Posted by Robert
Rap News Network Staff
7/5/2005 8:45:41 AM
They came to "thizzle dance" and honor a homegrown rapper.
And, hopefully, about 200 young people gathered at "Mac Dre Day" behind the John F. Kennedy Library in Vallejo learned they don't need drugs, alcohol or violence, said one of the event's speakers.
" We need to respect one another, live in peace, and get along with each other," said Everett Robinson, 44, a born-and-raised Vallejoan. "We need to encourage people to really honor one another and build some wholesome relationships as opposed to building tension with one another."
Under the banner "Silence the Violence," the day was a salute to Andre Hicks, a.k.a. Mac Dre, the 34-year-old rapper shot and killed Nov. 1, 2004, after a concert in Kansas City, Kan.
A talent show, including pre-teen kids dancing to Mac Dre tunes, complemented speeches honoring the slain rapper.
Allen Hicks, Mac Dre's father, said the tribute was a step in a "positive direction" for Vallejo's youth.
" We have to have this as a healing experience," Hicks said. "It's going to take a lot of input to reduce the violence that's a never-ending battle. We're trying to make my son's death into something positive."
Saturday was chosen as the first of what co-organizer Betty Landers believes will be an annual event because Mac Dre would have turned 35 on July 5.
" I think this is wonderful," said Landers. "It's a wonderful thing to do."
Landers knew Mac Dre well. The rapper was her granddaughter's father.
" I loved him," Landers said. "He was like a son to me. He was very giving, very funny. He's really missed."
Landers, who is a member of the Andre Hicks Scholarship Fund committee, said anyone in town who wanted to "come out and pay tribute to Dre's work" was invited to the free event.
" Everything's calm and quiet," Landers said. "What we're striving for is that we want Vallejo and other communities to pull together. We hope this goes on year after year."
Robinson said violence will be reduced only if "people respect each other" and not turn to drugs "which ends up leading to more violence."
" If you can run away from trouble, run away from it," Robinson said.
Robinson, 44, was raised in the Country Club Crest in North Vallejo.
" It's changed a whole lot," he said. "I was raised around the Christian people, Black Panthers and Black Muslims and we all got along. Drugs started to infiltrate the community and we started having theft, robberies, stabbings that led to death."
" It's going to take a community to unite and stand up against violence," Robinson said. "No matter what race, creed or religion, we all can make a difference."
Robinson was encouraged by the young people involved in Mac Dre Day.
" I'd rather have them here then somewhere doing drugs or out there doing premarital sex," said. "This is a wholesome environment that's fun and safe. It encourages people to be around something like this."
Mac Dre, a Sacramento resident the last few years, was killed when another vehicle pulled up to the driver's side of the van he was riding in and began shooting. The van swerved across the highway median, across the southbound lanes and down a steep embankment.
Mac Dre was thrown from the van, but police said he died from gunshot wounds. The driver crawled from the wreckage and ran for help. No suspects have been arrested.
" They still haven't found who killed him and I don't feel good about that," said Dre's father. "Eventually, somebody will pay the price. It's in God's hands as far as I'm concerned."
When Allen Hicks hears a young person singing one of Mac Dre's songs, "it gets to me," he said. "I'm very emotional. And to see this beautiful turnout, it's touched me a couple times and almost brought tears. But I've got to be strong about it."
Mac Dre recorded more than a 20 albums since 1989. He started his rap career with The Strictly Family and Young Black Brother Records. He later founded Romp Records and turned it into Thizz Entertainment.
Dre started the "thizzle dance," which was his own style imitated by many of his fans.

