Controversy seems to follow Troy Ave everywhere he goes. The fallout from his sophomore album Major Without a Deal became social media meme fodder after first week sales were released. Meanwhile, he lost much respect within the culture for a below-the-belt diss to Joey Bada$$ alongside calling the likes of Kendrick Lamar and Chance The Rapper weirdos as an insult. For a city like New York fighting desperately for relevance in the internet era of constant content, he sounded like the aggressive street emcee many from the area turned for. In another episode of “when keeping it real goes wrong,” the “Doo Doo” rapper got caught up in a shooting Wednesday night at a T.I. the concert that left three people wounded and one dead who eventually was revealed to be Troy’s close associate Banga. Facing illegal weapon possession and attempted murder charges, this may be the end of a shaky yet, interesting case study regarding The Big Apple’s Hip Hop scene. Taking time to discusses current events, HipHopDX Editor-In-Chief Justin Hunte, Managing Editor Trent Clark, Senior Features Editor Ural Garrett and contributing writer Marcel Williams give their thoughts on the most disappointing rap moment of 2016 so far.
Is This The End Of The Troy Ave Saga?
Trent: May 26th, 2016, a pretty exciting but also a big bummer day for Hip Hop. Gucci Mane is releasing new music as a free man but the breaking news is Troy Ave as of has been charged with attempted murder and criminal possession of a firearm from the events yesterday at Irving Hall. There’s still no details of who he was shooting at, they say it was Maino and Maino just released that statement so we’ll see what prosecutors say but as far as we know he accidentally killed his friend. Allegedly. Officially, dude is done. I think he’s done. It’s a wrap. What about as far as street cred raps? He’s probably looking at some time but what about his bars and his career being one of the sensations?
Ural: I think it’s interesting you asked that question because it happened the same day Gucci got out of jail right? So, he’s free and there’s a big celebration when technically his road to jail was probably on par with Troy Ave. You know Gucci socked a chick on camera, hit a veteran over the head with a bottle and threw a chick out of his car at 80 miles per hours because she wouldn’t suck his dick. I think there are two key differences between Gucci and Troy Ave. One is that he has a solid body of work that on a street level people revere. But, also I think that within Atlanta, he’s essentially the nucleus of what we have in new Atlanta today. As opposed to Troy Ave who’s had a subpar at best output and has unsuccessfully beefed with some heavy hitters. So, it’s like the unifier like Gucci or the guy who destroyed these bridges in New York. But, the reality is that Troy Ave and this weird fucked up thing about people celebrating on social media is because he’s built himself as this bully and now his chickens have come home to roost.
Marcel: Yeah, I mean I think when you look at the differences between Gucci and Troy Ave, you have to go along the lines of his street cred being built up. Yeah, that’s awesome, but you can’t really record an album from Rikers for the next 30 years. So that’s great you have street cred but now, you have no career, no stream of income coming in and you have nothing. You have your street cred I guess. But, even if you look at it compared to a Bobby Shmurda, at least Bobby Shmurda had one popping song before; granted he snitched on himself in the song and that’s why he is where he is, but at some point he’s going to get out and he’s going to have a chance to make one more good song.
Ural: Plus, the thing about Shmurda is that he was so new in his career to where he didn’t make any enemies and he made enough friends. I think people like the character of Bobby Shmurda enough. At this point, I feel like you’re not really important as a rapper if you go to jail unless somebody has a hashtag free whoever movement. I don’t see Troy Ave getting that ‘Free Troy Ave’ treatment anytime soon. More like memes.
Trent: So, is there stupidity in street cred? Because from seeing this video and hearing all the facts that we know so far, in my opinion, it looks pretty stupid. It’s a concert, there may be an altercation and obviously, he wasn’t there alone, but it just shows him busting off his gun like what does he think is going to happen in that situation? Is he thinking, being stupid or is he being a product of the street and defending himself in the best way he knew how?
