Jacksonville’s hip-hop scene had a significant turnover, and the very Yungeen Ace is at its center. Sheriff T.K. Waters has stated it unequivocally: the rapper is not welcome in the city: drill music and its purported links to rising violence in the neighborhood.
Sheriff Waters did not pull punches during the ride-along interview with journalist Peter Santenello. He cited drill music, a genre that originated in Chicago and has now proliferated nationwide as central to the recurring cycle of street violence.
“It’s down here too, man,” Waters said. And the thing about it is, we want them running out of town. There are a couple of them; they know they can’t live here anymore.”
One track, in particular, appeared to be a big issue for the sheriff: Yungeen Ace’s viral song “Who I Smoke.” The song, which samples creatively (and somewhat controversially) Vanessa Carlton’s pop classic “A Thousand Miles,” turned the national spotlight in its direction for its dark contrast, taking a bubbly melody and turning it into a chilling diss track. The lyrics name-drop real people who have been shot in Jacksonville, a detail Waters views as a dangerous glorification of violence.
“They sampled her song, and then they made a rap song. They were talking about actual people that have been killed, actually in Jacksonville, like, five or six of them, right?” Waters explained. “That’s what drill rap is. It’s bullshit, but it’s effective bullshit because they’re talking about people who have actually been killed.”
The sheriff’s approach to drilling music is not simply a lyrical issue; it has real consequences. Yungeen Ace’s name came up in a high-profile case when authorities linked him to the July 2024 murder of fellow Jacksonville rapper Foolio (Charles Jones). Detectives from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Tampa Police Department revealed chilling details from the night of Foolio’s fatal shooting during a bond hearing.
Phone records, surveillance video, and other evidence indicated that people in Yungeen Ace’s circle had closely monitored Foolio before ambushing him during his birthday celebrations in Tampa. The killing was described as a premeditated hit, a tragic crescendo in the longstanding beef over rival Jacksonville rap crews.
Yungeen Ace hasn’t been charged in the killing of Foolio, but authorities aren’t taking any chances. Sheriff Waters stated that his department was monitoring the rapper and his movements.
“Yungeen Ace has been known for a while in Jacksonville,” Waters said. “We monitor those groups all the time. We have certain people that are monitoring them. Because he cannot roam Jacksonville without us finding it out. And that is to the betterment of our community.”
The crackdown on drill music has ignited intense debate in Jacksonville. The government has also faced criticism that it is scapegoating rappers when they should be treating the underlying causes of violence in the community. Others believe the sheriff is justified in his aggressive approach, considering the deadly feuds unfolding on city streets. One thing is sure: Yungeen Ace’s time in Jacksonville seems to be running out. It remains to be seen if this will be a wake-up call for the rapper or simply fodder for further controversy.
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