators now say, had been given to Dow's girlfriend by a Berkeley activist, a woman who once was her teacher. Mac Dre is one of the Bay Area's most beloved hip-hop figures of all time. Dr. Dre's oldest daughter, LaTanya Young, started a GoFundMe page to raise money for housing for her and her four kids.. Young launched the fundraiser on August 9, according to the GoFundMe page. On the first day, according to surveillance notes, the group cased a Bank of America in downtown Fresno by driving around the block in circles. According to the TV show American Gangster, however, there was an altercation between associates of Dres, and local rapper and thug Fat Tones, though this has not been supported by witnesses. Thats just what they do. George died from head injuries a few days later.. After the show, Dre, Keak Da Sneak, The Jacka, Messy Marv, Yukmouth, and other artists attended an after-party. She prefers to ignore the hype and enjoy the sight of young people wearing "Mac Dre" T-shirts, some who discovered his music in the past year. The case was highlighted in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries from March 4, 1992, where police said they believed the men belonged to a local gang called The Romper Room Crew. While still incarcerated, Mac Dre re-released Young Black Brotha as his debut album in 1993, featuring a number of songs with vocals recorded through a jail phone. The prosecutor, Lateef Gray, said he had a legal obligation to look into the matter and learned late last year that Mouton was actually in jail at the time of the incriminating conversation. At around 2:30 a.m, the white van was traveling northbound on Highway 71 just south of 75th street, when a dark sedan pulled along the drivers side of the van and unloaded upwards of 30 bullets from two seperate guns: an automatic rifle and a .45 pistol. While Mac Dre made his way through the city with Piersey, performing and appearing at different scheduled events, it was Whitmill who was responsible for making sure he got paid and that everything went according to plan. His story completely changed in 2008, after he was arrested for drug conspiracy and looking at 30 years in prison. 60. r/CaliBanging. The Mandalorian, March 1. Curating the best of The Standards top-notch reporting, every Saturday. Although Mac Minister maintains his innocence, the judge decided to uphold his life sentence in 2010 after Dows lawyers argued that mistakes were made during trial. Taylor said he asked the driver for a ride to 56th and Highland and the driver agreed. The character arc of Fat Tone could be viewed as a prime example of what happens when keeping it real, goes wrong. Thats what I would have done. It was also Whitmill who scheduled the club appearances and shows for the weekend. His accomplices were convicted of attempted bank robbery and given 10 years. Dre paroled on August 2, 1996, eager to get back into the rap game. In the years after the murder, Detective Babcock spoke several times with Savino Davila, reputed to be one of Kansas Citys largest cocaine dealers at the time, and the owner of the white van that Mac Dre had been riding in at the time of the shooting. 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 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. I finally got to the point where I could look at it from that point of view, she says. Taylor then told detectives a story that they arent certain they believe. After being featured on an episode of Americas Most Wanted, Dow was arrested in San Francisco in March 2006. And according to Missouri state court records, Smith and Antwine were arrested together less than six months after Mac Dres murder, on March 7, 2005. Dre is the king of The Bay.. At the same time, police were looking for the culprits in a string of robberies that targeted Vallejo pizza shops. [2] As the founder of the independent record label Thizz Entertainment, Hicks recorded dozens of albums and gave aspiring rappers an outlet to release albums locally. 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 tipster declined and later saw both Antwine and the other man burning their clothes in an alleyway visible from their house around the time of the murder. Detectives noted in the investigative report that the computer entry for the stolen Infiniti showed the car as being silver, instead of black. Police said the car crash happened as a result of the victim attempting to flee a shooting. Telly 8. 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. His mother, Wanda Salvatto, said she'd heard about her son's death at least three times before. Join. The relationship between the two scenes is also a testament to Mac Dres allure. The junior Antwine was born in 1981, only two years before his father murdered the Jones Brothers. 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]. While cleared of wrongdoing by police, prosecutors argued that the rap community believed one of the victims in the double shootingFat Tonewas behind Mac Dres killing. Damon Whitmill could not be reached for comment. 