(ThyBlackMan.com) A rapper who thought that it was fun to brag on Twitter about drinking and driving died shortly after sending his last tweet. The tweet by the rapper “Inkyy” was YOLO, which means “You only live once.” It appears that his sudden death confirms his expectation…he’s only going to live and die one time.
The California rapper hit a wall in Ontario, Canada, killing all passengers in the car. Inkyy, whose real name is Ervin McKinness, was just 21 years old when the incident took place. I would expect that he had promising career, since most brothers in California aren’t driving around Canada in the middle of the night.
The tweet was sent at 1:19 am EST on September 2 and stated “Drunk af going 120 drifting corners #F***It. YOLO.”
His last tweet was “Driving tweeting sipping the cup f*** yolo I’m turning it up.”
You can’t put all of this on Inkyy, since police say that another rapper may have been driving the car. The group ran a red light and hit a wall. Four of the passengers died at the scene of the accident and a fifth died at the hospital. 
This incident reminds me of the lyrics of a song by an incredibly talented artist by the name of TI. In the song “24s,” TI says this:
“In a drop top chevy with the roof wide open my partners looking at me to see if my eyes open cause I’ve been drankin, and I’ve been smokin and flying down 285 but I’m focused”
The translation of the lyrics is that he’s bragging about getting behind the wheel while being high and drunk. This is yet another example of how commercialized hip-hop culture teaches black men how to kill one another. Fueled by billions of dollars in corporate money, destructive artists are given international platforms that promote a lifestyle of violence, drug/alcohol abuse, sexual irresponsibility and ignorance. Then, we sit back and wonder why black men are more likely to die than anyone else, especially at the hands of another black man.
Anyone who somehow looks the other way as this culture continues to destroy our young men is simply delusional. The recent murder of the rapper Lil Jojo in Chicago, right after making a music video where nearly every teenager had an assault weapon, shows what commercialized hip hop music is doing to the black community. I remain a huge fan of hip hop, but the sh*t that continues to be spit out by major corporations like Interscope Records (who gave us Chief Keef) is something that most of us cannot respect or appreciate.
This young man did not have to die. But then again, Nicole Price’s 65-year old mother in Kansas City also didn’t have to die on her way to church when a young 21-year old got drunk, got behind the wheel and murdered her when speeding through a red light. Seven-year old Heaven Sutton didn’t have to die from the stray bullet that murdered her while she sold lemonade on her front porch. There are countless deaths that occur every year because a brother is “thuggin” like a Nazi soldier following orders that have been pounded into his head by the violent music that he listens to and recites every single day of his life. You can’t hear lyrics like “Shoot the n*gga in the face” every day from the age of 6 and not expect it to have some kind of impact.
Destructive and irresponsible decisions like the ones mentioned above are effectively chickens coming home to roost, after we’ve spent 20 years feeding young black men a steady diet of psychological poison. As a result, you are almost as likely to see a 21-year old with sagging pants and a blunt in his mouth as you are to see that man in a suit on his way to work. Of course not every black male is sucked in by the poison, but too many of them are, and most of us must navigate through a world where other men are affected by these negative cultural influences. This is why so many positive and productive young people are murdered each year by other men who have nothing to lose. All of us are affected.
We must stop pretending that these musical influences are just harmless entertainment, because they are not. When a young person does something stupid, many of them were taught to behave that way. Any good psychologist would tell you that, when it comes to our psychological intake, you are what you eat. Unfortunately, our kids are being fed the Grim Reaper.
