Written by King Von was a rapper and member from O’Block. Signed to OTF (Only The Family) and Empire Records, he was clearly one of the future stars of US rap. Unfortunately, the 26 year old rapper was killed on November 6, 2020 in Atlanta.
Back to the story of a rapper-killer, who became a millionaire but who never forgot where he really came from…
THE LEGENDARY SILK
If King Von was a respected man and considered « real » in the streets, it was not without reason. Indeed, he was the son of Silk from Ada Park (in the Wild 100’s). But, you may be wondering who Silk was ? He was simply one of the most respected and wealthy men on the South Side of Chicago in the 90’s and 90’s and 2000. Aside from the fact that King Von looked like him, Silk taught a lot of things to his shorties (shooting, killing, making money, fighting, etc.) at that time. Von also started to do this after his release from prison in 2017 with the O’Block/MetLife shorties. Since we are talking about Silk, we must also talk about the nickname « Grandson » that King Von had. Silk was not related to Barksdale, so King Von can’t be Barksdale’s grandson. Indeed, he had claimed that this nickname was just a « delusion », so no Von was not the grandson of the creator of the Black Disciples. Silk is also the father of Kayla (King Von’s sister) and the stepfather of his other sisters as well as King Von’s younger brother, Jay Louie. In the words of one woman who told me about Silk: « He was one of the most powerful, influential and wealthy men in the South. He was very popular. Unfortunately for him, he was assassinated in 2005 by his opps.
Dayvon Daquan Bennett was known as « King Von ». He was born on August 9, 1994, in Chicago (Illinois). King Von is one of those members in Chicago who have family from all over, whether in enemy, allied or even unrelated sets. Von did not grow up at all with Jay Louie (his younger brother). In short, King Von was the son of Silk (Ada Park), the older brother of Kayla (who hangs out everywhere, including with King Von opps) and the older brother of Jay Louie (in addition to being the older brother of his half-sisters). Firstly, NO, he wasn’t Bruh Bruh’s brother (O’Block/THF 46) neither Trey5 (O’Block). Instead, he was the cousin of BossTop (O’Block) on his father’s side and the half-cousin of E-Dogg (O’Block), who is BossTop’s half-brother. EBub of Dumpstreet (currently incarcerated, indirect enemies with O’Block) and Marco (best friend of Wooski from STL/EBT) from CMB (set BDK, indirectly at war with O’Block) are also cousins of King Von, but we will talk about to that later. If you know these names, you will understand very quickly that the family of King Von, is a family of killers, and this from father to son. King Von grew up in O’Block but also at KillaWard 078 aka YKN. Whether at O’Block or at KillaWard 078, he will be an important and very active member for the rest of his life.
KILLAWARD YKN 078
Even if King Von comes from the KillaWard 078 YKN, O’Block is his main set, the set with which we knew him. However, the fact that KillaWard 078 was not his main set will not prevent him from participating in the war between YKN and G-Ville.
At KillaWard 078, King Von will be close to Jaylo for example, killed few years ago, but he was not even a gang member. A lot of pictures of King Von with the members of the KillaWard 078 YKN are available on the internet. You should also know that at one time, brawls (giant fights between 2 or more sets) were still « trendy ». Even if today we know King Von’s « reputation as a rowdy », even back then the rapper was always in the front row to fight against the members of G-Ville.
So yes, the difference in King Von’s activity with O’Block and the KillaWard 078 is huge but even after all this, after the years that have passed, King Von has never forgotten where he came from and the members of the YKN. On Twitter for example, on several occasions, he will sign them, sign dead or incarcerated members and insult G-Ville. By the way, for those who don’t know what « G-Viille » is, it’s a set of Gangster Disciples into a war with the KillaWard sets for many years. The cousin of the rapper RondoNumba9 (600) and OTF member OTF Toon was a member of this set. King Von will notably attempt to kill Batt (G-Ville), KD (G-Ville) and Santana (G-Ville) during the war between KillaWard 078 and G-Ville.
O’BLOCK
If we knew King Von as a rapper, before that, fans have known him as O’Block’s killer. A cold-blooded shooter and killer, present in a lot (really a lot) of shootings, a member who was described by O’Block members and his allies (I’m thinking of THF 46 here) as « crazy ». It is a word that can be translated as « unpredictable » and « who will stop at nothing ». O’Block clearly built King Von and made him – after all he went through – the world star we have known.
