Blade Icewood

Blade Icewood debuted as a local rapper in Detroit with the Street Lord'z on their album, Platinum Roleez Don’t Tic Toc. The Original Members were: Yacht, Jesse James, O Dolla, Brick, Baby L, Juan, TJ Da Thug, G Rock, Fat Mike, Lil Kuz, Rook, Cashout Calhoun, and K Doe aka K Deezy. He performed with his group Street Lord'z/Chedda Boyz until his death in April 2005.[2]

Conflict over the name Chedda Boyz began after the formation of the rap group the Eastside Chedda Boyz.[1] The second album released by the Street Lord'z, Platinum Masterpiece, boasted the subtitle, "Original Chedda Boyz," further deepening the conflict between the Street Lord'z and Chedda Boyz. Icewood would go on to release a bonus DVD with his "Stackmaster" solo album that featured an interview discussing the origins of the name Chedda Boyz; Blade is seen speaking in a slow, deliberate Midwest drawl, where he states "The Street Lordz Chedda Boy original, that’s me. All that bullshit everybody talkin’ ’bout, [sic] it come from here, there, that’s where it come from. And whoever don’t like it, fuck it, come holla at me." A retaliatory diss song would be released by the Eastside Chedda Boyz titled "Boss Up and Take They Money" (an allusion to a notable Icewood song, "Boy Would You").

On September 20, 2004, Blade Icewood was shot in his house in Oak Park, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He was hit with 7 rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle after gunmen broke into his house. Following the shooting, an officer stated that Icewood had refused to assist investigators in his shooting. He was left paralyzed from the chest down, and using a wheelchair. Two days prior to his own shooting, a shooting outside of Candy Bar, a Woodward Avenue nightclub, left Wipeout, a rival Eastside Detroit rapper, dead. Many speculated the shootings were related. A diss song called "Ride On Me", which became an underground Detroit classic, suggests that Icewood knew the assailants.[3]

On April 19, 2005, Icewood was shot while at a car wash on 7 Mile Road and Faust on the west side of Detroit. A gunman pulled up alongside Icewood's Range Rover and fired 17 rounds into the passenger's side, killing Icewood.[4] The location he was shot at was nearly a mile away from where he had hosted a nonviolence rally a year prior to his death. After Blade's death, the family of the rapper founded Icewood Entertainment, a record label in honor of the fallen Detroit artist.

• List of murdered hip hop musicians