Part 32 in a series on “The 27’s” – notable musicians who have passed away in their 27th year.
Raymond Rogers, better known as Freaky Tah, together with Mr. Cheeks, DJ Spigg Nice and Pretty Lou formed the hip-hop group called the Lost Boyz. The four Lost Boyz grew up together, earning money in their youth as drug dealers. The title of their 1996 debut album “Legal Drug Money” refers to going straight after seeing a drug dealer die in a shooting. Their second album, “Love Peace & Nappiness,” was released in 1997.
On the night of March 28, 1999, at Mr. Cheeks' 28th birthday party, Freaky Tah was shot in the back of his head by Kelvin Jones while he was going towards the exit of Sheraton Hotel. He was pronounced dead at about 4:20 AM.
The feud that resulted in the death of Freaky Tah can be traced back at least to November of 1998, when a member of the Lost Boyz was robbed. After the robbery someone police believe was a "hanger-on" in the Lost Boyz camp attempted to retaliate by shooting a man named Michael Saunders who was a member of the Hellraisers. The Hellraisers were described at the time not as a rap group, but more as a group of guys who were trying to put a rap group together.
Saunders, who actually had no involvement in the robbery, was the half-brother of Kelvin Jones. After Saunders was shot Jones went looking for the killer and when he heard that the Lost Boyz and their friends would be attending a party at a Sheraton Hotel, he recruited two friends to help him observe the party from a van outside the hotel.
The party cleared out as the evening stretched into the early morning of the28th and Jones, wearing a ski mask, left the van and walked into a crowd outside the hotel. In his confession to police, Jones said he chose Freaky Tah as his target because he believed the rapper was a cousin of the man who shot Saunders.
Three days after Freaky Tah's death, a man named Roger Paggent, who also was affiliated with the Hellraisers, was shot dead in Ozone Park, Queens.
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