Brooklyn Rapper Gunned Down

Leval Lyde, a 36-year-old Brooklyn rapper who went by the street name "Kevlar," was gunned down yesterday on the corner of Clinton Ave. and Fulton St. in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. Lyde was shot just before 5 p.m. on the street corner and declared dead on arrival at Brooklyn Hospital. Lyde had just exited Fish & Crustaceans Quality Seafood and was walking with his sandwich towards the maroon Jaguar (owned by the mother of his child) when he was shot once in the torso.

The NY Times describes the rapper of little renown as a holdover from Fort Greene's grittier days, and sees his killing as a foil for the transformation that has occurred in recent years. "The shooting was a reminder of rougher times in Clinton Hill, where gentrification has turned crack houses into wine bars." They quoted one resident who noticed the crime scene tape only after observing that a new French restaurant had opened on the block. He figured it must have been an accident and was surprised to hear that there had been a murder.

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By Dave Hogarty in News on March 26, 2008 10:33 AM

Comments [rss]

Dannydu

The rapper shown is not the rapper who was killed, There are 2 rappers named kevlar, wow, the gothamist and NYtimes got it wrong :(

Steven

Driving a Jaguar? Clearly was brought by drug money.

fuckmexico

"The shooting was a reminder of rougher times in Clinton Hill, where gentrification has turned crack houses into wine bars."

Those damn white people, keepin' da brothas from keepin' it real, always gotta be cleanin' up da hood and shit.

faprilano

clearly he was targeted. this has nothing to do with clinton hill/ft. greene other than the fact that that's where he was found and shot. this could have happened anywhere he frequented.

weatherman2012

On the contrary Snoopy, the fact that the Pratt Brooklyn campus is still there is a testament to the schools committment to remaining a part of the Fort Greene/Clinton Hill community.

Also, that gym is f'ing amazing and gets good use from the the schools "creative types".

Snoopy

Pratt should have moved their main campus to Manhattan back when they had a chance in the late sixties. Instead they built that stupid gym to bring the community closer together.

Most creative types are not into sports, so the gym was a joke and a waste of good money that could have expanded studio and classroom space.

Gothamist_Cynic

why can't rappers make an honest living?

charlangas

I was visiting a friend who goes to Pratt, and we were walking to the architecture building, which is on Lafayette and St. James around 4:50 PM because he had a 5 o'clock class. Two cops were standing around and suddenly they started running towards us, so we got out of the way and wondered what was going on. Then a cruiser suddenly got on the sidewalk, again, towards us, we practically had to jump out of the way or we would have been run over. Cops were running all over, and police cruisers were speeding down St. James against the traffic, and nobody had a clue what was going on. It's kind of scary to find out we were only a couple of blocks away from the murder. Even when I went into the subway station to wait for the G I could hear the sirens going crazy.