Big Hawk
At the age of 36, Big Hawk was killed on Monday night May 1, 2006 at about 10:30pm in Houston. It is alleged that he was on his way to visit a friend to play dominoes and was shot multiple times as he walked down the side of the house. He had been working on bringing together all the remaining Screwed Up Click members to record a group album called The Takeover.
Jam Master Jay
Mizell was shot in the head and killed in a Merrick Boulevard recording studio in Queens at 7:30 p.m. on October 30, 2002. The other person in the room, 25-year-old Urieco Rincon, was shot in the ankle.
A 2003 affidavit used by federal agents to obtain a search warrant of the Murder Inc. record label offices has been revealed by TheSmokingGun.com, and the affidavit shows that Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, a convicted drug dealer and longtime friend of Murder Inc. heads Irv Gotti and Chris Gotti, had been keeping tabs on 50 Cent and was plotting to kill him. The murder was allegedly planned as retaliation for a song that 50 wrote about McGriff's drug history.
"The investigation has uncovered a conspiracy involving McGriff and others to murder a Rap artist who has released songs containing lyrics regarding McGriff's criminal activities," the affidavit reads. "The Rap artist was shot in 2000, survived and thereafter refused to cooperate with the law enforcement regarding the shooting. Messages transmitted over the Murder Inc. pager indicate that McGriff is involved in an ongoing plot to kill this Rap artist and that he communicates with Murder Inc. employees concerning the target."
The affidavit also says that investigators believed that Murder Inc. employees continued to conspire with McGriff in trying to murder 50 after he survived the 2000 shooting.
The New York Daily News has also reported that authorities have investigated whether McGriff targeted slain Run-DMC member Jam Master Jay for death because the deejay defied an industry "blacklist" of 50 Cent that was imposed due to the aforementioned song. The affidavit says, "Law enforcement agents are investigating the possibility that [Jason] Mizell [a.k.a. Jam Master Jay] was murdered for defying the blacklist of 50 Cent."
Mizell was survived by his wife Terri and three children. He is interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.
Fela Kuti
It was announced that he died on August 2, 1997 in Lagos, Nigeria. Later, it was revealed that he succumbed to AIDS-related heart failure.
Peter Tosh
Tosh was in the beginning of an entire restructuring of his career when, shortly after the release of his 1987 album, No Nuclear War, he was murdered in his home during a burglary. He died on September 11, 1987. Only one of the three killers was caught.