Marcel: There’s definitely a fine line between street cred and stupidity. To question Troy’s street cred, I don’t know what he has or hasn’t done, but I do know where I’m from. Real street dudes don’t have to go to those lengths to prove themselves. They are who they are. Their “rep” is solidified. They don’t have to walk up into a concert with people and lick shots at somebody just to prove their street cred or their toughness. They pick and choose their battles. They got beef if it’s Maino all right, I’ll see you outside because he has to come outside at some point. They never put themselves in those stupid situations to where you don’t even have the last laugh. You’re not going to attempted murder rep in New York. Let’s take away the illegal gun charge because that’s probably like five years on its own. Plus he’s on video discharging it, so that’s probably another 10 to 15 years just for reckless endangerment of everybody around him. Then if they hit him with inciting the violence, which is probably what the attempted murder is, I’m no lawyer but…
Ural: Even with the video, there’s no real context to what is happening in the video is anyway. So, I can’t say that now but the reality is he was caught on camera discharging a gun. So even if you take that footage compared to the infamous C-Murder footage of him lighting up a club when he was doing the Gears of War blind fire type shit, I think from a media standpoint, it looks bad because all we know was that he shot himself in the leg and maybe shot first. Maybe it was just some street niggas trying to test him. There’s no real great context to what happened. And I think we’ll probably be debating this for years to come, but I think with how Troy Ave built himself up to this point by calling Kendrick Lamar and Kanye weirdos, his alleged situation with Maino or the whole disses to Capital Steez made cases against him. And then you add the whole sales situation with Major Without a Deal, and if people don’t like you, all they need is something to put the nail in the coffin and this was it.
Trent: So state your perception of Troy Ave before this. Nobody was thinking about Troy Ave before he made these headlines last night. How does your perception of him previously to this incident affect your outlook on the whole situation now?
Marcel: This whole situation just feeds into the perception that I had of him. It’s dumb. He has a poor team around him, makes poor decisions, makes poor music and this is like the four horsemen of stupidity so it really just feeds into it.
Ural: I think first off, we all know Troy Ave was supposed to be rapper #105 to bring back New York Hip Hop. That’s what Troy Ave started off as. And honestly, a lot of his earlier stuff wasn’t that bad. I remember Justin saying a few months ago when we had the round table discussion about the Joey Bada$$ and Troy Ave beef. Justin was saying that Troy Ave represented the street-level hustle of rap that a lot of people forgot about for the whole current Internet culture. So, part of that was how he built his core following which was through the barber shops, through passing out mixtapes at Rucker Park park pickup games and stuff like that. And in New York now where they had this identity issue, he represented this whole idea. Now whether that idea actually came to fruition, that’s another discussion. I thought the whole weirdo comments about Kendrick Lamar and Chance The Rapper were petty and jealous. That was pretty whack. But, “Doo Doo” was a decent single. I liked “Doo Doo” as a radio song.
Trent: I think as a rapper, no matter what your job, knowing that you’re in the spotlight, knowing you can be sued for the smallest fade, you constantly have to ask yourself. ‘Where is the self-control?’ Or, is this rapper occupation that you have on these imaginary W2s propel you just to always have this aggression because you need it in the booth and you need it for our competitors?
Ural: Just because you have this aggression and toughness doesn’t necessarily mean you’re street. So you might be the type to scrap when there’s beef, but that doesn’t also mean you’re trapping out ‘tha bando’ as well. It could just be that you’re a scrappy young kid and that’s from all types of economic and social levels of youth. But I don’t think that’s really the issue here.
Marcel: I’ve mingled with a lot of people you’d never expect to be a drug dealer. They are some of the most down to earth people and you don’t have to have that fake tough guy persona to be ‘in tha bando’ trapping or “street.” At the end of the day, it’s a façade. And it’s unfortunate when people get trapped in their own façade to the point where they go out and do stupid shit and now they’re facing attempted murder and shooting themselves in the leg like Cheddar Bob 2016.
