Rapper Kay Flock, real name Kevin Perez, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for a series of shootings in his Bronx neighborhood. The 22-year-old's burgeoning music career was abruptly halted following his 2021 arrest.
U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman sentenced Perez, criticizing him for glorifying violence and sending the wrong message to young peers. Prosecutors detailed a brutal 18-month period from 2020 to 2021, which left dozens in the Bronx shot, injured or killed.
"You taunted, you celebrated and you helped create a cycle of violence," Judge Liman stated. He noted Perez bragged on social media about being exonerated on a top count and wrote "KILL ALL RATS" on Instagram after gang members testified against him.
Despite calling Perez a "man of promise," the judge deemed a lengthy prison term essential for four separate shootings that injured multiple people. These were committed while he led the "Sev Side/DOA" gang. Perez was convicted in March of racketeering conspiracy and attempted murder.
Perez insisted that he had changed, saying: “What I was at 18 is not what I am today.”
Saying everyone deserves a second chance, he added: “I was just a kid. Didn't really know better.”
But Liman criticized him for not expressing any concern for his victims.
“To date, you've shown no real remorse for your conduct,” the judge said.
Perez was named Billboard Magazine’s R&B/Hip-Hop Rookie of the Month in November 2021, following the release of his first album: The D.O.A. Tape. It put him on the map as a newcomer in New York's drill rap scene, which features performers who wield weapons and lyrics containing slang about violence.
The music includes threats and taunts, a fact Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick R. Moroney noted as he asked Liman to impose a 50-year prison sentence, the same sentence recommended by the court's Probation Department officer.
“He was very good at celebrating his violence and getting under the skin of his rivals,” the prosecutor said.
In their sentencing brief, prosecutors wrote that Perez signed with a music label and used violence to further his career.
“The music that had glorified gang violence made the defendant famous and now rich,” they wrote, accusing Perez of encouraging violence through private messages.
Defense attorney Michael Ashley, who asked the judge to levy the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, said his client grew up in one of the nation's most dangerous neighborhoods and fell under the influence of an older man who encouraged gang activity.
The judge said he took into consideration that the crimes occurred while Perez's brain was “still evolving and maturing” and that six of his friends died from gun violence before he turned 18.
“The life of the street, it seems to me, is all you've ever known,” Liman said.