Before beginning this chapter, I speak of O’Block here because it is under this name that non-drill fans know the neighborhood, but remember that Von was obviously already present at the time of the WIIIC City, before Odee was killed in 2011 and that the WIIIC City adopts the name « O » Block.
King Von’s reputation has never been questioned by anyone, whether allies or enemies. The rapper was T-Roy’s best friend (killed in 2017 by TB), another « madman » from O’Block, also a killer. Best friend in life but also in the field, it was a duo from O’Block famous because they would very often shoot and kill together. He was also close to famous members (and for some of the killers) like Odee (killed in 2011 by MOB Scrapp, K.I. and Butta), Chief Keef, White White (killed in 2012, we will come back to that), Patoon (killed in 2011), D.Rose (incarcerated and sentenced to 40 years in prison), Big A (killed in 2016), BossTop etc. You understood well, King Von was very well surrounded, and this, since the beginning.
Von was therefore active in the streets since around 2009. He developed what is called a « personal quarrel » with Wooski from STL/EBT that lasted until his death. But King Von is going to have a lot of personal problems in Chicago. His complicated relationship with K.I., Odee’s killer and member from STL/EBT (who was therefore his direct enemy) will gradually take a vicious turn.
But let’s start at the beginning: at the time when King Von was just a simple fighter and shooter. All in all, if we count known events, Von has no less than 30 shootings. When the 600 was created in mid-2010 and merged with the WIIIC City, they formed a « 051K » team. A team especially to shoot/kill members of the 051 Young Money. In this team we could find T-Roy (O’Block), King Von (O’Block), RondoNumba9 (600), L’A Capone (600), Cdai (600) and D.Rose (600). THIS team will not kill any member of the 051 Young Money but will target a lot of 051 Young Money bigheads until 2014.
Before Odee get killed, King Von will start hanging out « indirectly » with FBG Duck and FBG Dutchie. Indeed, a member of the 078 YKN was at school with members of STL/EBT and a relationship was established between them. As a result, it already turned out that King Von, FBG Duck and Dutchie hung out together, without anything happening, since they shared the same friends. However, there was one exception: when FBG Duck and Dutchie were about to join KillaWard 078, they hit King Von. This was the last time they were together (FBG Duck has already admitted this, but he inflated the story, making King Von look like a « traitor », so no).
After Odee died, King Von will focus on STL/EBT. In the same time, he has this famous relationship (only sexual, not in love) with K.I., the famous killer of STL/EBT (I put the video of the translation of the private messages between them at the end of this paragraph). With the video you will quickly understand the kind of relationship the two enemies were having. Of course, King Von will try to kill Wooski from STL/EBT, the latter will get away and K.I. will try to kill King Von and the latter will get away too.
King Von will also go after Jaro City and, despite the fact that he rated Scrapp (MOB) several times when he became a rapper, King Von has NEVER shot the MOB. He will try to kill Skinny, a top shooter from Jaro City. Then, Wooski will try again to kill King Von, in vain. Then, conversely, Von will try again after to kill Wooski who, this time, was with Tyquan of Jaro City, 13 years old. King Von then takes them as a target and tries to shoot them down, which he will not succeed in doing. Also during this year of 2012, King Von will lose one of his closest friends before his eyes, White White, killed on August 8, 2012. A murder in which Wooski of STL/EBT participated. The anger between the two enemies becomes personal, hence the name. The two members will seek each other on Twitter to rank themselves several times and to throw spades, like « you’re going to die before me ». After the murder of White White, King Von will then lose a head to head against Modell, cousin of Wooski. Modell was not innocent, far from it, but he was not really active. Some time later, on October 14, 2012, King Von, L’A Capone and T-Roy will meet Modell and his cousin, who are on their way to see some girls. King Von opens fire and kills Modell with a bullet in the chest. Modell’s cousin survives despite several injuries. Modell was 17 years old. But, still thirsting for revenge, King Von did not intend to stop there.
