“Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)”-Interpret Silentó: 30 years in prison for the rapper

A dramatic case that seals the abrupt end of a promising music career: Silentó (27), who is called Ricky Lamar Hawk with a bourgeois name, was sentenced to 30 years on Wednesday. The 27-year-old rapper guilty of shot his 34-year-old cousin Frederick Rooks III in court. This emerges from a declaration by the district prosecutor from Dekalb County.

The musician, who achieved worldwide celebrity with his viral hit “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae), is guilty of manslaughter, serious bodily harm, gun ownership during a criminal offense and the concealment of a death. The original murder system was therefore dropped. Silentó emphasized that he was mentally ill.

The tragedy occurred in the early morning hours of January 21, 2021 in a suburb of Decatur, Georgia. As can be seen from police reports, officials Frederick Rooks III found several gunshot wounds in front of a house, he died at the scene. Surveillance cameras in the neighborhood recorded how a white BMW SUV fled from the crime scene. The car could later be clearly assigned to Silentó.

Around ten days after his arrest on February 1, 2021, he finally admitted that he shot his cousin. Ballistic examinations confirmed that the ten cartridge sleeves found at the crime scene belonged to his weapon.

With his confession of guilt, “guilty but mentally ill”, the State Ministry of Justice is responsible for evaluating and treating Silentó’s mental health. This means that he should receive psychiatric care during his detention.

Already in 2019 he spoke openly about his depression and his traumatic childhood. “I am already fighting all my life against demons,” he said. “I saw family members who spoke to walls. I watched the family members fight. I watched as family members tried to kill each other. Nobody should have to see something like that.” At the time of his detention that Silentó had “immensely suffered from a number of mental illnesses”. Even before the fatal shots, he had conflict with the police several times, including domestic violence, assault and frenzy.

Silentó was still a student in a suburb of Atlanta when he released “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” in 2015 and thus triggered a global dance hype. The music video was viewed on YouTube over 1.9 billion times.