JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — *Warning: This report contains language and subject matter that some may find offensive.
How will this end?
That’s one of the more compelling aspects of any story. When it comes to the real-life horror story playing out in the streets of the City of Jacksonville, many are wondering if it will ever end.
Hip-hop celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023, but a subgenre of the culture called drill rap is continuing to be taken to new disturbing heights here.
Originating in the 2010s in Chicago, drill rap is rooted in drug culture, guns, and gang violence. Jacksonville’s drill rappers routinely celebrate the murders of their rivals, or “opps” in their music videos and on social media.
Jacksonville has its share of gangs, but the most notorious beef is between two specific groups. The 45th Street area of the city is home to one of the most well-known groups called 6-block made famous by Foolio, one of the area’s most popular rappers, whose real name is Charles Jones. Some younger gang members affiliated with 6-block call themselves Bully Gang. Most members of Bully Gang are associated with Foolio.
During the last few years, Jacksonville has received a lot of media attention nationwide from Foolio’s beef with Yungeen Ace, another famous Jacksonville rapper whose real name is Kenyata Bullard.
Ace is a member of a gang called ATK, which Jacksonville police have said stands for “Ace’s Top Killers.” Many members of ATK also claim a gang called NHG, which stands for No Hospital Gang. NHG and ATK are also closely aligned with a set called Backstreet.
With many prominent gang members being arrested over the last couple of years, this deadly beef seemed to have slowed.
That all changed after a recent trip to a Jacksonville cemetery.
Graveyard visit has deadly consequences
About seven months ago, Foolio and members of Bully Gang and 6-Block went to a cemetery to film a music video for Jake Jhitt, a Bully Gang rapper whose real name is Jayquan Pickens. While there, the group posed for photos in front of the burial site of Royale De’Von Smith Jr., whose nickname was 23.
Smith, 18, was in a car with best friend Yungeen Ace and two other teens in June 2018 celebrating Smith’s birthday at a restaurant at the St. Johns Town Center. As they were driving away from the area, their car was riddled with bullets killing Smith and two other men including Ace’s brother. Ace was the only survivor.
No arrests were made. 6-Block members were reportedly responsible for the shooting.
Several of the people in the photos at Smith’s grave held their shoes up to Smith’s grave marker. Some held up their middle fingers while others formed their hands into the shape of guns or gang signs.
Soon after the photos were posted, ATK and NHG members took to social media and vowed payback.
The murder of BG Ybezzy
Around 9:40 p.m. on May 17, a Bully Gang member who rapped under the name BG Ybezzy was in the 3600 block of Effee Street in Jacksonville’s Moncrief Park area. Police were called to the area after gunfire erupted.
When officers arrived, they found two boys and one adult male all suffering life-threatening injuries. BG Ybeezy, whose real name is Adrian McKinzie, 16, was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Four days later, McKinzie's family attempted to hold a memorial for him on the same block where he was shot. Gunmen returned to the area and opened fire on the memorial where people were gathered to release balloons. A woman was treated and released at the hospital after being shot in the arm.
No arrests were made in either shooting.
Jake Jhitt killed on Jacksonville highway
At around 3:30 p.m. on August 16, a truck driver’s vehicle broke down near the Trout River Bridge on northbound Interstate 95 at Zoo Parkway. The driver told police he felt the impact of a vehicle rear-end his truck.
That vehicle was a green Dodge Challenger. The driver was 18-year-old Jayquan Pickens, a Bully Gang rapper who performed under the name Jake Jhitt.
He was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash that blocked I-95 for much of the afternoon into the evening.
Turns out, according to police, Pickens’ vehicle crashed after it was being chased and shot at by another vehicle. It’s unknown if he died as a result of the shooting or the crash, police said after the wreck.
No arrests were made.
As is customary in the killings of drill rappers, their rivals mocked them in songs on social media.
Jacksonville rapper Whoppa Wit Da Choppa, an NHG member, released a song making reference to Pickens about a year ago with the verse, “Who the fuck is Jake Jhitt?; “We don’t know; just another name gon’ be added to the score.”
The day after Pickens was killed, another Bully Gang member, a man who goes by the name Luh Coby, was shot in Jacksonville’s Brentwood neighborhood.
That shooting occurred around 7 p.m. in the 900 block of Crestwood Street. Police arrived at that scene and found the man who was suffering a gunshot wound to his chest.
