Someone must have pushed him too close to the edge, as warned in Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s 1982 breakthrough smash “The Message,” as Nathaniel “Kidd Creole” Glover, a member of the pioneering rap group, was arrested Wednesday (August 2) and charged with murder for the stabbing death of a homeless man, according to TMZ.
The celebrity news outlet reports the rapper used a small knife to stab the man twice in the chest and once in the head Tuesday night in Midtown Manhattan. The homeless man (identified as 55-year-old John Jolly) allegedly called Creole a gay slur and died at Bellevue Hospital.
Authorities reportedly used surveillance footage to identify the rapper and believe his motive was a reaction to the gay slur.
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were the first hip-hop group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. Glover joined the group in 1976 along with Cowboy and Melle Mel, when they were Grandmaster Flash and the Three Emcees.
The group signed with Sugarhill Records in 1980 with their debut single “Freedom”, reaching No. 19 on the R&B chart and selling over 50,000 copies. The following year, they released “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel.” Then in 1982, the group released “The Message,” which peaked at No. 4 in the R&B chart and No. 62 in the pop chart.