Ural: I think Troy Ave’s façade was like he was going to be the next 50 Cent, and we know that even if 50 Cent himself is feeling the late career effects of all the beef and stuff that’s propelled him up to superstar status in the first place. The difference between Troy Ave and 50, is 50 had hit after hit after hit. So 50 Cent had it to the point of you fuck with me, or you stay the fuck away from me. Troy Ave didn’t have enough social collateral to do that wild shit.
Marcel: Even compared to before Get Rich or Die Tryin’ and hit after hit, he had banging mixtape after classic mixtape and a body of work to where from 98-02 he had a great output and really good music. With Troy Ave, I honestly can’t name you one Troy Ave song off the top of my head. “Doo Doo?” I honestly think in five minutes, I would not remember the name of that song.
Ural: I also think that Troy Ave as a person wasn’t really too interesting at all. I don’t think he had a mythology and story built around him. And let’s hypothetically say he got shot five times yesterday, he didn’t discharge a weapon, he miraculously survived and came out with a dope, groundbreaking body of work that would be an amazing story.
Marcel:If Troy Ave got shot five times yesterday and made it out alive, there would be Jordan crying memes all over his pictures. Major Without a Deal was already the embodiment of a Jordan crying meme.
Trent: Wrapping up, is there anything Troy Ave can do musically to save face at this point?
Marcel: Not suck. But, to avoid what he’s facing, music should be the last thing on his mind. God bless that dude. I hope he gets through it but, music at this point should be the last thing on his mind. He’s looking at so much more he has to deal with in the short term and the long term.
Ural: The reality is he’s not going to do some Gucci shit and have like 24 mixtapes in the span of three years. That’s not going to happen. Nobody is going to care about his music like that. Plus, going back to what I said about Gucci who essentially is the nucleus of everything coming out of Atlanta from Young Thug to Migos to Peewee Longway to countless others. Troy Ave hasn’t put anybody on like that.
Justin: I agree that the last thing he should be thinking about is his music career. Freedom should be at the forefront of his mind. This is tragic. I’m a Troy Ave fan. I think Major Without a Deal was one of the better New York albums. It was a New York album with New York rap legends on it. You’ve got everybody from Fat Joe to Swizz Beatz on that shit. I like what he stands for and I like his attitude. I thought it was tacky what happened with Joey Bada$$ but I don’t think anybody can look at this story and not see the seriousness in this case. I want to know what happened in that room because he came out ready. I’ve seen a lot of people saying this is karma for that Capital Steez thing.
Ural: I don’t think it was just Capital Steez, I think it was an accumulation of a lot of shit.
Justin: Is it karma when you’re the dude who pulled the trigger? I feel like when you’re the actual the guy in the middle of it, you have a second to think. He spends a lot of time talking about his condos and his cars, how successful he is, and his family. I don’t think that’s something that goes away with a blink if something really severe just went down in that room.
Ural: I think also there’s a big blowback against Troy Ave because the overarching ramifications of this event and New York Hip Hop. In smaller markets, I know there are a lot of venues that refuse to hold rap artists because of the preconceived notions of violence and drugs. And clearly Irving Plaza is going to be shut down for a bit. Even if its shut down for a month, that means that’s a month where a rapper from out of town or in New York isn’t going to be able to perform there. That’s money lost. Now, there’s a possibility that some performance venues are not going to want rappers there anymore. It doesn’t matter what’s the type, we don’t want rappers here because look what happens.
Let’s get it
taxstone made him in his feelings and probably had something to do with troy feeling he had to prove himself.
Bro, from what I’ve come to understand, Troy Ave confronted you and proceeded to assault you, which is wrong. One of your guys pulled out a gun and shot him, his girlfriend, and his bodyguard, he tries to defend his life and it’s crickets from your page but Now you on comments flexing? A guy punches you in the face and in turn he deserves to lose his life? That mentality is just as low as Troy talking wreckless about Steeze.
