(via Vallejo Times Herald)
A burned car discovered in Vallejo on Wednesday has been connected to the Las Vegas slaying of a Kansas City rapper listed by police as a "person of interest" in local rap legend Mac Dre's death late last year.
The latest homicide has led rap Web sites and media outlets to speculate that a war of retaliation has begun between West Coast and Midwest rappers, specifically from the Bay Area and the Kansas City area. A Vallejo rap insider says the slayings were "isolated incidents" and not a larger feud, but some of Vallejo's most famous rappers have found themselves in the middle.
Rappers Anthony "Fat Tone" Watkins, 24, and Jermaine "Cowboy" Akins, 22, both of Kansas City, were found shot to death early Monday morning at a construction site near the Palms Casino, Las Vegas police said.
Fat Tone was considered a person of interest in the fatal November drive-by shooting in Kansas City involving Mac Dre, but police never listed Fat Tone as a suspect.
Police are seeking Las Vegas rapper Andre Dow, 34, a.k.a .Mac Minister, Tanisha Aaron, 27, and Jason Mathis, 24, of the San Francisco area, to question them about Monday's slaying, Las Vegas police Lt. Tom Monahan said.
Mac Minister is best known for his part in a brawl at a hip-hop awards show that involved Vallejo's most well-known and successful rapper, E-40. Mac Minister has contributed to albums by Mac Dre and E-40.
Family members of Fat Tone and his friend say the two slain men were in town for a Snoop Dogg concert at the Palms on Tuesday night, according to newspaper reports in Las Vegas and Kansas City. They said Mac Minister lured the two men to their deaths from the MGM Grand by promising to hook them up with Snoop Dogg's record label.
Vallejo car
A 2000 Pontiac Sunfire convertible connected to the trio was found burning at Sixth Street and Cherry Avenue early Wednesday morning, Vallejo fire inspector Bill Tweedy said.
The car was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived, Tweedy said. The entire interior and part of the exterior was destroyed, and the car was impounded by police.
It's unclear how police think the Pontiac is connected to the trio sought in Fat Tone's killing. Las Vegas police did not return several calls, and Vallejo Police Department officials declined comment.
After running the license plate, Vallejo police determined that Las Vegas authorities wanted the car in connection with the double homicide there, Tweedy said. There was no criminal evidence found in an initial search of the Pontiac's charred remains, but Tweedy said Las Vegas officials have requested a more detailed search.
"The only thing left on the vehicle - some of the sides still have paint," Tweedy said. "The rest of the car, inside and the top, is gone."
Police records show the Pontiac is registered to an address in Payson, Utah, a town 60 miles southeast of Salt Lake City. It was not reported stolen, Tweedy said.
Attempts to reach the car's last known owner were unsuccessful Thursday.
Escalating violence
Authorities said they are investigating whether Monday's killing of Fat Tone was part of a battle between Midwest and West Coast rappers and whether it was linked with the drive-by slaying of Andre "Mac Dre" Hicks in Kansas City, Mo.
At the time, various Web sites dedicated to rap and hip-hop music and artists said Mac Dre's shooting was a continuation of a Bay Area-Kansas City feud.
Fat Tone had seen a lot of violence lately. He was shot multiple times in 2003 while riding in an SUV with Sacramento rapper C-Bo and other rappers, according to rap Web sites and the Kansas City Star. C-Bo had produced Fat Tone's first three albums from California.
In October 2004, a month before Mac Dre's death, Fat Tone was allegedly shot at while leaving a Kansas City nightclub, a Web site reported.
Earlier in 2004, a San Diego rapper, Ramone C. Davis, was shot to death in Kansas City when a man tried to steal marijuana from him, police said.
Despite the violence, the editor of Vallejo-based Murder Dog magazine, Black Dog Bone, said no war has broken out.
"It's personal things between people, but it's not about a whole town in the Bay Area with a whole town in Kansas," the industry insider said.
"There is no rap war going on between the Midwest and the West. The newspapers are doing something really horrible," Black Dog said. "There is no rap war going on. This is just going to make all the hot heads do something horrible.
"I know all the underground people and there's no war going on. This is absurd."
Tensions between both sides were strained shortly after Mac Dre's death, Black Dog said, when Fat Tone put out a street mix that dogged Mac Dre.
"Fat Tone was a young guy who came up. He was always a trouble maker from Day One, but he had nothing to do with Mac Dre's death," Black Dog said.
The editor said Fat Tone put out the controversial mix to make money.
"He's been like that. He capitalized on things like that," Black Dog said. "As soon as he was shot (in 2004), he put out a CD and sold a lot."
Black Dog said he's heard rumors that Mac Dre's death was related to a botched club gig.
Kansas City police, at the time, said they were having trouble tracking down Mac Dre's associates to interview them about the drive-by slaying. But Detective Everett Babcock said his department has heard rumors of retaliation for the murder.
"We're hearing talk of California planning to retaliate. They're talking trash back and forth on the Web sites, but it's all based on rumor," Babcock told the Times-Herald in November.
Black Dog said for safety reasons even his sources are avoiding mentioning names regarding the latest incident. He said the shooter could be a rapper, "but it has nothing to do with Mac Dre's camp. In the rap industry right now there's a lot of hot-headed kids and right now drugs are real bad Š it's like the Œ70s.
"It's like some kind of Wild West story happening," Black Dog said.
Mac Minister
One person Las Vegas police wish to speak to, Mac Minister, has a tarnished history with Vallejo's famous E-40, aka Earl Stevens.
The pair squared off in 2000 during The Source Awards in Pasadena, prematurely ending the show and sparking numerous altercations.
On E-40's Web site is a copy of the letter he sent The Source magazine after the incident, describing his role in the infamous brawl.
In the letter, E-40 writes: "Andre Dow (Mac Minister) has, over the last four years, followed and stalked me."
E-40 explained how Dow contributed to one of his albums and since then has allegedly crashed E-40's parties and claimed an association with the famous rap star.
At the music awards show, E-40 said Mac Minister approached him and started yelling incoherently.
"He began to approach me spitting, cussing, and threatening to do me. He began to reach out at me, grabbing my necklace and pendant, and I went to push him back away from me. The next thing I know, I am being grabbed at and taken out of the Arena by my body guard. When I go outside, I noticed that my $30,000 necklace/pendant and $40,000 bracelet had been taken," E-40 wrote.
He adds that: "I never saw Andre Dow again that night or since."
E-40 did not return a call Thursday.
Kansas City
Why Kansas City?
Rap war with the Kansas City area or not, the Bay Area hip-hop connection to Kansas City is not in doubt.
"So many of the Bay Area people go to Kansas to make money," Black Dog said.
Although thousands of miles apart, the two rap scenes are very similar, he said. That started about seven years ago when Rich the Factor "came to the Bay Area to get beats," working with artists like Vallejo's JT the Bigga Figga, Black Dog said.
"He was living in the Bay for a while," the editor said. "He took the sound back into Kansas. He was the pioneer rapper in Kansas and he was making Bay Area beats.
"That opened up the market for our own rappers there because it's like a Bay Area sound," he said. "(Bay Area rappers) sell tons of CDs in Kansas."