Posted by Robert
Rap News Network Staff
5/24/2005 11:59:25 PM
One of two men whose bodies were found at a housing tract under construction in Las Vegas was identified Tuesday as a Kansas City, Mo., rapper once charged with murder and listed by police as a person of interest in the killing of a hip-hop performer from the San Francisco Bay area.
The bodies of Anthony Watkins, 23, of Kansas City, Mo., and Jermaine Akins, 22, hometown unknown, were found early Monday by a security guard who noticed a car parked with its lights on in the tract's construction area.
One man was found inside the car. The other was lying on the ground just outside the vehicle.
Watkins died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Clark County Coroner's Office. A cause of death was pending for Akins.
Watkins, known as rap artist Fat Tone, was considered a person of interest in Andre Hicks' death but was never called a suspect, Kansas City police told The Kansas City Star.
Hicks, who performed as Mac Dre, was killed in November in a drive-by shooting on U.S. 71. The 34-year-old rapper, who was in Kansas City for a series of concerts, was returning to his hotel.
After his death, a number of fans posted messages on hip-hop Web sites calling for retaliation.
Hicks was the second California rap artist fatally shot in Kansas City last year. Ramone C. Davis, 31, of San Diego, was killed March 22, 2004, by a man police said was trying to rob him of marijuana.
Watkins had been wounded in Kansas City in 2003 when a gunman opened fire on a vehicle carrying him and other performers from an interview at a radio station.
Watkins and another man had been charged with first-degree murder in November 2002 for the shooting deaths of a woman and her unborn child. Those charges were dropped months later after authorities said witnesses stopped cooperating with them.

Posted by Robert
Rap News Network Staff
11/11/2004 2:15:37 PM
Hard feelings added to the grief of family members and friends of slain Vallejo rap star Mac Dre when many were turned away from his funeral Wednesday.
The popular gangsta rapper, whose given name was Andre Hicks, was fatally shot last week in Kansas City, Mo., as he rode in the back seat of a van on his way to his hotel. No arrests have been made in the case.
Dre's large family, already fragmented and strained before the shooting, has been at odds since his death over funeral arrangements and, some say, over his money.
Mac Dre's uncle, Bernard Hicks of Vallejo, said a family feud is brewing over the rap star's money. Asked Tuesday about relatives' fears they would be turned away Wednesday, Dre's mother, Wanda Salvatto of Vallejo, insisted they would be allowed to attend.
Nevertheless, hundreds of mourning relatives arrived at Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery on Wednesday morning only to be told they couldn't enter by funeral home sentries posted at the door with a prepared list.
That included Mac Dre's father, Bernard Hicks said.
" Andre's daddy had a hard time getting in that funeral. Half the Hicks family couldn't get in, and others refused to go in because of the way they were treated," said Bernard Hicks.
The rap star's mother, Salvatto, who arrived in a limousine flanked by the sentries, would not talk to reporters at the funeral.
The Oakland chapel seats only about 100 people, a fact that infuriated relatives who wanted the funeral held at Fairfield's Mount Calvary Baptist Church, the site of Tuesday's viewing. That church seats about 2,000.
The crush of mourners waiting in Wednesday morning's drizzle pressed up the steps and against the chapel's glass doors to plead their case for admittance. They were turned away, however, when their names were not found on the list.
In some cases, guests were included on the list but not their children or spouses. In other cases, people not on the list were allowed in before others who were. At one point, names were called, like a lottery, and relayed through the crowd. The person whose name was called then pushed his or her way through to the chapel doors and was let in, with the door immediately closing behind them.
" It was total chaos," said Bernard Hicks, adding he was forced to argue to gain admittance for himself and his immediate family.
Mac Dre was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery following the service, officiated by former Oakland Raiders football player Pastor Jerone Davidson of Fairfield's Bountiful Harvest Ministry Church.
Also;
A giant hip-hop party planned for tonight in honor of a slain Bay Area rapper has been canceled by a China Basin nightspot amid fears that the artist's murder could trigger retaliatory violence.
Kelly's Mission Rock said it pulled the plug on the gig late Wednesday, after noting that 60 law enforcement officers were on hand Tuesday in case trouble broke out at the Fairfield funeral of Andre Hicks, also known as Mac Dre.
An attorney for club management said at press time that the concert, headlining big-name Bay Area rappers such as San Quinn and Yukmouth, was off.
" There's too much baggage connected with the funeral and the reputation," attorney John Hinman said. "Kelly's is not going to become a magnet for trouble."
The promoters, Done Deal Entertainment, did not return calls seeking comment.
Hicks, who was shot dead on a Kansas City freeway by an unidentified gunman Nov. 1, was an alleged former member of Vallejo's Romper Room gang and served five years in state prison for conspiring to rob a bank.
Kansas City detectives speculated this week that his killer may be from the world of "gangsta rap" and rumors ran wild on hip-hop Web sites that a broader gang war could be brewing.
Before the China Basin event was canceled, police had been planning a large-scale presence due to ongoing problems with rowdiness and anti-social behavior following hip-hop events at Kelly's, according to Bayview Captain Rick Bruce.
Sources said the San Francisco Entertainment Commission may convene a hearing in December on whether to suspend the club's permit.
Hinman said the 20-year-old club respected its neighbors and had hosted about 400 events over the past three years, with only three experiencing problems.
The blame for some events was unfairly pinned on Kelly's when there were other clubs in the vicinity, Hinman said.