U think I’m really taxstone homie lol
sad fact: this dude was never on top
He won’t get charged for this. They don’t have any evidence. But he’s pretty fucked on the streets.
WTF c o o n he was charged for this!!!
Read all of my posts freak
Read all of my posts freak
Read all of my posts freak
Well i should say he won’t be convicted of this.
is afreaka bambooty convicted already?
This dude aint even average, he is a horrible rapper, a disgrace to NY. He never had a saga to end… get real, stop makin editorials about this bum that no one reads.
The downfall?! The man was defending himself. How about we talk about the downfall of hip hop dx? Because that’s what we are all thinking
Where the hell do u find these people to write these? This is the worst thing I have ever read and marcel seems like the biggest moron on the site. Fucking losers
you are dead right. This dude is really a clown. Twitter fingers wouldn’t say none of that to dude face. None of the ppl he speak of would he say one offensive sentence OR A WORD for that matter. i posted but they got my post on hold. I guess when get at them they do that. Fake jazz reporter .
you are dead right. This dude is really a clown. Twitter fingers wouldn’t say none of that to dude face. None of the ppl he speak of would he say one offensive sentence OR A WORD for that matter. i posted but they got my post on hold. I guess when get at them they do that. Fake jazz reporter .
The “Doo Doo” Rapper. Lol
Y’all lost credibility as soon as you said Ave put out a sub par body of work. This new generation of young thugs and joey badass and a chance the rapper wouldn’t have survived in hip hop making the shit music they make in any generation but this soft as baby shit weirdo culture now. Ave spits and delivers classic NYC hip hop sounding records and the bloggers and the v loggers, who all happen to be 90’sure babies, have this sensitive weak approach to not just music but life. Niggas wearing dresses and mumbling nonsense on record is cool but Ave, who makes dope NYC records is a lame to y’all? Hip hop is for the fuckin birds in 2016.
Facts dude these niggas is a bunch of clowns
Facts dude these niggas is a bunch of clowns
I agree but don’t put chance in the category he makes different music altogether.
To have a Downfall you must first have a COME UP…..
This article just sound like more bias New York hatred. Hip hop dx is officially the clown news for backpack weirdos and hoes. Probably ride Kendrick, chance, and drake dick for years fucking herbs. Fact is Troy is probably one of the only relevant niggas in the game making real hip hop, that south shit, that indie internet shit, is all garbage. Show some respect, NYC the birthplace, so when a rapper from ny make that ny shit it’s ill, we the realest out here anyway free Troy wish he shot at Kendrick or young thug
Outside of Young MA and Joey Badass which new NY MC is popping off as far as real quality hip hop? Nobody. Right now most NYC MC’s are trying to sound like west coast or down south MC’s. NYC is the birthplace but they need to step their game up. If NYC MC’s would go back to that raw NYC hip hop that Young MA and Joey Badass are doing, they would get more attention national attention. NYC hip hop has forgotten what makes hip hop great.
Outside of Young MA and Joey Badass which new NY MC is popping off as far as real quality hip hop? Nobody. Right now most NYC MC’s are trying to sound like west coast or down south MC’s. NYC is the birthplace but they need to step their game up. If NYC MC’s would go back to that raw NYC hip hop that Young MA and Joey Badass are doing, they would get more attention national attention. NYC hip hop has forgotten what makes hip hop great.
