1987: Scott Monroe Sterling, known best as DJ Scott La Rock, was shot and killed. La Rock was one of the founding members of South Bronx hip-hop crew Boogie Down Productions, alongside the legendary KRS-One and D-Nice.
Before meeting KRS-One, Scott La Rock was a social worker in the mid 1980s. The two formed BDP a short time later and dropped their first single, "Crack Attack," in 1986. Other notable tracks include "South Bronx" and the notorious reggae-rap blend "The Bridge Is Over", a diss track in response to MC Shan and Marley Marl's "The Bridge". Their debut album, Criminal Minded, peaked at No. 7 on Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album chart shortly after its release.
Unfortunately, La Rock was fatally gunned down in the Bronx in nearly 30 years ago. According to numerous reports, 25-year-old La Rock was in the midst of breaking up an argument when he was shot in the head and neck in a Jeep outside the Bronx's Highbridge Home Projects. The producer leaves behind one son, Scott, Sterling, Jr. Two suspects were charged the following year but were later acquitted, leaving the murder unsolved to this day.
One year after Scott La Rock's murder, a young fan was killed at a Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy concert. Both untimely deaths pushed KRS-One to form the Stop the Violence Movement, an organization bent on both preventing and ending violence in hip-hop. "Self Destruction," a track featuring BDP, MC Lyte, Kool Moe Dee, Heavy D, Doug E Fresh and Public Enemy, among others, topped the Hot Rap Songs Chart in 1989.
