His parents claim he was a "good kid" just having fun.
Photo: Fox 13 Memphis — View here
An up and coming young Memphis rapper named PSO Emmit was shot dead last week while he was attending a friend’s funeral. Apparently the boy’s death was very graphic. His mother told reporters that his brains were "scattered" on the pavement. Memphis, well known for its hood violence, is outpacing its record breaking 2020 murder rate in which 332 people were killed. This year, 228 people have been murdered and counting, mostly black, of course. PSO Emmit’s cousin was also hit, but apparently he survived. The killers were apparently also teenagers.
The deceased boy’s real name was Emmit Beasley. He was only 16 years old. In the aftermath of the shooting, his father wailed, “My son was a baby just trying to enjoy himself, being himself, just a baby, that’s it. That’s all he was doing was just enjoying himself.”
What? Enjoying himself? A baby? I’m not too sure about that. For those who don't know, PSO stands for “Presidential Shit Only,” (probably a local gang name) and PSO Emmit was pretty active in the streets of Memphis.
A cursory look at the types of music videos he was posting suggest something darker than some innocent childhood fun. The young savage can be seen toting guns that are much bigger than his small frame. In fact, in quite a few of his clips he’s holding at least TWO military style rifles. Emmit aggressively raps about murder, drugs, robbery, sex and all the other trappings of thug life in all of his songs. His music videos feature heavy artillery, well-armed hood friends, and a lot of illicit drug use.
Youtube Screen Grab
PSO Emmit particularly enjoyed rapping about killing other people.In his most viewed street hit, “Sliding,” Emmit raps the following while holding two guns: “n*gga betta not disrespect cuz this ‘drake’ sing like Bruno Mars.”
Translation: if you cross me you’re gonna get shot and killed with this Draco. The song itself has a really nice beat, and it’s fun to listen to, but the truth is that these guys are actually raining death on themselves. In the current atmosphere of the drill rap scene, rapping about killing other people usually ends up in other people actually getting murdered or the rappers themselves getting slayed.
Quite frankly, judging from the ultra violent persona he was presenting, PSO Emmit was murdered before he murdered someone himself. PSO Emmit got caught “lacking” (being vulnerable and not having a firearm to defend himself) before he could catch someone else “lacking.” He acted tough and rapped about gunplay but he ended up getting killed by real killers.
PSO Emmit chose to live a gangsta lifestyle and he met an early grave because of it. The extreme violence in the hood is only escalating, because “black life” doesn’t matter at all to people who gangbang.
Instead of uttering the same tired old refrains about a “senseless murder,” “putting the guns down,” and seeking “justice” PSO Emmit’s parents should have intervened while he was risking his life in his rap videos, sending out violent threats, brandishing guns, and throwing up gang signs. He was only in the 11th grade. They should have strongly discouraged him from doing drugs and having weapons at his young age.
Having responsible parents would have greatly decreased the likelihood of PSO Emmit ending up dead on the street with a bullet to his head. Why was he, at 16 years old, showing off deadly weapons and proudly doing drugs for all the Internet to see? His father should have told his son to focus on earning an honest wage at Wendy’s and babysitting his nephew instead of embracing street life. Maybe Emmit could have tried his hand at sports.
Ridiculously, his father actually still said it would have been better for his son to make fast money through drill rap instead of choosing a safer route. Even though his son literally just died as a result of that. His father said the rap was just "art" and his mom said that his songs were just "short stories." Even though they definitely know that drill rap killed him. They still won't assume any responsibility for raising a kid who chose to live by the gun. Instead, they resort to cliche statements about how he had a “gentle heart” and had “dreams.” They should have helped him to achieve those dreams without glorifying violence.
Their attitude does nothing to address the real reason why he was savagely killed by other teens. The lifestyle that he was living brought death upon him. These parents, generally speaking, need to be doing more than going on the news and talking about “putting the guns down”.The gangs are not clearly not putting the guns down, they’re picking them up. At an alarming rate. These kids aren’t behaving like babies.
Right now, the murder rate in Memphis is at the highest level that it has been in several years. The BLM de-policing movement is having its effect and the rap lyrics are becoming more explicit and more directly violent. In the past, violent rap lyrics were mostly relegated to fiction and fantasy. But ever since the Chicago drill movement became a nation-wide phenomenon, real thugs and real bodysnatchers are moonlighting as “rappers” and actually engaging in real-life violence.
Perhaps 16-year-old Emmit Beasley would have been alive if his parents actually took early action to curb his downward spiral when he was still living and breathing.
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