Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five’s Kidd Creole Arrested for Murder
Nathaniel Glover, who performed as rapper Kidd Creole from Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, has been charged with murder in the stabbing death of a homeless man in New York, police told NY Daily News.
“On Tuesday, August 1, 2017 at [11:52 p.m.], police responded to a 911 call of a male possibly stabbed at East 44 Street and 3 Avenue within the confines of the 17 Precinct,” a police report obtained by Rolling Stone states. “Upon arrival, police observed a 55-year-old male with multiple stab wounds to the torso. EMS also responded and transported the male to Bellevue Hospital, where he was pronounced deceased … The investigation is ongoing.”
Surveillance video was used to identify Glover, 57, who was arrested Wednesday night.
A rep for the Furious Five did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
A police source told NY Daily News that Glover works as a handyman and security guard near where the incident took place. Glover allegedly had a run-in with the victim, who was drunk, according to the source, and reportedly exchanged words. According to TMZ, a gay slur was used, which spurred an angry reaction. “They had no prior relationship. They had words. Things got out of hand. It was some sort of diss,” a source told the Daily News. ““He turned, interpreting that the guy was making an advance toward him,” the source said. “One thing led to another, and he shivved him twice in the chest.”
The victim, John Jolly, lived in a homeless shelter two miles from where he was stabbed.
Glover was a founding member of the lauded hip-hop group Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. Formed in 1976, the group released its first single, “Superappin” in 1979, with their 1982 hit “The Message” among Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
“The Message” was a breakthrough in hip-hop, taking the music from party anthems to street-level ghetto blues. It began as a poem by schoolteacher Bootee; Sugar Hill boss Sylvia Robinson decided to make it a rap record with Melle Mel of the Furious Five. The song, driven by its signature future-shock synth riff and grim lyrics about urban decay, became an instant sensation on New York’s hip-hop radio. “It played all day, every day,” Flash said. “It put us on a whole new level.”
In 2007, the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They were the first hip-hop act to enter the ceremony.
According to Glover’s Twitter page under his Kidd Creole moniker, he was scheduled to perform with the Furious Five at Dell Music Center in Philadelphia on August 20th, alongside Doug E. Fresh, Big Daddy Kane, Sugarhill Gang, Das Efx and Silk. On Thursday, the group’s name appears to have been removed from a concert listing on Live Nation. A rep for WRNB, the Philadelphia radio station organizing the event, did not immediately return a request for comment.