Rapper behind giant hit song sentenced to 30 years in prison
Rapper Silentó will spend 30 years in prison for shooting his cousin to death in 2021.
Silentó, real name Ricky Hawk, is best known for his viral 2015 song Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae).
Hawk, 27, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, and concealing the death of another, The Sun reports.
The Atlanta rapper was originally indicted on a felony charge of malice murder, but took a plea deal for lesser charges.
He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Hawk shot his cousin, Frederick Rooks III, dead early on the morning of January 21, 2021.
Rooks, 34, was found with multiple gunshot wounds to his face and leg.
It is still unclear what led up to the shooting.
Home security camera footage from the scene caught several cars speeding away and captured at least one gunshot, cops said.
Hawk admitted to the shooting in an interview with investigators several days after it occurred, according to the DeKalb district attorney.
Bullet casings found at the scene also matched a gun Hawk had when he was arrested.
At the sentencing on Wednesday, Rooks' siblings said Hawk's sentencing should have been harsher.
'We just want justice,' Rooks' brother told the judge, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.
In 2021, Hawk's manager released a statement after his arrest asking fans for their support.
'Please send my client Silentó some positive vibrations,' the manager, Chanel Hudson, said at the time.
'Over the past several years, Ricky has been suffering immensely from a series of mental health illnesses.
'We will continue in his efforts of treatment, but we ask in the meantime the public uplift him and his family in immediate prayer and positive energy!!
'Ricky is a beautiful soul, and we hope that the same people who came up whipping' & nay nay-in with him, continue to support him and lifted in prayer!! God bless.'
Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) was released when Hawk was just a junior in high school in Stone Mountain, Georgia, near Atlanta.
The song charted globally and started a social media trend of people doing a dance associated with the song.
Hawk's first full-length album came out in 2019.
The next year, Hawk was arrested twice – once for driving 143 miles per hour on the highway and another time for breaking into a random home in Los Angeles with a hatchet.
Hawk's sentence includes credit for the time he's served in DeKalb County Jail since February 1, 2021.
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