Who I Smoke: Homicide and Rap Wars in Jacksonville
The saga of increasing violence in Jacksonville as influenced by the ATK and KTA gang rap feud.
The city of Jacksonville, FL is the most populous city in Florida, and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It may be expected that the city would also rank high in crime, including homicide. However, homicides have risen to unprecedented highs in recent years.
The map to the right displays the Jacksonville Murder Index for 2021 on the zip code, census tract, and block group scales (select the legend tab in the lower left corner). Click on an area to view a pop-up with information specific to the given location, including the murder ratio for the area compared to total crime in Jacksonville.
The primary contributing factor to rising homicide rates in Jacksonville is undoubtedly attributed to the city's deadly rap feuds between rival gangs- ATK or Ace's Top Killers, led by Yungeen Ace, representing the city's west side and an alliance between KTA or Kill Them All, led by Foolio in the north and Young N Reckless in the south.
The most deadly rap feud in recent times evolved between literal cousins with each side hiding clues to revenge killings inside their music videos, taking beats from classic pop songs and rapping violent lyrics over it.
The "Who I Smoke" video was one of the first to expose the growing violence to the mainstream. Featuring Spinabenz, Whoppa Wit Da Choppa, Fast Money Goon, and staring Yungeen Ace, the video, which samples a classic Vanessa Carlton song, and shot at an upscale golf course, blatantly identifies individuals killed by the group.
**Be advised the video shown here contains graphic and likely offensive lyrics.
As the map to the right indicates, the rise in Black homicide victims in Jacksonville is overwhelming compared to those identified as White or Asian victims (select the legend tab to view 2021 homicides by race). As the majority of the records show in the popup, the age of the victims is also exceedingly young.
The statistics visible on the map above are indicative of the increasing back and forth violence that can be heard and seen in what have become known as comeback or often retaliation videos. In a comeback video to "Who I Smoke", gang rival Foolio raps alongside images and at the grave site of three who died in a quadruple shooting which left Yungeen Ace wounded, and his brother and two best friends dead. The song's lyrics seemingly spell out Foolio's direct involvement:
"Went out to eat on his birthday (six). Four shot, three dead in the worst way (damn).He kept dissin' on me (what happened?) Now we smokin' 23".
Song after song have followed, put out as viral diss records. One of those that faced the most outrage, was this album cover by ATK gang member Ksoo, that features the faces of rivals he killed, including his 16-year old cousin, and brother of Foolio, Bibby. The outrage is in part that even though credit is very clearly taken in these songs, the Jacksonville Police Department is notorious for not cracking and closing cases.
To contend with the increase in violence as attributed to the rap feud, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office created a whole new department called the Violence Reduction Strategy Team whose sole purpose is to comb through rap records looking for clues.
The map to the right clusters homicides in Jacksonville by- closed by arrest, open/no arrest, and closed without arrest (select the legend tab for more). The number of cases open with no arrest draws attention to the difficulties in finding a solution to the ongoing violence.
While matters of crime and homicide seem dire in Jacksonville, and there is little end in sight to the ongoing rap feud between ATK and KTA, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has taken some steps forward with implementation of the Violence Reduction Strategy Team and by working to ensure transparency with open data.
Next steps could be to consider deploying Esri technology that supports community policing initiatives in powerful ways. Police can provide information to citizens with an array of maps and apps that leverage the agency’s existing GIS investment. ArcGIS can also support a data strategy to increase transparency and promote community policing programs with open data and public records, open analysis, and citizen outreach. But until then...