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.. Little youngsters between the age of fourteen and twenty-one. His San Francisco attorney, Eric Safire, says his client isn't capable of murder but admits that Dow is capable of basking in the negative publicity. Its not a mystery if you look at the case file.. They sent me to the pen for five years for a crime that was never committed/ I aint no bank robber but that five years had me thinking maybe I should have did it, said Mac Dre on his 1998 song Lifes a Bitch.. LaTanya Young . The informant said hed never heard Antwine say it himself but that hed heard his friends, including a man named Taron T-Baby Smith, talking about it. "She had information that could be very damaging," Hendrix said. "[11] As gangster rap music consistently grew in popularity, law enforcement officials began examining the lyrics of local rappers to utilize as evidence in criminal matters. According to the police records, Detective Babcock ran into Bussey 10 days later, on Nov. 22, outside of the KCPD headquarters. He was on his way. Losing consciousness for a brief moment, Piersey claimed to have lost his cell phone in the crash and tried climbing out of the embankment, where he noticed another car aggressively charging towards him. On May 23, in the early morning hours, Minister, Fat Tone and Cowboy left the MGM, where Tone and Cowboy had been staying. I think Dre for five years was very hungry and had a lot to think about. He even set up a radio appearance and a record store meet-and-greet to help ensure the shows success. Whatever happened, happened, you know what Im saying?, Sleep Dank says. Prosecutors charged Diggs and Curt with attempted bank robbery and Dre with conspiracy. His brash, violent and honest take on midwest hip-hop captured the ears of his Bay Area contemporaries in a way other Kansas City rappers hadnt. Despite the shots being fired through the drivers side, the driver escaped relatively uninjured, ran down the highway to a store, and called 911. While there, he recorded raps over the Fresno county jail telephone, where he taunted law enforcement. They counted a total of 3 exit holes on the passenger side as well, with most of the windows getting broken in the process. J-Diggs was one of Dres closest friends. Laursen, who came from the small town of Payson near Provo, Utah, might have been turning tricks for Mathis, police said. The first time Antwine was mentioned in the documents was on December 10, 2004, when an unnamed person told police that their cousin stole the black Infiniti and then later sold it to Antwine in June or July, of 2004. Whitmill hoped that Mac Dre would actually perform instead of just appear, in order to make up losses accrued over the weekend. I think someones got it misconstrued. According to Las Vegas police Detective Todd Hendrix, Watkins told his mother and girlfriend that Dow had promised him a meeting with Snoop Dogg. Fat Tones reputation as a gangster was notorious. Prosecutors used lyrics from the Young Black Brotha EP to help establish guilt in his case. Investigators soon discovered he was wanted in Las Vegas, where he later pleaded not guilty. A comprehensive rundown DJ Fresh told detectives in the weeks after the murder that Whitmill had called him at the last minute to set up sound and DJ at the Atlantic Star on Halloween night. When he died, a certain momentum was killed with him and he left a void thats still yet to be filled. When I was able to tell the families that their loved ones killer had been brought to justice. Before his death eight years ago, Bay Area hip-hop legend Mac Dre frequently used the term "thizz" to describe the feeling of being high on ecstasy. Mac Dre Fans Also Viewed . The show, and other shows like it, have been criticized for showing detectives that are predominantly white and victims that are predominantly Black. A white 2000 Pontiac. And like most of the other Bay Area rappers, he had a large fan base in Kansas City, Missouri. Demian Bulwa oversees the news operation, including metro, politics, business, sports and investigative reporting, and co-hosts the "Fifth & Mission" podcast. The van then reportedly swerved across a grass median and four southbound lanes, crashing into a ditch. 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. It seems such an unceremonious way to go for a larger-than-life personality like Mac Dre. Dozens of tips recorded by KCPD feature some variation of Fat Tone and Mac Dre getting into an altercation. But his clever, hardcore rhymes had an underground following, and when he was killed on a Kansas City freeway last November, hip-hop radio stations mourned him at length. Its all tangled up, Mr. Stinky says. I could have gone home off of that case, but it just wasnt me.. The record signing and radio appearance were both meant to promote the October 29 concert at the National Guard Armory. He even went so far as to tell detectives that he witnessed the shooting himself and then went home, turned off his phone and went to bed. Davila brought Mac Dre to his hotel, where they hung out and listened to music. It was being driven by a friend of his named Rick Hill. "[7][bettersourceneeded] Hicks first adopted the stage name MC Dre in 1984, but altered it to Mac Dre the following year because he considered that the name sounded "too East Coast-ish". Police investigators say Hicks, 34, was shot in a financial dispute, but the rumor mill said something sexier: that a West-Midwest rap war had flared and that a notorious Kansas City rapper dubbed "Fat Tone" had taken out Hicks. