Clint Massey, who raps under the name RondoNumbaNine, brags in one of his videos about his ability to “meet face to face, put a hole in your face, still beat the case.”
“Glock go blah, damn, that’s great,” he raps.
Now the 17-year-old Chicago rapper is charged with first-degree murder in a shooting, and investigators say there’s a fingerprint, witnesses and video footage that connect him to the killing, according to local media reports.
Massey appeared in court Sunday, where he was ordered held in lieu of $2-million bail on suspicion of being part of a two-gunman team that shot and killed a livery driver in Chicago’s South Side in February.
Javan Boyd, 28, was waiting in his car at 4 a.m. Feb. 22 to pick up a fare when he was shot seven times; he died at a hospital, the Chicago Tribune reported. His family said he had a fiancee and an 11-year-old daughter.
Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Mack said Massey -- along with an unidentified acquaintance -- shot Boyd after trying to get into his car, according to the Tribune.
The Tribune identified Massey as RondoNumbaNine, whose video “Shooters” has more than half a million views on YouTube. In the video, Massey raps about violent imagery, at one point mentioning “we gonna put him in a box.”
The video already had a grim history: Massey appeared with Leonard Anderson, also known as the rapper L’A Capone, who was shot and killed in September.
In a later video, Massey pays tribute to L’A Capone with “Life of a Savage,” which has more than 400,000 views on YouTube and more than three million views on a version with rapper Lupe Fiasco posted on worldstarhiphop.com.
“Gotta go hard for my bro L’A, gotta get a deal, no I can’t wait, gotta see a mil right in this day,” he raps, in lyrics that go on to brag about shooting someone in the face and “beat[ing] the case.”
A Twitter account under Massey’s rap name was active until Friday, with one tweet reading, “I Murder [expletive],” followed by, “Ya nobody to sumbody kills u.” [sic]
Massey was arrested Friday night.
