Kidd Creole, Hip-Hop Pioneer and Founding Member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Convicted of Manslaughter

©Instagram @thekiddcreole

 

Kidd Creole, a rap pioneer and a founding member of one of its seminal, groups, was found guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday.

The 62-year-old rapper, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, was facing a murder charge in the 2017 death of John Jolly, a homeless New Yorker who was stabbed twice in the chest with a steak knife in midtown Manhattan.

During the month-long trial, Glover's attorney claimed that the stabbing was self-defense. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4.

Prosecutors alleged Glover stabbed Jolly, 55, after becoming enraged because he thought Jolly was gay and hitting on him during a confrontation between the two men, captured on video, in August 2017.

After Glover Passed Jolly on the street, the two exchanged words, and Glover squared up to him chest-to-chest before stabbing him twice in the torso. A group of tourists found Jolly, and he was taken to a hospital where he died of his wounds.

Rapper Kid Creole was convicted of manslaughter in the stabbing death of a homeless man on a Manhattan sidewalk nearly five years ago. https://t.co/X4fJuznlaJ

— The Advocate (@TheAdvocateMag) April 8, 2022

According to prosecutors, Glover was working as a handyman and security guard near the scene of the stabbing. He rushed two blocks to work, changed clothes and cleaned the knife before leaving 15 minutes later to dump it in a sewer near a Bronx subway station where it was later found by police.

He was arrested the next day.

Glover was a co-founder of the rap group Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five. Consisting of Glover, his brother Melle Mel, DJ Grandmaster Flash, Keith Cowboy, Scorpio (aka Mr. Ness) and Rahiem, the Bronx-based group helped guide the formation of hip-hop as an art form in the late 1970s.

Their 1982 hit song, "The Message,” is one of the most influential pieces of the period, combining social commentary with catchy beats in a way that was later emulated by predecessors, such as Public Enemy and KRS-One, and remains a hallmark of rap today.

In 2007, they became the first hip-hop group to join the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.