Recently deceased rapper PnB Rock spoke with DJ Akademiks about the danger facing Los Angeles rap artists just weeks before he was shot and killed in a restaurant. This month he was interviewed by DJ Akademiks on his podcast Off the Record when he commented, “It’s so common” regarding the recent deaths of Nipsey Hussle, Drakeo the Ruler and Pop Smoke.
Although PnB added, “I’ve never been robbed, never in my life. Since I’m not superstitious or anything, I won’t say “never”, but I’ve never been the victim of a robbery so far. “I Like Girls” rapper Rakim Hashim Allen, 30 (born Los Angeles), was shot and killed at Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles in Inglewood on Monday, September 12.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the perpetrator “brandished a gun at the restaurant and demanded things from the victim.” Someone allegedly tried to steal Rock’s jewelry. When Akademiks mentioned how “spooky” Los Angeles was and was asked if he’d ever had any dates there. To paraphrase PnB, “someone tested me in Fairfax, like in the middle of a pandemic.”
It happened when he was out with his family. N—as shouted at the top of his voice so that I could hear what he and his companions were saying: “I am with my people—my daughter and my girl. Where does all this gangster stuff come from? “What the hell is going on?” The rapper felt uneasy and said he was ready to bounce. As a result, I yelled, “Man, we’re leaving.”
“No, we’re not… what’s up?” his girlfriend said. I just feel it. She doesn’t see it and probably thinks I’m crazy. She caught me being strict and peeked. He said he and his girlfriend got into the car and drove off, stopping a few blocks later so she could go into a business he spotted, but then he saw the gang members in a “tinted to the max” car with considerable “heat” outside of it.
He remembers, “The same people were coming out of the car, jumping into the store excited like st and yelling some gang banging st.” I was aware of the power. He started chattering to me in a gangster accent. The first thing I ask is, “Bru, do you know me? Where have we met before? No, yes, I know who you are! He said.
He was just trying to get me involved in something stupid. PnB says he quietly walked away from the situation to avoid an argument. To paraphrase, “You don’t want to look worried and look like something is going to happen. To make it seem like everything is great and nothing is going to happen to us, he continued, “you want them to be as relaxed as possible.”
That’s why I was all smiles and “Come on baby. We’re going out. These thugs are tall as f— on some serious street. Once they were in the car, I told them straight up, “I’m not on it.” I’m not going to go into detail about what happened, but trust me when I say, “We know that I’m just not into it.” Without identifying names, PnB stated at the end of the interview that several MCs had indeed been robbed.
He then added, “N-like get them,” implying that more than three rappers were targeted. The theme of “not talking about you… is so common now”. Following the rapper’s death, Offset tweeted: “Pray for pnb rock…the man has a family and kids smh God be with the man.”
DJ Akademiks, a Philadelphia MC, was shot and killed in Los Angeles, and a video of his final conversation with a fan has gone viral.
Of Rock’s 2017 album Catch These Vibes, which peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard 200, Russ, who worked with PnB on the track ‘Issues,’ said: ‘Damn, man. Goodbye PNB Rock. It’s so sad.”