An up-and-coming Florida rapper who racked up 88 million Youtube views for a track called Murder on My Mind has been arrested over a double murder.
YNW Melly, real name Jamell Maurice Demons, turned himself in to police in Miramar, Florida yesterday.
The 19-year-old is accused of gunning down fellow aspiring rappers Anthony Williams, 21, and Christopher Thomas Jr., 19, in the early hours of 26 October last year.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
Demons and his friend Cortlen Henry, who raps under the moniker YNW Bortle, then “staged the scene to make it appear that the attack was a drive-by shooting”, Florida news website Local10 reports.
Henry drove the two men to hospital, where they died of multiple gunshot wounds, and then allegedly gave a false account of events in a police interview.
“The facts during the preliminary investigation did not match what was presented to detectives,” the Miramar police department said in a statement.
“Police have yet to release a motive for the killings,” Rolling Stone reports. In the aftermath of the shooting, Demons called the deceased his “best friends” and said that whoever was responsible for the deaths “took my brothers”, says Local10.
YNW Melly was “widely seen as one of the hottest young emerging talents in Florida’s thriving hip-hop scene”, says the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His latest album features a collaboration with Kanye West.
The video for his single Murder on My Mind has been viewed more than 88 million times on Youtube since it was released in August last year.
In the song, the narrator raps about shooting a rival, with lyrics including: “Yellow tape around his body, it's a f***ing homicide / His face is on a t-shirt and his family traumatised”.
Demons had been scheduled to begin a US tour this evening to promote his new album. Instead, he is now in police custody.
The day before, he told Instagram followers that he was turning himself in.
“A couple of months ago, I lost my two brothers by violence and now the system wants to find justice,” he wrote.
“Unfortunately, a lot of rumors and lies are being said. But no worries, God is with me.”
