King Von

King Von was born Dayvon D. Bennett[2] on August 9, 1994, in Chicago.[3] He spent most of his life in Parkway Gardens, aka "O'Block" located at the corner of 64th and Martin Luther King Drive on the South Side of Chicago. He grew up as childhood friends with rapper Lil Durk, as well as fellow Parkway Gardens resident Chief Keef. Von was originally from a Chicago set named Killaward. He was known for his nickname "Grandson", which according to Von, he obtained from an elderly man whom he shared a cell in prison. He was always helpful to him, and the older gentleman started referring to him as his grandson.

At age 16, Von went to jail for the first time. This would only be the start of a long course of legal troubles for him. In 2014, he was accused of a shooting that killed one and wounded another. After proving his innocence and beating the case, King Von took to rapping, collaborating with Lil Durk on singles. Lil Durk eventually signed him to his OTF (Only The Family) entertainment label.[4][5]

After fellow rapper Lil Durk signed King Von to his Only the Family label, Von released his single "Crazy Story" on December 6, 2018,[6] and it became his breakout single.[7]

On Valentine's Day 2019, Von's then-girlfriend, rapper Asian Doll, released a music video for her track about the artist, "Grandson," in which Von appeared.[8]

In May 2019, "Crazy Story 2.0" featuring Lil Durk was released, and a subsequent music video was later released on May 20 of that month and peaked at number four on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.[9][10] On September 13, 2019, a third rendition of the single called "Crazy Story Pt. 3" was released.[11]

On July 9, 2019, Lil Durk and King Von released their collaborative single "Like That".[12] On September 2, 2019, Von released his single "What It's Like". The single then appeared on his album Grandson, Vol. 1.[13] On September 19, 2019, Von released his 15 track mixtape, Grandson, Vol. 1, featuring Lil Durk on a pair of tracks. The album debuted at number 75 on the Billboard 200 and number 27 on the Hip Hop/R&B albums chart.[14][15][16] On November 16, 2019, Von released his single "2 A.M".[17] On November 29, 2019, Von released his single "Rolling" featuring YNW Melly, accompanied with a music video.[18]

On January 10, 2020, Detroit rapper Sada Baby's single "Pressin" was released featuring King Von. On February 21, 2020, Von released "Took Her to the O", which went on to become one his most popular songs. It was included on his mixtape, Levon James, released on March 6, 2020, which peaked at number 63 on the Billboard 200.[19] The album features verses from NLE Choppa, Polo G, Tee Grizzley, G Herbo, Lil Durk, and YNW Melly, among others.[20]

On April 29, 2020, King Von released his single "Grandson for President", which did well in popularity. He followed that up with a music video release for "Broke Opps", a song from Levon James. He then released another single, titled "Why He Told" on July 27, 2020, and followed that up with another popular single, "All These Niggas", featuring Chicago rapper Lil Durk, which garnered over 21 million views on YouTube. He then released another single, titled "How It Go", on August 26, 2020.

On October 9, 2020, King Von released "I Am What I Am", featuring New York rapper Fivio Foreign. This release was in anticipation of his debut studio album[19][21] Welcome to O'Block, released on October 30, 2020. The 16-track album features production Chopsquad DJ, Tay Keith, Wheezy and Hitmaka, among others. The album includes the Polo G collaboration "The Code", which was released with a music video.[21]
On December 24, 2020, Lil Durk released his album The Voice as a tribute to King Von who also appears on the album cover and on the song, "Still Trappin'".[22]

On November 21, 2012, Bennett was arrested and booked into Cook County jail for unlawful possession of a firearm.[23]

On July 24, 2014, Von was arrested in connection with a shooting in May 2014, resulting in the death of several men and the injury of two others. Von was charged with 1 count of murder and 2 counts of attempted murder. The shooting took place at 5700 South Lasalle Street in Englewood, Chicago.[24][25] After witnesses failed to testify, all charges against King Von were dropped and towards the end of 2017 he walked free. Lil Durk has said in an interview with Von on the Breakfast Club that he pressed Von to become a rapper to stay out of any more trouble.

In June 2019, King Von and Lil Durk were arrested in connection with a shooting in Atlanta. Von, along with his co-defendant Durk, appeared before a judge in a Fulton County courtroom for a probable cause hearing. Prosecutors claimed the two men robbed and shot a man outside a popular Atlanta drive-in on February 5, 2019.[26]

King Von in 2019.

On November 6, 2020, King Von was in an altercation outside an Atlanta nightclub that took place around 3:15 a.m. between two groups of men,[27] one of them was rapper Quando Rondo.[28] The dispute quickly escalated into gunfire, which is when two police officers attempted to break up the shootout with additional gunfire.[29][30] After being shot, Bennett was subsequently transported to a hospital in critical condition and died there later that day; he was 26 years old.[28][31] The Georgia Bureau of Investigation initially reported that three people were killed, but an Atlanta police spokesman said that only two of them died. Four people were wounded;[32] one of them was placed in police custody for the murder of King Von while being treated for a gunshot wound. The suspect was identified as Timothy Leeks, a rapper also known as Lul Timm, aged 22.[33][34] On November 15, 2020, King Von was buried in his hometown of Chicago.[35]

• List of murdered hip hop musicians