Rapper Freaky Tah is dead
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Posted to alt.rap on (publication date not stated in the post)
Rapper Freaky Tah, a member of the hip-hop group the Lost Boyz, was killed by a ski-masked gunman who came up behind him and fired a single gunshot into his head.
The gunman fled in a van. Police do not believe robbery was the motive, said Lt. Dennis Cirillo, a police spokesman.
Witnesses at the scene said the shooter walked up behind the 27-year-old rapper, whose real name was Raymond Rodgers, as he left a party at a Queens hotel near his home around 4 a.m. Sunday. The gunman fired once without saying a word.
Rodgers was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where he died about half an hour later.
Other members of the four-man group were reportedly at the party but police were unable to locate them Sunday.
The Lost Boyz, made up of boyhood friends who admitted being former small-time drug dealers, had a best-selling album in 1996 called ``Legal Drug Money.'' The title was a reference to going straight after seeing a fellow drug dealer shot.
Among there other hits are the singles ``Me and My Crazy World,'' ``Music Makes Me High'' and ``Get Up'' and the album ``Love, Peace & Nappiness.''
They began rapping between classes in school and honed their act at block parties. Despite their success, the rappers held annual barbecues and video arcade outings for local youngsters.
Rodgers is not the first rap star to be shot.
Rapper and actor Tupac Shakur, who had multimillion-seller albums like ``2Pacalypse Now'' and ``All Eyez on Me,'' was wounded in a November 1994 shooting in New York and then fatally shot in September 1996 as he sat in a car in Las Vegas. He was 25.
In March 1997, 24-year-old rapper Christopher Wallace, known as Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, was shot to death in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. Among his hits was ``Ready to Die.''
Last June, rapper ODB, founder of the million-selling rap group the Wu-Tang Clan, was wounded during a robbery in his Brooklyn apartment. The rapper, whose real name is Russell Jones, told authorities armed intruders came in through an unlocked door and took jewelry, then one fired a pistol.