Two-Cent Tupac

In the latest incident of fatal black malice two innocents were killed as a result of a car-on-car drive-by on the Vegas strip. Yes, we've lost another "aspiring rapper" (see one of his compositions here) and all that potential therein.

All the usual elements are in place here: a confrontation between rivals spills out into the street, shots are fired, bystanders are killed. Inured as we all are to this grotesque cliche, this one will get a little more attention due to its dramatic, gruesome aspect--a taxi caught fire after being struck by the rapper's Maserati as it rolled through traffic with him (now dead, presumably less sentient than before) behind the wheel--and its similarity with Tupac Shakur's assassination just blocks away in 1996. So an obscure petty potentate calling himself "Kenny Clutch" gets to go out in high gangsta style, behind the wheel of a fine Italian sports car in a blaze of vainglory.

But he may also have something in common with another rapper (as of this writing still alive), the highly successful Rick Ross, unauthorized namesake of "Freeway Rick Ross", a drug dealer who almost single-handedly introduced crack cocaine to LA (now putatively reformed and blogging at Huffpo; but of course). Recently the rapper Ross was exposed as a fraud who lied about his criminal resume. Turns out he was in fact gainfully employed--as a prison guard no less.
This does not sit well with the Black Gangster Disciples. When the fake Rick Ross name-checked one of their more renowned killers in a rap they'd had enough. Ross had to cancel several shows when the gang declared he must pay them a tribute or he would be assassinated. Ross was later fired upon as he drove his Rolls Royce in Ft. Lauderdale.

 A commenter over at the L.A. Times reveals this comment was left on Clutch's Facebook page:

"lil kenny clutch better keep a killaz name out his fukin mouf or he gone stay stinkin..."

I wouldn't be surprised to learn this was a sort of local version of the Ross situation, or even that Clutch's killers were inspired by the Black Gangsters' successful intimidation.