Kidd Creole Found Guilty of Manslaughter

A legendary rapper who helped helmed the popularity of Hip-Hop has been found guilty of manslaughter after stabbing a man to death in 2017.

According to The Associated Press, a founding member of the 80s popular Hip-Hop group, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five has been found guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday in a Manhattan courtroom. Kidd Creole, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover had gone on trial after he stabbed a homeless man in New York City in August 2017.

A Manhattan jury found him guilty in a trial that started last month. The man, John Jolly was stabbed twice in the chest with a steak knife in midtown Manhattan in August 2017.

Prosecutors stated that Kidd Creole stabbed Jolly twice because he thought that the homeless man was gay and making a pass at him. Glover’s attorney said he did so out of self-defense. The former rapper, who was originally facing a murder charge, was acquitted of second-degree murder. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4.

The Daily News reported that the 61-year-old Kidd Creole was found guilty of manslaughter after a Manhattan Supreme Court jury deliberated for about three hours. He was acquitted of second-degree murder.

He’s been in prison for five years and is facing up to 25 years in prison when he’s sentenced. Kidd Creole initially rejected an offer to plead guilty to manslaughter in exchange for a 10-year sentence before the trial started.

“Nathaniel Glover committed a shocking act of violence,” Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg said in a written statement Monday night. “This conviction makes clear my office will hold people who commit violent crimes accountable to the full extent of the law.”

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five were formed in the late 1970s back in the Bronx. They took on worldwide success after recording one of the most well-known songs in Hip-Hop history The Message in 1982. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, making them the first Hip-Hop group to get that distinction.