NEW YORK (AP) — Rapper Kay Flock was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison for a series of shootings in his Bronx neighborhood, derailing a music career that was just taking off before his 2021 arrest.
The 22-year-old rapper, whose real name is Kevin Perez, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman, who criticized Perez for sending the wrong message to his young peers by glorifying violence during a less-than-18-month stretch from 2020 to 2021 that prosecutors said left dozens of people on Bronx streets shot at, injured or killed.
“You taunted, you celebrated and you helped create a cycle of violence,” Liman said, noting that Perez bragged on social media that he was exonerated on the top count and wrote “KILL ALL RATS” on Instagram after a trial in which gang members testified against him.
The judge called Perez a “man of promise” but said a lengthy prison sentence was necessary for four separate shootings that injured multiple people while he led a gang known as “Sev Side/DOA.” Perez was convicted in March of charges including racketeering conspiracy and attempted murder.
Perez insisted that he had changed, saying: “What I was at 18 is not what I am today.”
Saying everyone deserves a second chance, he added: “I was just a kid. Didn’t really know better.”
But Liman criticized him for not expressing any concern for his victims.
“To date, you’ve shown no real remorse for your conduct,” the judge said.
Perez was named Billboard Magazine’s R&B/Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month in November, 2021, following the release of his first album: “The D.O.A. Tape.” It put him on the map as a newcomer in New York’s drill rap scene, which features performers who wield weapons and lyrics containing slang about violence.
The music includes threats and taunts, a fact Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick R. Moroney noted as he asked Liman to impose a 50-year prison sentence, the same sentence recommended by the court’s Probation Department officer.
“He was very good at celebrating his violence and getting under the skin of his rivals,” the prosecutor said.
In their sentencing brief, prosecutors wrote that Perez signed with a music label and used violence to further his career.
“The music that had glorified gang violence made the defendant famous and now rich,” they wrote, accusing Perez of encouraging violence through private messages.
Defense attorney Michael Ashley, who asked the judge to levy the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, said his client grew up in one of the nation’s most dangerous neighborhoods and fell under the influence of an older man who encouraged gang activity.
The judge said he took into consideration that the crimes occurred while Perez’s brain was “still evolving and maturing” and that six of his friends died from gun violence before he turned 18.
“The life of the street, it seems to me, is all you’ve ever known,” Liman said.