(News4usonline) – The latest killing of a rising hip hop artist who was simply minding his own business and dining with his girlfriend at a historic South Los Angeles landmark begs the question: Black Lives matter to whom?
In recent years, there has been a rash of young rappers falling victim to violent endings. In a devastating blow to the hip hop community, PnB Rock became the latest young star to lose his life to gun violence.
PnB Rock was 30 years old. He hailed from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was an immensely talented rapper, singer, and songwriter. PnB Rock first came onto the scene with his first album RNB3 in 2015, which really went viral in the Los Angeles area.
He’s most known for his single “Selfish,” a tune that skyrocketed all the way to No. 51 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. He had so much more left to feed to the music and hip hop community. It’s really heartbreaking and tragic that he passed away in a most violent way.
“You’re not loved like you think you are!!! You’re prey!!!! In a world full of predators!!!! What’s not clicking,” rapper Nicki Minaj tweeted. This quote comes to mind for this situation and it hurts to look at it like this but when it comes to your safety you have to look at it this way.
Los Angeles is one of the most beautiful cities in the world but also one of the most dangerous. They might play your songs every day and buy your clothing but in real life, you have what they want and they are willing to take your life to get it. This is not a movie. This is real life and people don’t idolize you like some of these artists think they do.
I believe PnB Rock was caught in public in the wrong city and someone tried him and he reaped the benefits. PnB Rock was shot and robbed at the Roscoe’s House of Chicken & Waffles food spot in South Los Angeles in a neighborhood where gang-related activity is a staple.
Look I get it, Roscoe’s House of Chicken & Waffles is legendary, I actually go to Roscoe’s every once and a while and get the Obama Special, but I have never visited the food chain restaurant over in South Los Angeles.
Growing up in Long Beach, California, you learn that you have to move a certain way out here to avoid certain situations and survive. I often visit Los Angeles because it is so close to where I live, but every time I go out there, I avoid certain areas because I know the city can get really dangerous real fast. I feel like PnB Rock didn’t take that seriously enough.
I am a 23-year-old Black man that can blend in with the average person and understand that. PnB Rock was a well-known and well-accomplished hip hop artist. That means that he came with a certain status that people out here in the world know.
“The rapper was brutally attacked by an individual who apparently, or we believe, came to the location after a social media posting of the artist and the woman accompanying him, posting on Instagram a picture of the meal,” Chief Michel Moore of the Los Angeles Police Department said on Tuesday in remarks to local reporters that were posted online.
Chief Moore added that PnB Rock (real name Rakim Allen) was “enjoying a simple meal” with the woman and that the location was tagged in the posting.
He said the attacker entered the location at Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles in South Los Angeles, and a struggle ensued. “PnB Rock was shot and killed” because of the valuables that he had with him, he said.
PnB Rock came to South LA with no security and wearing his diamond chains with huge diamond pendants flooding with money. Someone came up to him and told him to give it up. He didn’t and the robber shot him and proceeded to rob him afterward.
PnB Rock’s alleged girlfriend, Stephanie Sibounheuang, made headlines and rubbed some folks the wrong way for geotagging the location while the two were eating. Moore added that there was an earlier post sent out by PnB Rock himself. We can’t say for sure if Sibounheuang posting the location where the couple was eating had anything to do with PnB Rock getting killed.
Although Moore said what he said about what the LAPD believes happened, an employee of the restaurant could have easily said something to somebody or alerted someone of PnB Rock’s whereabouts, but why even risk it?
In 2020, Pop Smoke posted his location and was shot got murdered and shot hours after he posted his location. It is not safe to post your location because people are aware and waiting for you to slip up and take what you worked hard for. I hope with this death it opens up other artists’ eyes that people don’t love you like you think they do and proceed with caution because we are losing our young African American talents to senseless violence.
