On Monday, Shelby County prosecutors alleged in court docket that Anthony “Big Jook” Mims, the late brother of rapper Yo Gotti and a key determine in Gotti’s CMG report label, put a $100,000 hit out on fellow Memphis hip-hop artist Young Dolph, leading to his 2021 homicide.
The revelation got here throughout opening statements in the trial of Justin Johnson for his alleged involvement in the homicide of Young Dolph, actual title Adolph Thornton Jr.
Shelby County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagerman outlined the alleged involvement of each Big Jook and Johnson, who has passed by the stage title Straight Drop, in the November 2021 homicide of Dolph. According to prosecutors, Big Jook supplied Johnson the hit on Dolph in an effort to get signed to CMG.
Cornelius Smith, one among the different folks charged in Dolph's demise, testified Monday afternoon that he participated in the hit on the rapper due to the promised payout.
The Commercial Appeal has reached out to CMG for remark.
The principle put ahead by prosecutors supplied the first affirmation by authorities that Dolph's homicide was the results of an ongoing hip-hop struggle between Gotti’s CMG camp and Dolph’s Paper Route Empire group.
Here is a have a look at the historical past of the feud.
2014: The Yo Gotti and Young Dolph feud begins
The roots of the Dolph/Gotti feud started greater than a decade in the past. In 2014, Dolph — then simply rising as a mixtape artist — started saying publicly that he’d turned down a suggestion to hitch Gotti’s CMG report label.
Still, the Dolph-Gotti beef remained a background situation as Gotti’s star started to rise. Gotti, who acquired his begin in the mid-'90s as one among the metropolis's quintessential road rappers, launched the breakout LP “The Art of Hustle” in 2016. It debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard album charts, hit No. 1 on the R&B/Hip-Hop charts, and shortly proved a breakthrough for the veteran MC. The album would go on to spawn a prime 5 rap and prime 20 pop single in “Down in the DM” that has been licensed platinum. The report additionally earned the help of his friends, from Lil Wayne to Pusha T, who guested on the mission, to Kanye West, who carried out with Gotti throughout a launch get together in Los Angeles.
In the winter of 2016, Dolph once more alluded to Gotti and his resolution to not signal to his CMG label on Twitter. He subsequently launched his full-length debut “The King of Memphis”, which peaked at No. 49 on the Billboard chart. The title alone was incendiary, seen as a direct problem to Gotti’s declare on that place.
Through 2016, the bickering was largely between Dolph and members of Gotti’s camp, particularly CMG-signed artist Blac Youngsta, who threw a Dolph diss into one among his tracks and filmed a video of himself prowling Dolph’s South Memphis neighborhood closely armed. Gotti largely stayed on the sidelines and in September of that yr, in a video, downplayed any animosity between himself and Dolph.
2017: Young Dolph focused in 2 shootings, injured in 1
At the begin of 2017, it appeared doable that the complete Gotti/Dolph affair might need been a winking feud manufactured by each males for publicity. Though extra doubtless it was Dolph’s try to generate his personal publicity by going after the higher recognized and extra established artist.
In February 2017, Dolph reignited the feud with a diss observe that took useless goal on Gotti (derisively characterizing him as “Ho Gotti”). The track “Play Wit Yo’ B****” steered he’d been intimate with the mom of Gotti’s youngster.
Gotti took a high-handed strategy to the observe, logging on to Twitter and noting that he wouldn’t stoop to Dolph’s provocations. “I’m business partners with LA Reid N Jay Z” he wrote, noting CMG’s affiliation with the L.A. Reid-run Epic information and Jay-Z’s leisure administration firm Roc Nation.
Eventually, after extra Dolph entreaties, Gotti fired again in track with “Don’t Beef Wit Me” — whereas nonetheless refusing to acknowledge his rival by title. Dolph then replied with a video for “Play Wit Yo’ B****” which featured a Gotti look-alike being mocked.
Soon after, on Feb. 25, 2017, whereas on tour in Charlotte, North Carolina, a car Dolph was using in was shot at. Allegedly greater than 100 rounds had been fired into the automotive, which was bulletproof, and Dolph was unhurt, performing a live performance that evening. In April, following the capturing, Dolph launched his second LP, the fittingly titled “Bulletproof”, which debuted at No. 36 on the Billboard chart.
In May, Gotti affiliate Blac Youngsta was one among three males who surrendered to authorities in Charlotte for his or her alleged involvement in the Dolph capturing. According to the Charlotte Observer, “Charlotte-Mecklenburg police charged Blac Youngsta, Frederick Black and Antavius Gardner with six counts each of discharging a weapon into occupied property and felony conspiracy.” Youngsta was launched on bail, and costs in opposition to him had been ultimately dropped.
Things continued to escalate additional in September 2017, when Young Dolph was shot in Los Angeles exterior the Lowes Hollywood lodge. Subsequent media experiences would recommend the incident was the results of Dolph’s musical and private feud with Yo Gotti.
The Los Angeles Police Department denied to The Commercial Appeal that Gotti — who was staying at the identical lodge as Dolph — was an individual of curiosity in the investigation. Just a few days after the incident, Corey McClendon of Memphis was arrested and charged with tried homicide.
2021: Young Dolph killed in capturing in Memphis
Although the animosity between the Dolph and Gotti camps cooled, after which appeared to halt amid the COVID-19 pandemic, issues exploded in fall 2021.
On Nov. 17, 2021, Young Dolph, was shot and killed inside Makeda's Homemade Butter Cookies on Airways Boulevard in South Memphis. Dolph, 36, had about 22 gunshot wounds scattered round his head, again, chin, neck and arms, in response to an post-mortem report.
Over the subsequent two years, Memphis authorities would examine the homicide, ultimately arresting and charging 4 males in the crime — together with Dolph’s alleged shooters Justin Johnson and Cornelius Smith, the plan’s alleged mastermind Hernandez Govan, and Jermarcus Johnson, who pleaded responsible to 3 counts of accent after the reality.
2024: Big Jook shot and killed in Memphis
In January 2024, Anthony “Big Jook” Mims was shot and killed exterior a Hickory Hill-area restaurant.
The Jan. 13 homicide of the 47-year previous Mims — Yo Gotti’s brother and a high-profile determine concerned with his report label, CMG — seemed to be a focused assassination-style killing.
Though photographs of a automotive believed to have been concerned in the homicide had been launched instantly after the incident, no suspects have been recognized or charged in Mims’ killing.
Officials haven't publicly said in the event that they imagine Big Jook's demise is linked to Young Dolph's demise.
Reporter Brooke Muckerman contributed to this report.
