New Orleans bounce artist Charlie Whop, 47, was identified Thursday as the man shot dead a day earlier at North Broad Street and St. Bernard Avenue.
A close friend, Ronald “Hotboy Ronald” Redditt, confirmed the identity of the victim, born Charles Davalie, and said he was hanging out in front of a food store when he was fatally wounded about 4:30 p.m. Redditt didn’t know the circumstances, and the Police Department has not released information on a suspected motive or possible suspects.
Grew up in Desire
Redditt and Davalie met when they were kids growing up in the Desire public housing complex. Since then, Redditt said, they’d been “attached at the hip.”
“It was just [a] ‘you see me, you see him; you see him, you see me’ type of relationship,” Redditt said.
They started to rap together in nightclubs in the 1990s, when disc jockeys playing beats let them get on the microphone. Both signed with Act Bad Records and later moved to Kings Entertainment, Redditt said.
Redditt said Davalie, who lived in the 9th Ward, was especially famous for the way he riffed his introduction on stage.
‘On track to be a legend’
Mastamynd Wdfo, 39, said he grew up listening to Davalie’s music. “It was different. It was party music. It made you want to dance,” he said.
“He was on track to be a legend for the 9th Ward. His music will live forever,” Wdfo said.
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