Explosive new details have emerged about the rise and fall of Bobby Shmurda and his GS9 crew. A new report from GQ reveals exactly what happened the night the NYPD arrested Shmurda and members of his crew at Quad Studios in New York City in December 2014. Epic Records' Sha Money XL was present in the studio at the time, and according to him, GS9 associates scattered everywhere after police arrived.
"Some turned into Batman, some turned into Spider-Man, climbing the walls," Sha Money XL told GQ. "Some tried to turn into Invisible Man and hid between walls." According to the GQ report, police didn't find GS9 member Rowdy Rebel until 7 a.m. the next day.
In addition to detailing the GS9 arrest, the report also features a jailhouse interview with Shmurda. During the candid conversation, he talks about how he believes the NYPD had been making its interest in him known for months, showing up at his shows and even his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. After the crew's arrests, the Office of New York's Special Narcotics Prosecutor went into great detail about their alleged drug activity. But despite these lofty claims, "no undercover sting had interrupted a GS9 drug transaction," the report said. "No illicit profits had been sought in forfeiture proceedings. The press release that accompanied the arrest in December 2014 mentioned 'proceeds' and 'narcotics packaging.' And yet, defense lawyers say, nothing—no narcotics inventory, no packaging, no cash—has yet been shared by prosecutors during pre-trial discovery."
Another surprising revelation is the lengths Epic Records apparently went to try and get Shmurda away from street life. They rented an apartment in Fort Lauderdale, Florida for him and tried to force him to work from Los Angeles. Nonetheless, the rapper always seemed to end up back in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn where he grew up. "I think a lot of those kids were forced to be gangbangers. 'Forced' as in: You're a Crip, or you're against us," said Christopher Wilson, part of Shmurda's management team.
Epic eventually sent a Wilson affiliate named Ball Reckless to try and "extract" Shmurda from New York in September 2014. He says he was stunned when he tracked him down at a hotel in Times Square. "It was like he was kidnapped by Crips. Blue shit everywhere. And everybody was looking at me like: Who the fuck is you?" Ball said. "Don't get me wrong: It looked like that to me. I mean, that was his squad. But it was a whole bunch of new dudes. People I'd never seen." He also recalled that Shmurda was extremely sick and "coughing up green shit."
Ball failed to get Shmurda to leave with him, and the rapper ended up getting arrested a few months later. Shmurda is currently still in jail. After several postponements, his trial for gun, drug, and conspiracy charges is set to begin in September. Two of his GS9 affiliates—Rashid "Rasha" Derissant and Alex "A-Rod" Crandon—were recently hit with long prison sentences for their roles in the murder of 19-year old Brian Antione, who prosecutors claim was a member of the rival BMW gang. Even this detail is called into question by the article though. "I don't know why they labeled him as being a BMW gang member," said Rudelsia Mckenzie, Antione's mother. "Bryan wasn't in that life. It's just the friends he hung around with."
While there are many conflicting accounts about what the exact circumstances were surrounding the Shmurda and GS9 arrests, this report certainly brings up a number of questions about the whole story. You can read the entire GQ article here to find out more.
