Richmond rapper dies of gunshot wounds
By Matthias Gafni
MEDIANEWS STAFF
A renowned Bay Area rapper signed to slain hip-hop star Mac Dre's record label succumbed to his gunshot wounds after a shooting at a Vallejo apartment complex, officials said Friday.
Johnny Castaneda Jr., 25, of Richmond, a rapper who went by the stage names "Johnny Ca$h" and "Tha Fast Gunna," died Thursday from a gunshot wound to the head at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek after being on life support, a Contra Costa coroner's official said Friday. Castaneda rapped on late Vallejo legend Andre "Mac Dre" Hicks' record label -- Thizz Entertainment.
Vallejo police said that Castaneda was shot multiple times in the parking lot of Sereno Village Apartments, 750 Sereno Drive. It was the second shooting victim found this year in the apartments, both with loose ties to Mac Dre's name. Police were not disclosing details of Thursday's shooting, citing the ongoing investigation.
Castaneda's death set the Bay Area rap scene abuzz, with hundreds of fans paying their online respects to Ca$h on his MySpace page (
www.myspace.com/cashthafastgunna).
One MySpace comment read: "T.I.P. Homie U Wit Dre now ...", referring to Mac Dre, who was shot and killed in a still unsolved murder in Kansas City, Mo., in 2004.
Castaneda was signed to Mac Dre's label after Dre, 34, had already passed away, said Black Dog Bone, the editor of Murder Dog magazine, a popular rap magazine based in Vallejo.
"He knew Mac Dre ... but not much. They had a pretty big difference in age," Bone said.
The rap editor said he interviewed Johnny Ca$h on Tuesday as part of a larger article on Thizz Entertainment for the magazine's next issue. The slain rapper had previously joined dozens of other members of Thizz Entertainment for a photo shoot along Mare Island Strait, Bone said.
A Thizz Entertainment representative did not return a call for comment Friday.
Christiane Ambrose, 21, a Sereno apartment resident, was sleeping Thursday morning during the shooting, but heard the ruckus after.
Ambrose said Castaneda lived in the apartment complex with his wife. A Vallejo police official said Castaneda lived in Richmond, but had been staying of late in Vallejo.
Thursday's homicide marks the city's sixth slaying of the year, one more than all of 2006. The city saw 16 in 2005 and nine in 2004.
As for the rap connection to the recent violence, Black Dog Bone attributes it to inner-city problems.
"A lot of kids who do rap are forced to be in a gang because they're in their hood," Bone said. "You have to be on this side or that side. That's just the reality. You have to survive."