{"id":353074,"date":"2025-12-17T00:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T00:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/353074\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T00:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T00:29:07","slug":"rapper-kay-flock-sentenced-to-30-years-in-prison-for-conviction-in-shootings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/353074\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapper Kay Flock sentenced to 30 years in prison for conviction in shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK — Rapper Kay Flock was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison for a series of shootings<\/a> in his Bronx neighborhood, derailing a music career that was just taking off before his 2021 arrest. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou taunted, you celebrated and you helped create a cycle of violence,\u201d Liman said, noting that Perez bragged on social media that he was exonerated on the top count and wrote \u201cKILL ALL RATS\u201d on Instagram after a trial in which gang members testified against him.<\/p>\n

The judge called Perez a \u201cman of promise\u201d but said a lengthy prison sentence was necessary for four separate shootings that injured multiple people while he led a gang known as \u201cSev Side\/DOA.\u201d Perez was convicted in March of charges including racketeering conspiracy and attempted murder.<\/p>\n

Perez insisted that he had changed, saying: \u201cWhat I was at 18 is not what I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saying everyone deserves a second chance, he added: \u201cI was just a kid. Didn’t really know better.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Liman criticized him for not expressing any concern for his victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, you’ve shown no real remorse for your conduct,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

Perez was named Billboard Magazine\u2019s R&B\/Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month in November, 2021, following the release of his first album: \u201cThe D.O.A. Tape.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was very good at celebrating his violence and getting under the skin of his rivals,\u201d the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n

In their sentencing brief, prosecutors wrote that Perez signed with a music label and used violence to further his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music that had glorified gang violence made the defendant famous and now rich,\u201d they wrote, accusing Perez of encouraging violence through private messages.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The judge said he took into consideration that the crimes occurred while Perez’s brain was \u201cstill evolving and maturing\u201d and that six of his friends died from gun violence before he turned 18.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe life of the street, it seems to me, is all you’ve ever known,\u201d Liman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK — Rapper Kay Flock was sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison for a series of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[175637,966,3071,14597,88,793,3073,2221,216,22049,4382,795],"class_list":["post-353074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-175637","tag-article","tag-crime","tag-criminal-punishment","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-indictments","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-music","tag-organized-crime","tag-shootings","tag-u-s-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=353074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/353074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=353074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=353074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}