NBA Lil Pap, born Deandre Fields, told police he was a shooter for the Never Broke Again gang. While NBA Youngboy is not a suspect in the slaying, local detectives say a violent feud is taking place between members of the Never Broke Again gang and the Top Boy Gorilla (TBG) gang.
In May of 2018, Desmond “Dump” Hardnett, NBA Youngboy’s agent was shot and killed. In November of 2018, a TBG rapper known as BLVD Quick was killed.
In May of 2019, gunmen targeted NBA Youngboy in Miami during a shootout, which killed a 43-year-old bystander.
In April of 2019, Lit Yoshi was charged with seven counts of attempted murder, for trying to kill Fields, and for another shooting in July, which left three adults and two children wounded.
A man accused of gunning down Baton Rouge rapper Gee Money, and igniting a violent street beef between two rival rap crews, accepted a plea deal from prosecutors Monday afternoon that will allow him to serve five years in prison on an accessory charge.
Deandre Demarcus Fields, 28, nicknamed "NBA Lip Pap," was an associate of local rap artist NBA Youngboy. According to a second-degree murder indictment filed against Fields two years ago, he was the triggerman who shot and killed Gee Money, 22, whose real name is Garrett Burton, outside his music studio on Dallas Drive in September 2017.
Burton performed as the front man for the TBG, or Top Boy Gorilla, label. He and Youngboy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, were former friends whose relationship soured after Gaulden splintered from the group and started his NBA, or Never Broke Again, entourage. Burton's fatal shooting was the first volley in a bitter street feud between the rival crews, described by East Baton Rouge authorities as gangs, that lasted several years and provoked a number of other shootings, prosecutors said Monday.
The fallout from those shootings spilled over into Fields' case and made it difficult for the state to prosecute him for Burton's murder, East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore said in a statement.
Fields, of New Roads, agreed to a negotiated deal between prosecutors and his attorney that saw his charge dropped to accessory after the fact of murder, a non-violent offense that exposed him to only five years behind bars. He will serve that sentence as he serves a three-year prison stint for a federal weapons charge he picked up last year while awaiting trial.
"Under the circumstances the state was not in any other position but to resolve this matter under these circumstances," Moore said. "My office has discussed these issues with Mr. Burton’s family prior to accepting this plea."
"With this agreement, the sentencing and the charge has been greatly reduced from what it was," 19th Judicial Disctrict Court judge Michael McDonald told him.
Fields loudly proclaimed his innocence in the courtroom after Stuart Theriot, a prosecutor from the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney's Office, announced the offer. Fields could be overheard telling his attorney, "I can't take time for something that I didn't do." Later, after discussing the agreement with his family, he told a loved one he was "100 percent innocent" but couldn't gamble with the risk of being incarcerated for life.
Lit Yoshi is currently free on a $1.82 million bond for the shootings. According to documents obtained by The Advocate, investigators say a feud over a rap song ignited the feud when Gee Money released a song dissing NBA Youngboy’s sister.
In August of 2017, the pair started disrespecting each other during interviews and on their social media accounts. In September of that year, Gee Money was shot dead in the parking lot of his recordings studio.
“In the days prior to Burton’s death, both Burton and Gaulden made several social media posts about one another, which further exacerbated tensions between the two rival rap music groups. When Burton was killed, members of the NBA group were immediately developed as suspects due to … the ongoing rap music feud,” detectives said.
Lit Yoshi is currently free on a $1.82 million bond for the shootings.
NBA Lil Pap is facing a mandatory life sentence if he is convicted of killing Gee Money.
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