Posted by Los Angeles, CA – The rap community lost another burgeoning talent on Monday (February 15) when Los Angeles-based artist Ketchy The Great was killed. According to a tweet from Drakeo The Ruler, who recruited Ketchy for his Stinc Team, he was struck by a vehicle and succumbed to his injuries — not shot like social media rumors suggested.
“Don’t make it seem like. … come on bro,” Drakeo said to his fans during a recent Instagram Live. “It’s on the news. It’s on the shit. N-gga got hit by a car… You know they finna start, though.”
Drakeo has been pumping out tributes on Instagram and Twitter, clearly mourning the loss of his friend.
Shortly after confirming the news with an Instagram post, Drakeo shared another photo of Ketchy and vowed to carry on his legacy, writing in the caption, “LONG LIVE KETCHY THE GREAT IMA TURN UP FOR YOU FOR YOU ALL YEAR !! @ketchythegreat.”
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Like Drakeo, Ketchy was tied up in the district attorney’s office’s alleged vendetta against the Stinc Team, which they classified as gang. In 2018, he was arrested for spray painting graffiti while shooting a video for “The Right Decision” featuring fellow Stinc Team member Ralphy The Plug. Consequently, Ketchy was charged with vandalism with a gang enhancement and witness intimidation with gang enhancement, resulting in two years and 10 months behind bars.
While sitting in a L.A. County jail cell in 2019, his mixtape Free Sauce arrived featuring Shoreline Mafia and 03 Greedo. He says that’s when he really started to get noticed — albeit in lockup.
“When I went to jail, a n-gga wasn’t going crazy — like I had a couple songs that started takin’ off,” he told the PALM podcast in a December 2020 interview. “So while I’m in there, it’s just motherfuckers comin’ up to me like, ‘Yo you’re Ketchy the Great, I fuck with your shit.’ It’s crazy ‘cause when I was on the streets, n-ggas wasn’t really coming up to me, noticing me, or recognizing me.
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“But once I was in the county and I was sittin’ down for like six, seven months, everybody who’s comin’ in that motherfucker’s like ‘Hey Ketchy, yo Ketchy, sign my cup!’ And I’m like damn, I’m signing my first fuckin’ autographs in the county.”
After Ketchy was released in August 2020, he released the video for the song “Another One” and followed up with “Gang Enhancement.” He also appeared on Drakeo’s latest mixtape We Know the Truth and was featured on the new Drakeo single “For Real” featuring OhGeesy just last week.
HipHopDX sends our condolences to Ketchy’s friends and family.