did you really just hate on all southern and indie music??And then say you wish he shot Kendrick? You must be one of these dumb hood niggas who barely made it out of high school. It’s not enough for you to dickride a mediocre artist just because hes from the same city. You gotta go and hate on OTHER artists who aint neva had nothin to do with Troy. Dickriderrr
This man threw his life away. Ppl keep saying “wait until the facts come out” but the FACT is this man was caught on camera bussin like he Rambo or something. Even if he didn’t shoot himself and somebody shot him in the leg first he still came through the door Bussin. On camera. he’s fuxked. There’s no way around it. Even if it was registered he was shooting into a crowd. At a club. On camera. Plaxico went down for shooting himself in the leg. This man at the very least is going out for shooting into a crowd, on camera, and for “allegedly” shooting himself in the leg. If it counts for anything, I will say it looks like on the camera he was already shot. But still, u came into the door shooting. On camera. In New York. Best case scenario he’s done. Worse case he’s done. He just better pray he convince somebody it wasn’t him on the camera.
This article lame, this what happens when f@gs and weirdos have positions in the media. They dead got a article slandering the man cause of how they view him because of his opinions. Not everyone share how y’all view Troy. Troy get a lot of love out in NY.
FUCK NEW YORK…EVERYONE IS BITING OUR STYLE….WESTSIDE!!!!!
Marcel, the language you use to describe certain situations are straight up out of line and I’m warning you from a person who knows the code, you need to be careful of the labels you use to describe ppl as well as the way you twist the facts. Even though you say shmurder snitched on himself, that word is very demeaning and taboo for you to attach to a man that is currently in a place where ppl get literally killed for being a snitch. Sometimes ppl take things out of context like your slanderous statement and start rumors that leads to that the very same scene that we saw in the alleged video of Troy ave, bc they at some point get tired of the rumors and their name being attached to being a snitch and they sometimes become passive aggressive and wild out with a gun in the street or a knife or razor in jail and just hit up everything to prove to ppl that they are a so called REAL NIGGA. Secondly you really sound ignorant saying he snitched on himself as if the song has anything to do with his indictment. You should be ashamed of yourself. I don’t know what you consider yourself, but your gonna mess around and get checked just like 50 checked Q from world star. I bet you wouldn’t say none of that to that young boy face. Its obvious your a square bc if you been in the streets or jail you wouldn’t be talking so reckless. As i said i don’t know what you call yourself but i pressume your putting yourself up as a reporter. Well get your facts straight. That case started way before that record came out. their phones were tapped and they were already under investigation before that record came out, so for you to sit here and make a irresponsible and reckless statement like you made. i’d advise you to be more responsible and more considerate of the ppl you speak of situations because it be the ppl like you that have a platform to start a bunch of nonsense and put ppl lives at risk while you sit here labeling brothers. knock it off.
This is beyond sad as discussed in “Art Imitates Life: The Rise and Fall of Troy Ave” the culture needs to let rappers be just rappers. There’s the mentality that if you rap about killing, pushing dope you need to be about that life. Rick Ross took such flack for not being about that life. The truth is if you really are about that life then you could end up like Troy Ave hurt and going to jail. Let rappers just rap accept them as entertainers and not push them to be gang bangers. http://www.fameviews.com/art-imitates-life-rise-fall-troy-ave/
Most everything in this articld is baseless. Guys writing this making a opinion on non facts, ESPECIALLY when NEW facts about the case just came out and it doesnt take a genius on the internet to go find them. For one, he didnt shoot his man , someone else did. He picked up the gun tht the shooter dropped after he himself got shot by the shooter and defended himself…. Hiphopdx needs new non biased writers.
Your uncle sucks dick for money….you dizzy bitch!!!!
where you got this new info from? Cuz it aint on any of the official news sites
The main reason people dont buy troy music is his personality he is a really unlikeable guy his interviews he comes off as a complete dickhead he calls everyone who dont sell drugs a weirdo and all that talk bout steez and suicide victims just made everyone hate him even more. There aint gon be no free troy campaign for a guy whose whole career been telling people they aint shit cause they dont drive as nice a car as him he has a couple dope songs but he aint leaving no classic discography behind
HiphopDX. Your done. This entire thing is still under investigation. This isnt journalism at all. You guys are hanging him without him speaking for himself first. That’s some real h* a@# sucka s#(*. Then call bobby smurda out his name. Yall F$%*ing crazy now. Yall were my favorite. But more and more yall act like yall some gatekeepers. I Will never come to this site again the way ya’ll doing Troy Ave. And yall call yourselves men. Chatty Patty a%@. Talking like broads.
