The “aspiring rapper” headline of this article was inspired by my good friend Robert Stacy McCain’s series of the same name, which occurred to me when I saw the following article in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Quamere Hall, photo cropped from Twitter.

Two more YBC rappers are accused of murder. One said he was at the shooting but didn’t fire a gun.

Rappers and YBC affiliates Quamere Hall, a.k.a. Mere Pablo, and Mark Johnson, a.k.a. Yak Yola, are facing murder charges.

by Ellie Rushing | Wednesday, November 14, 2024 | 4:58 PM EST

Quamere Hall doesn’t deny that he was at the scene of the slaying of Sharif King, his attorney said Wednesday — he just didn’t fire the guns that killed him.

His friend and fellow rapper Mark Johnson, on the other hand, is another story, Hall told detectives.

So, “fellow rappers” have no real loyalty to each other. Perhaps young Mr Hall’s lawyer should have told him that it doesn’t matter which one of them actually fired the gun; if they were engaged in the commission of another felony, they can both be convicted of second-degree murder in the Keystone State.

And no, of course the Inquirer didn’t include photos of the accused killers.

Johnson and Hall, better known as rappers “Yak Yola” and “Mere Pablo,” respectively, were arrested earlier this year and charged with shooting and killing King, 34, last summer. The two men appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday to face the wide-ranging evidence prosecutors said they have tying them to the murder and a prior carjacking.

Both men are affiliated with the West Philadelphia-based gang the Young Bag Chasers, or YBC, law enforcement sources say.

Just like having a neck or facial tattoo, if you have a rap ‘street name,’ you’re automatically guilty.

Mark Johnson, photo via Instagram.

First, around 1:30 a.m. on July 8, 2023, the two men held a young woman at gunpoint at a gas station in North Philadelphia, said Assistant District Attorney Robert Wainwright.

“Do you want to die tonight?” one of them asked the woman before fleeing in her black Acura, she said.

Later that same day, around 1:30 p.m., the prosecutor said, Hall, Johnson, and at least two others drove the Acura to the 5200 block of Jefferson Street. For nearly 30 minutes, he said, they sat outside a corner store, waiting for someone who resembled one of their Parkside rivals to pass by.

“They figured anyone coming from that block who matched the description of a relatively young Black man would be connected to their rival group,” Wainwright said.

Oops! That would make it first-degree murder in Pennsylvania!

Of course, that doesn’t really matter, because, other than a possible death sentence, the penalty is the same, life in prison without the possibility of parole. District Attorney Larry Krasner will not pursue a capital sentence, so that’s off the table, and even if it was pursued, the Commonwealth never carries out the sentence.

This could and should be a win/win/win: oner gang member off the streets forever, having been sent to his eternal reward, and two more (hopefully) spending the rest of their miserable lives behind bars.

Perhaps ‘gang member’ and ‘aspiring rapper’ aren’t really the safest professions around.