Writer-producer Joseph “Taheim” Bryan, who had just finished a film called Equal Standard starring Ice-T and Naughty By Nature’s Treach in May, was reportedly killed on Thursday evening (August 19).
According to the New York Post, Bryan was sitting in his 2021 Mercedes-Benz outside the Jackson Park luxury apartment complex in Long Island City around 11:15 p.m. local time when he was shot.
The unidentified assassin fired about seven shots at the driver’s side of Bryan’s car, hitting him four times in the arm and torso before disappearing into the night in a dark-colored Mazda. Bryan was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
Ice-T mourned the loss on Twitter with a photo of himself with Bryan, Mobb Deep MC Havoc and Tobias Truvillion.
“MFs Killed my friend last night,” he wrote in the caption. “I’m not in a good place behind this. Taheim was a GOOD dude making Positive moves. He wrote & we made the film EqualStandard together. He leaves a Wife&Daughter. Dirty MFs followed him home and Murdered him.”
Bryan was also a childhood friend of Nas, and they’d allegedly just hung out in Queensbridge the night before the slaying. On Saturday (August 21), the Illmatic mastermind shared his grief on social media as well with a photo of them at the Equal Standard premiere with the caption, “Speechless. Rest In Peace Taheim (in red) Most high is the best knower. One Of The Bridge Finest. My condolences to the family. Love.”
He also shared a video of himself onstage talking about Bryan’s tragic death.
“He was 50 years old,” he says. “He was a king. Rest in peace Taheim.”
According to Variety, the plot for Equal Standard revolves around the killing of a white New York Police Department officer by a Black detective after the officer refused to believe the detective was a fellow law enforcement officer. The review stated the film fell “notably short of its well-intentioned ambitions to honor multiple viewpoints amid rising racial tensions.”
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Directed by Brendan Kyle Cochrane and written by Bryan, the film also starred Tobias Truvillion, Maurice Benard, Robert Clohessy and Syleena Johnson in addition to Ice-T and Treach.
HipHopDX sends our condolences to Ice-T, Nas and all of Bryan’s friends and family.
boom boom. REST IN PEACE brother.
Hate to say it but he must have stepped on somebody’s toes, this shit don’t happen for no reason
Idk nowadays mfers shoot ya for sneezing. Shit can happen for alot of other reasons than just steppin on someone’s toes.. dude coulda been jealous of him making movies,money,meeting stars etc. shit Coulda been his girls jealous ex, a robbery.. I honestly dont know and cant say but i dont always think the victims get shot/killed from shit like toe steppin.
Mothafuckers kill people for a sideways comment. Shit does happen for no reason.
Where’s the community outrage?? Where are the Black Lives Matter marches now? THIS is where it is needed most. More Blacks die at the hands of other Blacks than from anyone else and yet there is no public outcry for this to end. We lionize and celebrate gangsta rap and support radical expression of violence and then are stunned when it comes home to roost.
This man was gunned down and assassinated. It could not have come as that much of a shock. Come on, Ice-T. Cop Killa followed by years of a hypocritical portrayal as a cop on Law & Order — and you still surround yourself with rap gangstas. Are you really that speechless?
when you’re out at all the spots styling and profiling these sorts of things can happen that’s why grown people have hobbies and stay home. Trouble finds you when you’re out on the corners even if you’re not necessarily involved in anything
When guys are claiming they used “street money” for this or that legit project – somebody has to link it somebody has to action the deal. IF you’re a “movie producer” using someone’s money you can’t detach yourself from where that money came from RIP