R.I.P. Mafioso of Gary, Indiana's THUGGED OUT!

Thugged Out: Mutt Dog, Bullett Boy (rear), Mafioso (right) photo by me 5 years ago.

What was that they said about living by the sword and dying by the sword? In Gary, Indiana, I think the saying goes live by the gun die by the gun. In what has been reported as the 13th murder this MONTH in the small Midwest town of Gary, Indiana, my dude Mafioso of the group Thugged Out has been shot and killed.

Details are sketchy of course, but from what I hear he was shot in an altercation of some sort. I know that's not much to go on, but how often is there really anything to go on in cases like this.

I first met the trio known as Thugged Out like six years ago. I used to live in Chicago and go to Gary, Indiana fairly often to check out, interview and photograph groups for Murder Dog Magazine. I always said, if you want gangsta rap, go to Gary, Indiana for the real. In hip hop street terms, there's no place on the plant much "realer" than Gary, Indiana. The Bronx, South Central, Watts, 5th Ward, 9th Ward, etc all have their problems, but the problems in the streets of Gary take it to a whole nother level. I've been in a lot of hoods in my life, all over the world, but never in a place as destitute as Gary. That being said, the city also has an incredible energy. And some great people. I've been thinking a lot about that place lately and how I need to go back there for a lil update.

Hasn't been a lot of musical action out there that I have been able to see in the past few years. I know it's happening I just haven't got it save for a few tracks from Ric Jilla, Grind Family and Vizion.

Anyway you can read the following two interviews with the guys in Murder Dog and the Gary Post Tribunes Report on the killing. Idon't know all the details at all, just got a call from Tom Lewis with the news.

It's another sad day in Gary, and another sad day for hip hop. I'll try to post a couple tracks from their first EP a lil later.

INTERVIEW I DID WITH THEM.

INTERVIEW BLACK DOG BONE DID WITH THEM.

NEWSPAPER STORY.