Kidd Creole, Rapper in Grandmaster Flash, Gets 16 Years in Prison

The Furious Five, from left, Scorpio, Melle Mel, Kidd Creole, and Rahiem appear in the press room at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony, AP

UPDATE, MAY 4: Rapper Kidd Creole was sentenced today to 16 years in prison for the stabbing death of a homeless man.

The 62-year-old, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, killed John Jolly, a 55-year-old vagrant.

“A life is a life, whether the person is homeless, whether the person is a CEO,” said Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michele Rodney. “Within seconds … Mr. Jolly’s life was changed forever.”

The judge did not believe the defendant’s claims of self-defense.

“You didn’t know him,” she told him in court. “You didn’t know that he had a [history of] violence or was a sexual offender. Those things were not known and don’t have much relevance in terms of anybody’s action in this case.”

Kidd Creole was an original member of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the first rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Its songs include such classics as “The Message” and “New York New York.”

UPDATED: Rapper Kidd Creole has been found guilty of first-degree manslaughter for fatally stabbing a homeless man. The 62-year-old Creole faces a possible sentence of up to 25 years. He is slated to be sentenced on May 4.

EARLIER: Kidd Creole, part of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, the first rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, is on trial for murder in New York City.

Creole, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, is accused of stabbing a homeless man to death in 2017. His trial began on Friday.

The rapper is claiming self-defense in the case. Creole allegedly stabbed John Jolly twice in the chest with a steak knife after becoming enraged because, his lawyer said, he thought Jolly was gay and hitting on him.

The stabbing incident happened as Creole was heading to his maintenance job in midtown Manhattan around midnight on Aug. 1, 2017. Jolly allegedly asked him “What’s up?” to precipitate the confrontation. .

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is New York City. It’s 12 o’clock at night. Who’s saying ‘What’s up?’ to you with good intentions?” Creole’s lawyer, Scottie Celestin, told the jury. “His fear for his life was reasonable.”

Celestin also claimed Jolly died from a dose of the sedative benzodiazepine at the hospital, not the stab wounds.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Dahl countered the argument. He said Creole confessed to police and didn’t stab Jolly in self-defense, but rather in anger because he thought Jolly was hitting on him.“The defendant confessed to pulling out a kitchen knife and repeatedly thrusting it into the body of a stranger on the street, killing him,” Dahl said. “Was there anything that would prevent him from simply running away from Mr. Jolly? No.”Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five is best known for their 1982 rap song, “The Message.” The group formed in the late 1970s in the Bronx and became the first rap act to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.