Active against Jaro City and STL/EBT, he will also try to kill a member of the Brick$quad 069 while he was with BossTrell of STL/EBT. King Von was seeking revenge for the death of Sheroid, killed in 2011 by BossTrell. BossTrell will be killed in November 2012 by King Von’s best friend, T-Roy. Before moving on to November, the month of October 2012 did not stop there for the young O’Block killer. Indeed, O’Block’s members seek revenge on Jaro City. P5 alias Crack was, at that time in couple with a woman member of O’Block but who hung out in both camps. On October 30, 2012, several O’Block members such as J-Money, T-Roy and King Von spotted P5. The three members fire on him and kill him with several bullets (O’Block will dedicate J-Money as the killer despite the fact that all three fired). The wife of P5, who is thus dead, will then become the wife of J-Money of O’Block (before he is killed) and then the wife of Rio G, before he dies in turn in 2020. King Von thus participates in his second murder in 2 weeks.
On November 27, 2012, King Von was arrested. At that time, he was then 1.75 meters tall and 64 kilograms. He will get out shortly afterwards by paying a bail of 7.500$.
In 2013, King Von will not deprive himself of anything in the street. On Twitter (a tweet that he deleted when he broke into), he says he already has « 5 bodies », or 5 murders to his credit. Of course, we will never really know his life, and what I’m telling you is the minimum, which means that of course, he has done a lot more in the streets than what I’m telling you in this article, but not everything is known. During this year of 2013, J-Money will be killed by two members of STL/EBT: Lil B (killed by the police in 2014) and K.I., again her. That year, Von participated in several shootings on the 051 Young Money, such as trying to kill Rocko, Freeky or Woo.
It should be noted that King Von was in good agreement with one of Wooski’s brothers, B-Mike. B-Mike didn’t choose the STL/EBT camp, but the O’Block camp, and was therefore in the same camp as King Von (it’s complicated Chicago, isn’t it?). So in 2013, King Von and B-Mike will often shoot together on STL/EBT.
2014 is going to be a totally different year from the previous ones because King Von will spend only a part of it on the loose. But that won’t stop him from having the last word on K.I. Let’s meet again on April 11, 2014: K.I., Butta and other members of STL/EBT/Jaro City are sitting in front of a house. T-Roy, King Von and Big A arrive then and fire on the group. King Von will hit Butta (note that Butta had already beaten King Von) and, even if O’Block has always signed Big A for K.I.’s murder (he was killed for participating in the murder), King Von is one of his 3 killers. They then avenge Odee, J-Money and Blood Money indirectly by killing K.I. She was 17 years old.
On May 29, 2014, one month later, King Von will see her life change. Indeed, a few days before during a party with B-Mike, the two members of O’Block had fallen out against members of a distant set of O’Block. Von lost a fight that night and wouldn’t let it go. On May 29th, 2014, King Von and B-Mike arrived in the SKO neighborhood, a neighborhood indirectly hostile to O’Block, and opened fire on Malcolm and two of his friends, who were sitting on a porch. B-Mike fired more than 15 shots at Malcolm. Lil Cheeb and Khalil, Malcolm’s two friends, will survive but Malcolm will die after being shot several times in the head. He was 19 years old.
THE PRISON (2014 – 2017)
On July 24, 2014, only two days after the arrest of B-Mike, King Von was also caught by the CPD. He is considered the second shooter in this case. King Von is therefore incarcerated but be aware that he will NEVER be judged during his incarceration, for lack of evidence. The judge had not given him any bail, so he could only rely on his lawyer. A public defender that he had at the beginning. In prison (2014 – 2017), King Von hung out with his cousin, Marco from CMB, Wooski’s best friend. Marco, who is an enemy set to King Von’s, is much more demonic than O’Block’s killer and Wooski. In 2015, when Wooski was arrested and ended up in the same prison as King Von and Marco, the 3 were hanging out together. No one flinched. They were cordial, without speaking to each other to the point of ignoring each other. King Von was also cordial with Kiddo Da Drilla, the legendary killer from the 051 Young Money.
Around 2016, King Von will then receive significant help: Lil Durk. He is building a killing team under the OTF, and thinks that recruiting Von would not be a bad idea. He will then pay him his lawyer, who will become his best ally. King Von holds on, B-Mike will NOT BALANCE King Von, but will assume that he has shot « 16 or 17 times ». which will somehow save Von. Thanks to these confessions, King Von will be acquitted and released at the end of 2017. B-Mike will be sentenced to 30 years in prison. At the end of 2017, the charges against King Von were dropped and he was released from prison.
