The Scott La Rock Tragedy Revisited on Celebrity Crime Files

After watching Scott La Rock’s story I felt two things, anger directed at D-Nice for getting Scott involved and killed over his childish ratchetness…

And sadness that hip hop never benefited from someone who saw fifteen years into the future, knowing that rap/hip hop would be global at a time when the genre was relegated to being played only for a couple of hours on Friday and Saturday Nights.

August 27th, 2013 will mark 26 years since Scott Sterling, the original DJ of Boogie Down Productions passed at the age of 25.

And a lot has changed in hip hop since then but one of the things that the Celebrity Crime Files episode made crystal clear was that Scott was cut from a different cloth, in that he didn’t have the mental baggage a lot of rappers and DJ’s have today that could fill a 747.

He had no tales to tell embellished or not of life on the streets of New York slanging rocks and dodging bullets, and no chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Everest.

Scott was college educated, graduating from Castleton State College in Vermont in 1984 with a degree in business.

It was there while honing his skills as a DJ and seeing the way Whites reacted to hip hop that he knew it was going to be the future of music.

After college Scott got a job as a social worker in a men’s shelter, where he happened to meet KRS-ONE. The way we all know how Scott’s story ends, you wish fate would have taken a different turn.

Because Scott’s close friends point out the irony that the same desire to help that made Scott want to become a social worker was the same thing that led to his demise.

By 1987 Boogie Down Productions consisted of KRS-ONE, Scott and D-Nice that were on the cusp of blowing up with a soon to be signed multi-million dollar record deal and a concert at MSG.

But fate again had other plans: D-Nice had a problem with some dudes over a girl which led to a physical altercation. Scott’s friend, Ced Gee who could see the epic ratchetness and danger that was on the horizon told Scott to tell D to let it go and leave it alone.

Scott, having no clue the encounter he was about to have was a fatal one thought it was nothing serious and believed just talking to the guys D-Nice had beef with would squash things.

Going into already hostile environment combined with Scott and D-Nice’s bodyguard adding more fuel to the fire was the perfect recipe for disaster.

With the peace that Scott negotiated between D-Nice and the dudes long gone, shots rang out as Scott and his crew were inside their jeep. Two shots went through the roof and hit Scott once in the head and neck, he was rushed to the hospital but passed away a hour later.

D-Nice, who most likely still wears guilt like a coat did not participate in the episode.

And being 16 years old, what were the chances he was even with the girl he got Scott killed over long term ? Ironically she was probably an afterthought by the time the murder went down anyway.
And no one has ever been brought to justice for Scott’s murder because the two men that were arrested for the crime were later acquitted.