Posted by Robert
Rap News Network Staff
11/10/2004 7:39:34 AM
 
Fans, friends and family of Andre Hicks - aka Mac Dre,  gathered Tuesday at Fairfield's Mount Calvary Baptist Church to bid farewell to the 34-year-old underground rap star.
Among an estimated thousands, some stood in line in the church to view the body of Hicks, who also was known as gangsta rapper Mac Dre, while others milled outside.
Hicks, formerly of Vallejo, died Nov. 1 in Kansas City, Mo., when gunfire erupted from a car pulling alongside the one in which Hicks was riding as he headed to his hotel following an appearance at an event.
As the rapper's music blared Tuesday from many vehicles crowding the large parking lot, a substantial police presence was obvious. Inside the church, Hicks' body lay with a plastic shield protecting his face from unwanted kissing and touching.

Posted by Robert
Rap News Network Staff
11/3/2004 5:04:06 AM
Family, friends and fans of west coast rapper Mac Dre were trying to make sense of the rapper's violent death Tuesday as investigators in Kansas City, Mo., sifted through evidence that included a bullet-riddled van and what may be the suspect's 2003 Infiniti G36.
Dre, given namewhose given name was Andre Hicks, was killed early Monday in Kansas City, Mo. when an unknown suspect fired through the vehicle on U.S. 71, a four-lane highway running through the middle of town. Though the driver crawled to safety, Dre was thrown from the van and pronounced dead at the scene. Kansas City police reported late Tuesday that Dre died from a bullet wound. He was 34.
 
