Silento, the Atlanta rapper of Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae) fame, has been handed a 30-year prison sentence for fatally shooting his cousin.
Per FOX 5 Atlanta, the rapper, born Ricky Hawk, was handed the punishment after he pleaded guilty but mentally ill to voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, and other offenses related to the January 2021 shooting death of his 34-year-old cousin, Frederick Rooks.
Silento’s conviction came after a Georgia grand jury in 2021 indicted him on four felony charges in connection with the fatal shooting of his cousin, Face2Face Africa previously reported.
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Silento was arrested in February 2021 on suspicion of killing Rooks, and he has since remained in custody. Following his arrest, Silento’s associates revealed the rapper had been struggling with mental health issues for many years. He is said to have also admitted to the shooting after he was arrested.
“Over the past several years, Ricky has been suffering immensely from a series of mental health illnesses,” the rapper’s publicist posted on Instagram after his February 2021 arrest, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. “We will continue in his efforts of treatment, but we ask in the meantime the public uplift him and his family in immediate prayer.”
The rapper had quite a number of other run-ins with the law prior to being arrested and charged with his cousin’s murder, NME reported. In September 2020, authorities arrested and brought charges against him following a domestic dispute incident. And though he was released the next day, he was re-arrested after he was accused of forcing his way into a stranger’s home with a hatchet. Silento said he was looking for his girlfriend.
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He was also arrested for overspeeding in Georgia. Authorities said he was driving at over 140 mph on I-85 at the time, adding that he informed officers he was speeding because he was being followed, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“If there is like 10 cars following me, I can do 143 because I am not a regular person, and you could go look on your computer and it would tell you that,” he was quoted as saying in the incident report.
The 27-year-old rapper rose to fame in 2015 with his viral dance song Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae). The music video for the song has been viewed over 1.8 billion times on YouTube. The hit single also peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart after its release. His debut album, Fresh Outta High School, was released in 2018.
But a year after that, the rapper, in an interview on The Doctors talk show, opened up about his struggles with depression.
“I’ve been fighting demons my whole life. My whole life,” Silento said at the time. “I was born with weed, coke, heroin, pills, all type of drugs in my system. I saw family members talking to walls. I watched family members fight. I watched family members try to kill each other. Nobody should have to watch that.”
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