He was definitely defending himself but his best friend also! And the media and haters are having a field day with this story and nobody even tried to give him the innocent before proven guilty situation! And all the hate is crazy because everyone is talking about what he’s not but your talking about him so he’s a star and it’s a sad situation but what would you have done in his shoes? He’s young and has alot to learn but atleast he tried to keep it real hiphop wise and not sound like he’s from the south! ! ! So give the guy some credit and what you don’t know is alot about what really happened. Someone lost there life and the truth will come out! He will catch a weapons charge but will be fine… If someone would have threatened your life and killed your friend what would you have done??? The media and everyone has lied already but people are running with the publics perception or the cop’s view of it like there never wrong or don’t lie! WOW! The fact is there was another shooter and people need to quit running there mouths till there hear it from the source and R.I.P to Ronald McPhatter cause he lost his life! ! ! So best wishes to his family and friends cause it was another life lost for no reason. R.I.P big dog cause you were and are a real one! God bless. . .
This is the sad mindset that the state of Hip Hop twisted….
“Marcel: Yeah, I mean I think when you look at the differences between Gucci and Troy Ave, you have to go along the lines of his street cred being built up. Yeah, that’s awesome, but you can’t really record an album from Rikers for the next 30 years. So that’s great you have street cred but now, you have no career, no stream of income coming in and you have nothing. You have your street cred I guess.”
Ural, why did you use the term “street niggas”? Please be very clear.
Gotta say this is disgusting journalism!. I thought the whole point of hip hop journalism was to report facts ONLY! Since when did hip hop press turn on hip hop. This article is at best premature wait until the whole story is out. Downfall? This man is innocent until proven guilty. I am considering boycotting this site their journalism is form the gutter.
Very disgusted well. And the “Doo Doo” rapper I stopped readin after that unbelievable smh.
Very disgusted well. And the “Doo Doo” rapper I stopped readin after that unbelievable smh.
To all of those claiming to know what ‘real journalism is’ and saying that the news is only to support the facts…did you notice that this happens to be an ‘editorial piece’ which implies an opinionated slant to a developing situation. Quit trying to tell them how to do their job. They don’t come to your job and knock the broom outta your hand.
Right E-D-I-T-O-R-I-A-L. Do you expect them not to have a conversation about it while its hot new? they even said they didn’t even know all the facts.
You people don’t get it do you. This mans life was/is on the line. Is it too much to ask for a hip hop publication to not act like bossip or tmz? We do not know all the facts. As I stated this article is premature at best.
Why not wait for clearer Facts emerge. Look at the deliberate emotive headline. As a fan of hip hop I don’t want to throw more negativity on the fire without knowing the facts. This article is chatty patty. Even if this is an editorial piece it’s impact loses it’s value because the only fact we have is that he shot his gun in a club. Assessment of his downfall has more value if we are clearer about what happened . Then we are in a position to make a reasoned judgement on downfall!
I stopped reading this long ass article after I read this “You know Gucci socked a chick on camera, hit a veteran over the head with a bottle and threw a chick out of his car at 80 miles per hours because she wouldn’t suck his dick”
Really 80MPH thats murder bruh. Y’all should do a feature on the hoe that survived that shit if its true LOL. HHDX writers stupid as shit.
troy ave gonna be done like shyne! wait till the verdict…10+ years for sure…too bad this guys career never got started LOL!!!!!
This is just an unfortunate situation all the way around from the individuals that were involved and for the Culture. We don’t know what happened based on that short clip and it’s easy to say what he should and shouldn’t have done when we do not have any real info behind the event. Time will tell!