Silento, the rapper who rose to fame at just 17 with the viral hit “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” has officially been sentenced to prison for the murder of his cousin, Frederick Rooks. The 27-year-old artist, whose real name is Richard Lamar “Ricky” Hawk, was arrested by Georgia’s DeKalb County Police Department on Feb. 1, 2021, just 11 days after Rooks was found fatally shot in a residential neighborhood. At the time, investigators confirmed Rooks had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. After a thorough investigation, Silento was identified as the primary suspect.
From his overnight rise to viral fame to his legal troubles before and after the arrest, here are five things to know about Silento.
The rapper, then just a high school student, released his biggest song on SoundCloud in 2015 (he worked on the song with beatsmith Bolo Da Producer). “Within the first day it went to 1,000 listens. The next day it was at 4,000,” Silento wrote on his website, and so he decided to drop the music video for the song on his 17th birthday in Jan. 2015. The video now has more than 1.7 billion views, and the song itself peaked at the No. 3 position on Billboard’s “Hot 100” chart.
The success of “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” inked a deal with Capitol Records, but he didn’t go the homeschooling route afterwards. “I didn’t get to experience a lot of the things new artists get to experience when they’re first signed. Certain events, performances. I was still in school working to get my diploma,” Silento also wrote on his website.
After kicking off his music career with “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” Silento worked on collaborations with other artists. One of his most notable collabs was “Dessert” with Dawin. The original song dropped in March of 2015, but Silento came on-board for the music video that was released in Oct. 2019, which is now nearing 200 million views on YouTube.
Silento dropped his debut album in Sept. 2018.
The rapper also used his newfound fame to visit children’s hospitals and even received “an honor from the mayor of Augusta, Georgia for his charitable work within Atlanta,” where he is from, according to Silento’s website. In 2019, he partnered with DoSomething.org’s “The Hit We’ll Take” campaign against e-cigs, vapes and Juuling.
