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In this day and age of made-for-tv gangsta rappers, with everyone from Hustlin' Floridians to unknown mixtape rappers claiming that they were major players in the drug game, its sometimes hard to believe any of the guns and drug talk that gets spit on wax. From the late 80's until last Friday, however, one of the most violent and prolific drug dealers in the history of the country, Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, played a significant role in the development of New York rap. On February 9th, 2007, Supreme was sentenced to life in prison for the murders of Queensbridge rapper Eric E Moneybags Smith and Troy Singleton.

In the 80's, Kenneth McGriff organized a group of Five Percenters into a gang known as the Supreme Team and began selling drugs out of Jamaica, Queens. Though the Supreme Team's operations were based out of the Baisley Park Houses projects, the gang's reach extended well into the Queensbridge Houses, the home of Nas, Mobb Deep, Cormega and several other rappers. As a result, most of the QB rappers that came up during the late 80's and 90's had some connection to the Supreme Team (AZ even took his name from one of the Supreme Team members).

In 1989, McGriff was sent to jail on a drug conviction to serve a ten year sentence. Upon his release, he hooked up with Irv Gotti and allegedly (I'll be using that word "allegedly" a lot throughout this post) helped him finance the record label Murder, Inc. Though Irv and his brother were put on trial for laundering over a million dollars for Supreme through the label, they were acquitted of the charges in 2005.

At the end of 1999, Supreme and his righthand man Colbert "Black Just" Johnson got into an argument with QB rapper E Moneybags. Supreme and E Money both pulled out guns; Supreme's gun jammed while E Money allegedly shot and killed Black Just. Two years later, McGriff hired a Queens couple to plan the murder of E Money. After videotaping his movements for several days, the couple opened fire on E Money, killing him while he was sitting inside his SUV. During Supreme's trial, it was alleged that, upon hearing the news of E Money's death, McGriff sent a text message to Murder Inc's Irv Gotti saying "You missed the party."

If the rumors are to be believed, E Moneybags wasn't the only rapper to suffer a violent reprisal from Supreme. In 2000, 50 Cent released the track Ghetto Qur'an, name-dropping several New York-based drug dealers, including Supreme and his nephew Gerald "Prince" Miller. In retaliation for this, (again, allegedly) McGriff sent a hitman after 50 Cent. 50 was shot 9 3 9 times, leaving one bullet lodged in his jaw, the cause of his now-trademark lisp. You have to give 50 Cent some credit -- after getting shot, 50 escalated the beef with Supreme by continuing his verbal feud with Preme's Murder Inc. employee Ja Rule, and later starred in a movie that featured a fictional version of Supreme.

Run DMC's Jam Master Jay is also rumored to be another one of Supreme's victims. Though investigators have since dismissed the claim, some of Jay's family members believe Supreme had JMJ murdered for working with 50 Cent (other rumors claim Jay was in debt to Supreme from a drug deal gone bad, though this claim too has been dismissed).

As stated, Supreme was sentenced to life in prison without parole last Friday. Presumably, his influence over the New York rap scene came to an end along with his chance of ever seeing the outside world again.

I'm linking to a couple of tracks that E Moneybags put together during his short career. E Money was a pretty dope rapper that tended to get overlooked in the wave of all of the other Queensbridge rappers that came out during the mid-90's. He didn't break any new ground lyrically - he mainly focused on gun talk that was an all-too-real part of his life - but he benefitted from some great production on his album In E Moneybags We Trust. First up is the video for his single Regulate. E Money finished filming the video the morning that he was murdered:

E Moneybags, Prodigy and Majesty - Regulate (YouTube video)

And here's a track he collaborated with Kool G Rap on:

Kool G Rap, Nature and E Moneybags - Friend of Ours (zShare link)

For more of E Moneybags' music, hit up his tribute MySpace page. For more information on Kenneth Supreme McGriff, go pick up the book Queens Reigns Supreme by Ethan Brown. For more details on E Money's murder, The Smoking Gun has a good summary.

And here's the song that allegedly got 50 Cent shot:

50 Cent - Ghetto Qur'an (YouTube video)

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