Bronx rapper Kay Flock, born Kevin Perez, was sentenced on Tuesday to 30 years in prison.
In February 2023, Perez was charged with the murder of Hwascar Hernandez, who was fatally shot on Dec. 16, 2021, in Upper Manhattan. While Perez was acquitted of a first-degree murder charge in March, a jury found him guilty of racketeering conspiracy, attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon in aid of racketeering, and a firearm discharge offense.
Flock was an emerging drill rapper whose breakout hit “Shake It,” featuring Cardi B, was released in April 2022, four months after Perez was charged in the killing of Hernandez.
“Kevin Perez used violence and fame to fuel fear and intimidation across the Bronx,” said United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jay Clayton, in a statement. “Perez and his gang members carried out a string of shootings that struck both rival gang members and innocent bystanders. Perez also used his platform as a prominent rapper to celebrate his violence: threatening his rivals, bragging about his shootings, and taunting his victims. His brazen actions unleashed a series of back-and-forth retaliatory shootings that killed and injured far too many people in the Bronx.”
Prosecutors had alleged that Perez was the leader of “Sev Side,” or “DOA,” a gang based in the Bronx, and that the gang committed violence against gang rivals to protect its territory and supported itself through bank and wire fraud, which in turn funded the rapper’s music career.
Perez’s attorney, Michael T. Ashley, did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
The rapper was also held responsible for attempted murders on June 26, 2020, Aug. 10, 2020, and Nov. 10, 2021. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s office, the rapper released songs that “glorified his violence, threatened more of it, and taunted rival gang members who had been murdered.”
In imposing Perez’s sentence, U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman said that the rapper “taunted, celebrated, and created a culture of violence” and that the harm he caused “was immense.”
