At a time when activists are calling for more responsibility in hip-hop, the genre finds itself under the microscope again. People are blaming "YOLO (You Only Live Once)," an expression popularized by Drake, for the death of five young men in Ontario, California.
Ervin McKinness, who rapped as Inkky, thumbed several YOLO tweets before his death. McKinness and four other 20-somethings died in a drunk driving accident on Labor Day in Ontario. Marquell Bogan (23), Dylan George (20), Jonathan Watson (21), and JaJuan Bennett (23) also died in the crash.
McKinness' tweets just minutes before the tragic crash are heartbreaking:
- "Driving tweeting sipping the cup f-ck yolo I'm turning it up"
- "Drunk af going 120 drifting corners #F-kIt YOLO"
According to VIBE, the men were out celebrating a new record deal. McKinness was not the one driving. The LA Weekly is reporting that 21-year-old Jonathan Watson was the driver.
As for those blaming YOLO for this tragedy, you're absolutely right. YOLO bought them alcohol, jumped behind the wheels, and then crashed that Nissan Sentra at 120 MPH.
Look, no matter how you feel about the expression, you truly only have one life1 and you should live it to the fullest. Every day. But living it up does not = a lack of judgment. In fact, it means the opposite of what McKinness and his friends were doing.
See also: The YOLO Drivers Who Tweet Behind the Wheel
(1Unless you believe in reincarnation, of course. My folks still think I'm a reincarnated version of my grandfather.)
Comments
Ontario, California*
Oops. It’s fixed now. Thanks.
i almost jumped to hip-hop’s defense here. after all, YOLO is a pretty harmless term. but the reckless partying that is promoted in much of mainstream rap does have an effect on young people. i’ve seen it with my own eyes. this is really sad. my condolences go out to the families and friends of these young men and i hope people take this tragedy into consideration the next time they want to drive drunk.
YOLO shouldn’t be a substitute for judgement
At least they didn’t kill anyone else
You know Henry…Ive been coming to this blog/site for my hip hop news and album reviews for over 3 years now, and I find that I typically agree with your reviews/views on hip hop, which is why I have been coming to this site for so long….But the one piece of criticism that I do have for you is you tend to have an arrogance and some severe sarcasm in some blogs that can be over the top and unnecessary at times. For example, in this post in one of the last paragraphs where you are talking about how YOLO got behind the wheel of the car and crashed it…clearly you were being sarcastic, but is that necessary in this type of post??? I also recall an album review you did a while back for Nicki Minaj’s Roman Reloaded cd, and the entire review was built on sarcasm…Again is that necessary??? I completely agree that the album was garbage, and in this post I also agree that its ridiculous that people are blaming a phrase for something like this…but when you constantly use the over the top sarcasm as you do often in your posts, it ends up just making you look arrogant, and overshadows the point you were trying to make…just saying…
You know Henry…Ive been coming to this blog/site for my hip hop news and album reviews for over 3 years now, and I find that I typically agree with your reviews/views on hip hop, which is why I have been coming to this site for so long….But the one piece of criticism that I do have for you is you tend to have an arrogance in some blogs that can be over the top and unnecessary at times. For example, in this post in one of the last paragraphs where you are talking about how YOLO got behind the wheel of the car and crashed it…clearly you were being sarcastic, but is that necessary in this type of post? I also recall an album review you did a while back for Nicki Minaj’s Roman Reloaded cd, and the entire review was built on sarcasm…Again is that necessary? I completely agree that the album was garbage, and in this post I also agree that its ridiculous that people are blaming a phrase for something like this…but when you constantly use the over the top sarcasm as you do often in your posts, it ends up just making you look arrogant, and overshadows the point you were trying to make…just saying…
Heres a fun game: look through the two nearly identical comments and spot the differences.
obviously the 2nd post was posted by accident numb nuts…and to Henry, I wasnt trying to tear you apart… You are a good critic, and Im a big fan of your site/blogs, and like I said most of the time I agree with your opinions and I will continue to come to this site…I was just trying to offer some insight on something that I have noticed over time coming to this site thats all…
If you really find sarcasm this troubling I would suspect you don’t get along with many people under the age of 35…
Wow. As a younger kid, tons of people would argue everywhere about how dangerous rap and hip-hop can be and I would always think they were crazy. But now as I look at it as a 20 year old, to see kids around my age or even younger than I am getting killed for flat out stupid reasons is insane to me. You would think after all the senseless killings caused by “beef” on wax that turns more severe during the 90′s, that people would learn a lesson. We’ve seen way too many talented young artists get cut down to soon, we don’t need anymore. Lupe’s seemingly crazy rants are actually on point and he is a true hip-hop historian: he knows whats happened in the past and he doesn’t want to see it happen again
To Kris…It’s not that I have a problem with sarcasm, there’s a time and place for everything…but when we are talking about the deaths of 4 young people which in my opinion is kind of a serious topic, I don’t find it necessary…And when I look to read a review on an album, I want to read a REAL review on that album, not a full review entirely built on over the top sarcasm…I mean he even gave it a 5 out of 5 rating if I remember correctly…that’s how far the sarcasm went…I expect better out of Henry, I loved his review on Life is Good and God Forgives. They were both well written and accurate reviews…The over the top sarcasm just ends up making him look arrogant though and for good critic like Henry, it’s not necessary…and I’m 23 by the way lol
Actually he gave it a 7 out of 5 so the sarcasm went even farther than that hahahaha. Great stuff.
I spotted one of the differences. Less question marks in 2.
I felt that Henry treated this like the tragedy that it was. I counted 2 sentences with sarcasm (“As for those… 120 MPH”). It didn’t detract from the seriousness of the topic, and I definitely don’t think he comes across as arrogant. And you just sound whiny when it comes to the Nicki review. If you don’t like his, then go somewhere else. You could probably find 50 Roman Reloaded reviews in a matter of minutes. Shouldn’t be that big of a deal.
Like I said, I guess I just expect better from Henry thats all…It’s not going to stop me from coming here, like I said, Ive been coming to this site for over 3 years now, and 99% of the time I don’t have any complaints about his blogs/reviews…The sarcasm was just something I noticed over the years and didn’t find it necessary some of the times he used it…He’s still a awesome critic and I know that he knows a lot about hip hop…which is why Im still here…
Natural selection. Evolution weeding out the dumb, less likely to reproduce..yodo..u only die once, too