He was like the Beatles or Elvis, but on a smaller scale to a lot of people, said Vallejo native James Trujillo, otherwise known as Jay Tee of the rap group, N2DEEP. I've known Dre since the late 1980s. He was my biggest influence. He was a for-real superstar.
Kansas City Police Department spokesman Darin Snapp said homicide detectives are following leads and releasing few details.
There were about a dozen bullet holes (in the van), I can say that, but I can't say what kind of gun was used, Snapp said. Only one person knows that, and that way, when we catch the perpetrator, he won't be able to say, he read it in the newspaper.
Snapp said the police have some pretty good leads on it, and are questioning someone who©ˆs cooperating. We should know something by the end of the week.
Police linked the Infiniti to the shooting but declined to specify what the evidence was, reported Channel 9 in Kansas City. The vehicle was found with no license plates.
Dre had staged a concert in Kansas City, Kan., on Friday night and stayed in the area during the weekend.
Back in the Bay Area, despondent relatives and friends paid tribute to the pioneer rapper.
Life wasn©ˆt fair to Andre. It dealt him a pretty low deal, but he always managed to keep his spirits up. He'd look at you in a certain way, and you'd know he was going to be OK, said Betty Landers of Vallejo, who is the grandmother of what she believes is Hicks' only child, 13-year-old child, Drané Hicks.
Landers described the man she knew Hicks as her daughter's boyfriend, the man her daughter used to skip school to see; a long, lanky kid trying to make people happy. He was funny as hell.
I grew to love Andre. He was never Mac Dre to me. He left a legend for all of us to learn ‹ not to give up on your dreams, Landers said.
Others, too, believe Hicks is too widely remembered for youthful mistakes.
He tried so hard to be a good person. He was a good boy, and now that he's gone, he should be left alone with all the negative stuff, said Bernard Hicks, Dre's uncle, and the brother of Vallejo teacher and former City Council member Foster Hicks.
Andre Hicks spent several years in prison for his part in an attempted bank robbery, and was linked to a rash of robberies committed in the early 1990s by north Vallejo's Romper Room Gang. Even so, many of those close to him said Hicks had pulled his life together.
He was a very good person, said Marquetta Hall, Dre's stepmother. He was a very young man when he did those negative things he did. But he also funded children©ˆs programs in Sacramento, and did free concerts there and in the park by the North Vallejo Community Center, near the Country Club Crest where he had lived with his grandmother.
Dre would hand out turkeys in the Crest at Thanksgiving, said Hicks  half-sister sister, Jacquil Hicks.
I'm not saying he was a saint, but he just did things, out of the kindness of his heart and wasn©ˆt the type who liked to brag, Hall said.
Hall said she met DreHicks when he was about 9.
He was the cutest little boy, Hall said. He always said, when I get older I'm gonna be a rapper. Hall said Dre Hicks attended Peoples High School in Vallejo and was well-liked, if a little rowdy as a teenager, Hall said. A Peoples worker said no one there could speak to Dre's high school career. But he was always well-mannered and respectful of his elders, Hall said. I know he did some things here and there, but lots of people make bad choices in their past.
 
Hall said Dre Hicks moved to Sacramento, where Jacquil Hicks, 24, now lives, about four years ago to make a fresh start. Jacquil Hicks, 24, also of Sacramento, said she fondly recalls the early days in Vallejo with her brother. He was my only big brother, and I really looked up to him, she said. He was my idol. I was a girl and I wanted to be him. I dressed up as him for Halloween in eighth grade at Vallejo Middle School and won the costume contest.
Jacquil Hicks said her famous brother inspired her to write, something she still does.
I won a talent contest at Vallejo High School for rapping, because of his inspiration,. she said. Jacquil said she and other family members are especially distraught over her brother's death because it came just as he was getting his life straight. He wanted to be a real star and he knew he had to get away from all the negativity to get there and that©ˆs what he was doing, Jacquil Hicks said. He was getting out of all that rowdiness. He'd gotten more mature, and he was on his way. It's really sad. It was too soon. He©ˆd made it so far. He was almost there. It almost seems like there are forces that don't want to see people pull themselves out of the negative energy, because just when they start to do it, something like this happens.
E-mail Rachel Raskin-Zrihen at RachelZ@thnewsnet.com or call 553-6824.
 
R.I.P. – Andre ‘Mac Dre’ Hicks
 
* Article by By RACHEL RASKIN-ZRIHEN
* Thanks to Richard Freedman entertainment editor for the Vallejo Times-Herald, Mac Dre's home
town.
 

Andre 'Mac Dre' Hicks

Posted by Robert
Rap News Network Staff
11/2/2004 4:39:44 PM
Police released a picture of a car that may have been used in the murder of California rap artist Andre Hicks, also known as Mac Dre.
The vehicle is a 2003 Infiniti G36. The car was found in the 5600 block of East 29th Street. The car had no license plates on it.

Investigators said that the car had evidence inside linking it to the shooting, but they declined to specify what that evidence was.
Mac Dre ( Hicks ) was a passenger in a van that was headed north on Highway 71 near 85th Street when someone in a car pulled up alongside the vehicle and opened fire. The driver of the van crossed over into the southbound lanes of the highway before crashing into a ravine.

Police said Hicks died from a bullet wound.

Hicks had performed at a concert in Kansas City, Kan., on Friday night and stayed in the area during the weekend.

Police ask anyone with information on who may have been driving the Infiniti to call the TIPS Hotline at (816) 474-TIPS.