Bobby Shmurda Is Coming Home. What Happens Next?
It was less a specific dance sequence and more of a stylistic template: a pliant sway, a kind of two-step dressed up with silky swagger. The Shmoney Dance, 2014's viral craze, juxtaposed with the grimy lyrics of 19-year-old rapper Bobby Shmurda's breakthrough hit "Hot Boy," rocketed the kid from East Flatbush into pop culture's stratosphere. But then, just as quickly as he'd entered the spotlight, he disappeared.
Born Ackquille Pollard, in a three-part arc on last fall, the story of his December 2014 arrest, just months after he signed to Epic records, goes deeper than one rapper's downfall. It's also the story of how police and prosecutors use conspiracy law to build steeper cases, how an entertainment industry that values authenticity can turn street crews in poor neighborhoods into prime targets of criminal investigation, and how the families who experience loss in the process can get lost in the shuffle.