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. The San Francisco Standard. Anyone with. Dow knew Snoop Dogg and appeared on his albums. They then moved to the Vallejo area. He searched the rappers pockets and found an electronic hotel key for The Sheraton, and a membership card for a 24 Hour Fitness under the name Andre Hicks. "He was proud he was a suspect.". Subscribe to the newsletter to get the latest updates! O tom, ako pouvame vae informcie, sa dozviete viac v naich zsadch ochrany osobnch dajov a zsadch pouvania sborov cookie. In 2008, Detective Babcock spoke with a jailhouse informant, David Thibeaux, while he was in federal custody on unrelated charges at the Charles Evans Whittaker Federal Courthouse. When he finally got a chance, he was able to do his own thing that he really wanted to. Only, Dre quit rapping about robbing, and instead began rapping about partying; he wanted to make music you could dance to. Hicks was vocal about the actions he saw being taken by the police and incorporated their aggressive surveillance of residents into his music. His Las Vegas attorney, Keith Brower, was not available for comment. Davila seems to feel guilty for the role he played in his friends death and has tried to find ways to tell detectives since getting arrested in 2006. The limo was gone, but the white van driven by Harold Piersey was there, following behind. Two days later, a 21-year-old call girl who was in Las Vegas with them turned up dead in Fairfield, shot in the head. Dr. Dre, born Andre Romelle Young, was called out by his 38-year-old daughter, LaTanya Young, who is currently living out of her car. He had long been the subject of rap world rumors. Following Mac Dre's murder in 2004, Wanda Salvatto described how she and his daughter went into seclusion to mourn privately, but his increased popularity and fame made the healing process . He said that Davila wanted to have either someone say that they were with him that night and vouch for a different version of events where Davila was following the van and actually saw the murder with his own eyes. Whitmill bet his own money on the success of this concert and worked to lower costs by hiring members of his own family to collect tickets and provide security. Dow was with his 28-year-old girlfriend. Antwine pled guilty to murder and was sentenced to death. We may never know. He took the tip to KCPD and the case was solved not long after. bitea dose of arts, culture and more. Born and raised in Kansas City, Davila shared a close relationship with local hip-hop artists and was a regular at shows and studio sessions around town. [15] The trial was later listed among Complex Magazine's 30 Biggest Criminal Trials in Rap History. Despite serving a five-year prison sentence for conspiracy to commit bank robbery, Hicks was no thug, his mother said. The 35-year-old rap promoter was indicted Nov. 2 in Las Vegas on murder charges stemming from the deaths of Watkins and Akins. Las Vegas detective Todd Hendrix and his partner came to San Francisco and tracked down Laursen. Mac Minister was a suspect in the murder of a call girl from Utah named Lee Danae Laurson. In his first interview with detectives taken the day after the murder, Whitmill states that he lost money. 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. There is a mural of Mac Dre in the Ivy Hill section of Oakland, California, the place where he was born on July 5, 1970. However, the streets had their own opinion. "The timing of it is uncanny.". 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. Taron T-Baby Smith was shot and killed on the morning of June 12, 2010. He didnt recognize the driver, but assumed it was Papoose, because thats who Hill said hed sold the car too. "For a while up, for I'd say up to about. 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.. I thought about my life and how I ended up talking to them and realized that it wasnt me and that I wasnt raised that way, Davila told me in a January 2021 interview. He was a member of the infamous 51st Street Crips, even allegedly earning a leadership position after a turf battle with a gang member and convicted killer Rashawn Long, a former 51st Street boss. "I told him we expected retribution," Babcock recalled. After dropping his first three albums, between 1989 and 1991, Dres career began to pick up the pace. Dow remains on the lam, sought on a no-bail warrant issued after the indictment, and may be featured soon on TV's "America's Most Wanted." The record store owner told detectives that fans were getting antsy and it all felt very unorganized. I did seen Mac Dre on the turn knock out a cat three times his size. After talking with the detectives I went back to my cell and laid down. He was the one everyone knew about over there.. Kliknutm na tlaidlo Prija vetko vyjadrte svoj shlas s tm, e spolonos Yahoo a jej partneri bud spracva vae osobn daje a pouva technolgie, ako s sbory cookie, na zobrazovanie personalizovanch reklm a obsahu, meranie reklm a obsahu, prehady publika a vvoj produktov. Before he left, Davila arranged to have Piersey meet up with Mac Dre in the morning with the white van to help with transportation to his first scheduled events: a radio appearance and a record signing at a local music store.

How To Use Virtual Visa Card At Gas Station, Echo Knight Sneak Attack, Building Costs Per Square Foot By Zip Code, Sean O'brien Teamsters Salary, Jack And Johnnette Williams, Articles M