A youth football team called the Duval Dolphins was practicing nearby. The victim, who survived, was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
No arrests were made in Pickens’ or Luh Coby’s shootings.
Police: $20K hit put out on Tillie
Following the killing of BG Ybeezy, an ATK member named Antonio Tillie Jr., who rapped under the name Tillie, released a snippet of a song on social media mocking the Bully Gang member.
A portion of the song he released states:
“Bitch I shoot like Scottie Pippen. Three hit, one misses, swear to god we don’t leave no witness … Bully down go make a post treat Ybezzy like lotto he put his stupid ass on the flo …”
At around 11:45 p.m. on Oct. 6, Jacksonville police were called to the 7400 block of Kylan Drive in response to gunfire. Responding officers arrived to find two dead men inside of a vehicle.
One of the men was identified as Tillie, 19. The other man was an innocent Uber driver named Bryant Grund, 31. He was giving Tillie a ride and was caught in the crossfire.
A few weeks later 22-year-old Ju'Quan Mills was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and 23-year-old Diamond M'Kayla Harris was charged with accessory after the fact.
A family member of Tillie told First Coast News he was texting with a woman and arranging to meet up with her. It was a setup, the family member said.
Mills told detectives that Tillie "had $20,000 on his head," which means whoever kills the victim would receive $20,000 payment, a police report states. Mills says he got paid $10,000 for murder because he had to split it with the second shooter, the report states.
RELATED: Jacksonville woman accused of luring Tillie, Uber driver to their deaths asks judge to 'have mercy'
Foolio shot - again
Hours after Tillie’s death, Foolio was shot. The incident occurred near the 3100 block of 18th Street W. in Jacksonville, a residential neighborhood less than a mile from Paxon School for Advanced Studies.
The car he was driving, a black Dodge Challenger, was riddled with bullet holes. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said, "It appears that the suspect or suspects were waiting for the victim and ambushed him."
Foolio was able to drive himself to U.F. Health Jacksonville where he was treated for a "severe" injury to his foot.
This was the fourth time gunmen had targeted Foolio over the last several years. Just like the previous attempts, he survived.
During an Instagram Live video last year, Foolio appeared to explain how he’s able to survive all of the attempts on his life.
“I ain’t dead yet,” he said. “I can't die dummy! I got voodoo on me.”
Foolio was asked to expound on his beliefs in voodoo about three years ago on the podcast 16ShotEm Visualz. “It’s like a ritual … It’ll be shit like you gotta go to sleep in an open casket for like five or six days,” he said.
He was asked about the infamous photo in the graveyard a few months ago on the No Jumper podcast.
“Rico is the only one dead in that picture,” Foolio said attempting to correct rumors that multiple people in that photo have since been killed. “We know what we signed up for. Every day we wake up, we’re trying to survive."
RELATED: 'Y’all miss a whole 100 shots literally' | Jacksonville rapper Foolio survives another shooting
Rico Osama killed leaving studio
Following the death of Tillie, no one was more vocal in mocking him than Julian House, 21, a Bully Gang rapper who performed under the name Rico Osama.
At around 4 p.m. Dec. 12, Jacksonville police were called to the 6300 block of San Juan Avenue for reports of multiple people shot.
One of the victims was able to get away from the scene and reach a nearby business. Another victim was taken to the hospital where he was treated and released.
The third victim, House, was found shot to death in a parking lot. Family members told First Coast News he was recording at a nearby studio before being ambushed.
The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office says the shooters were wearing black masks covering their faces and ran away on foot.
No arrests were made.
“It’s difficult to say why they do it” – Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters
First Coast News asked Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters about the gang shootings following the death of Grund, the innocent Uber driver who was caught in the crossfire.
“It’s difficult to tell what’s in the mind of a murderer or a shooter,” Waters said. “I know that they recognize full well that this is not video games. This is real life.
“I don’t think they take into account sometimes when they’re spraying bullets that there is a 3-year-old present, a six-year-old present and that’s horrible to me, but it’s very difficult to say why they do it, why it’s happening,” Waters said. “… We have to do everything we can to proactively address the issue. I know a lot of times people don’t like to hear that word. They think proactive policing means that we’re over-policing. We only go where we’re asked to go. We only go where we’re called.
“We’re going to continue to focus on gang members, on shooters that we know are shooters because I think the problem can be a lot worse in a city like Jacksonville as large as it is with the population that we have, I think we’re doing OK, but we can do a lot better. So we’re going to continue to work to make sure we get those responsible off the streets,” Waters said.