THE MUSIC
I don’t think anyone, even King Von himself, could have imagined that a few months after his release from prison, he would become a world star. In May 2018, he will release his first video clip with Bayzoo from THF 46 and also OTF rapper, entitled « Beat That Body », referring to the fact that the two rappers won a murder trial in two different stories. King Von then shows his great potential and what he is capable of.
His « Crazy Story » will make him explode worldwide. To the point of making several parts of it. King Von knows it, he has talent and, despite a repetitive flow sometimes, his audience grows little by little and the views go up. Millions of views in a few weeks, then in a few days, then in 24 hours. Unfortunately, the music is not all good. In his sounds, King Von tries to bring back to life a part of this drill which is meant to be « hard » . He insults then repeatedly dead people, like Tooka, Scrapp and Lil Marc in the remix of « Exposing Me » with Memo 600, released in early 2019.
But by dint of classifying members with whom he wasn’t even at war, he gets this famous « hate » from Chicago when a rapper starts to explode. Indeed, by quoting Scrapp’s name several times, King Von attracts the wrath of the MOB. FBG Duck and Rooga will then put a contract on King Von’s head, for whoever kills him. Lil Durk himself had warned King Von to calm down in the clashes but King Von had been frank, and told him that he would continue.
At the end of 2019, King Von released his first project entitled « Grandson, Vol. 1 ». Shortly before, King Von signed a contract with Empire Records for an unknown amount of money, however, what is known is that King Von was a millionaire. A first project that was well received by the fans, despite abundant rehearsals. The project is complete and the feats are successful.
But 2020, musically speaking, is going to make people discover him in the eyes of those who unfortunately didn’t know him yet. In March 2020, he released a second project, still a mixtape, entitled « Levon James ». A project that I did not particularly appreciate but it was not bad for all that.
« Welcome to O’Block » the album released just 1 week before his death is by far his best project. It’s complete: featurings with Polo G, Fivio Foreign (even if the video clip was already released before the album), Lil Durk and Prince Dre (a three-way featuring that I was personally expecting) but also solo sounds, to show that he could be versatile if he wanted to.
I also had to talk about it, but King Von and FBG Duck have NEVER reconciled. King Von simply trolled FBG Duck after his death saying they were trying to unite in music etc. I was also supposed to talk about it, but King Von and FBG Duck NEVER made up. Now, if you listen to King Von’s « Demon » sound from his album, it says: -> « I don’t give a fuck, nigger, fuck Duck ».
Billionaire Black and the members of STL/EBT also confirmed that King Von was only trolling and was not serious about it.
THE STREET NEVER LEFT KING VON
King Von was released from prison in 2017 and, upon his release, he very quickly became active. As in 2018 when he participated in the famous brawl between O’Block/MetLife/600/AMG against STL/EBT/Jaro City/Tyquan World/E-Block and E-Spot. During this brawl, Wooski and King Von are going to meet face to face and fight. Wooski will beat Von, before an AMG member comes to his aid and flashlights Wooski.
During a party in March 2019, Bayzoo (OTF) is beaten by Bloods from Atlanta. It will take King Von very little time to come back and react, with other OTF members and fire into the party. In total, 4 injured and 1 dead, 27-year-old Tyriq. The beginning of a war since Bayzoo, who participated in the shooting, will also take revenge in turn, personally, in another affair. He will then kill Juke, a Bloods from Atlanta.
In June 2019, King Von and Lil Durk were arrested for a drive-by in Atlanta in February 2019, on a Vice Lord of Chicago. They are then accused of attempted murder but they get off more than well.
In the end, what we can say is that the street never really left King Von. Even if he tried to get away, when it caught up with him, he was « weak » and went back. Despite all his millions of views, millions of dollars and a safe life outside of Chicago, it was all his murders, shootings and lost loved ones that kept him off the street. As a symbol, several of King Von’s enemy sets partied after his death. These included STL/EBT, the MOB, also WillieVille, Ayoo KD’s set.
In conclusion, what is undeniable is that Von was a rapper who deserved better with his music but his past never really left him. What is even sadder is that he was a father of 2 children and was the ex-boyfriend of the rapper Asian Doll. We’ll talk about his death later in another article, because it’s still far too fresh, but I hope that with this one you’ll understand a little bit more who King Von was. May this rapper, father of a family, and much more, rest in peace.
AUTEUR
