Bay Area True Crime Chronicles, Jimmy Digital [management books to read .TXT] 📗

Bay Area True Crime Chronicles

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Table Of Contents

 

Intro

The Romper Room Gang

MAC DRE

Fat Tone Slipping In Las Vegas

Thizz Entertainment

Epilogue

Intro

 

The Bay Area with a population of over 7 million people, its no surprise that many violent and scandalous crimes occur on a regular basis and many on the streets of the

Bay Area call them selves hustlers,gangsters and think of themselves as crime lords.

The true stories covered in The Bay Area True Crime Chronicles takes a look at real gangsters,hustlers and crime lords of the Bay Area.

 

The Romper Room Gang hit licks from the Central Valley of California to The Bay of Oakland and San Francisco.

 

Mac Dre Died A Ghetto Legend, His Story Of Independent Records,Robbery And Rap Music.

Kansas City Rapper Fat Tone Gets Caught Up In The Mix.

Thizz Entertainment Indicted Multi Million Dollar Drug Ring.

 

The Romper Room Gang

 

The Romper Room Gang, from the CRESTSIDE neighborhood in Vallejo, came to prominence in the early 1990s when it committed a series of pizza parlor and bank takeover robberies. The gang branched out to at least 10 other counties and diversified its criminal activities. Authorities linked the gang to narcotics sales, vehicle theft, and drive-by shootings.

VALLEJO'S CRESTSIDE NEIGHBORHOOD occupies a tear-shaped square mile on the northeastern edge of town, wedged between a major thoroughfare and the freeways shuttling tourists to nearby Marine World. Centered on Crest Ranch Park, with bucolic street names like Miravista and Haviture Way, it was clearly designed as suburban space – modest homes with tidy lawns are laid out in traffic-impeding loops and dead ends, at once labyrinthine and insular. But far from being a commuter haven, CRESTSIDE is the toughest hood in Vallejo, home to a small, proud, extremely close-knit African American community that contributes a disproportionately large share of talent to Bay Area hip-hop.

According to J-Diggs, a Romper Room crew member "the Romper Room crew was a group of youngsters growing up together – the name 'gang' was attached to us by the media. Our crew was only 11 deep and 9 of us went to the feds."

"I was into the bank robbery game," J-Diggs freely admits.

 

 

 

Da'unda'dogg (born Troy Deon Reddick) is a recording artist, producer and CEO of Cavvy R. Records. In addition he owns Da'unda'dogg clothing company and was once Co-CEO of Thizz Entertainment.

Born and raised in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California and venturing to the Country Club Crest in Vallejo, California at the age of 15,Da'unda'dogg has been a major figure on the underground west-coast music scene since the mid 80's. Gaining national recognition after being featured on the single "California Livin", in 1990 with Mac Dre.

Also known as Coolio or Coolio-Da'unda'dogg,(Not to be confused with the other Coolio), he has released 10 solo albums to date and has a catalog of over 30 releases by his label. He has produced songs for or worked with artist such as Mac Dre, Dubee, Mac Mall, Spice 1, Kid Frost,Baby Bash, San Quinn, Brotha Lynch Hung, N2Deep, Gonzoe, Yukmouth and J-Diggs, all of which who have or has had major label exposure.

 

Originally from the Watts, area of Los Angeles, Da'unda'dogg was abandoned by his father Eddie Reddick Jr. at birth. His father was a member of the Los Angeles based R&B group, The L.A. Boppers, also known as Side effect. The second oldest of six siblings, Da'unda'dogg got involved in drugs and gangs early on. While he was attending Jordan High School in Los Angeles his mother decided it would be best for the family to relocate to Vallejo in the Bay Area. There he attended Peoples High School in which he dropped out in the 11th Grade due to his high involvement in illegal street activity. He became known to law officials as a member or affiliate of the Grape Street Crips and of the Romper Room Crew, which police dubbed as the Romper Room Gang.

 

In 1992, Da'unda'dogg was indicted on federal charges for armed bank robbery and eventually sentenced to 5 years in

prison. Landing him and his crew on a List of famous bank robbers and robberies. While incarcerated Da'unda'dogg earned

his high school diploma and attended college classes offered through Southwest Baptist University in Missouri. He was

released from Leavenworth Penitentiary in late 1996 and began to spark back his music career.

The remaining Romper Room Gang members were identified or arrested for 8 different credit union robberies and suspected in 27 more. The dollar loss from the 35-50 robberies was a estimated $1.4 million. After a yearlong effort by the Vallejo Violence Suppression Task Force, the Romper Room Gang was dismantled in 1998.

 

MAC DRE

Andre Louis Hicks ( MAC DRE) was born in Oakland, California on July 5, 1970 and moved to Vallejo at a young age. He grew up in Vallejo, in the Country Club Crest, also known as The Crest neighborhood. He attended People's High School in Vallejo.

Mac Dre recorded his first three albums between 1989 and 1991.

 

In the early 90s Mac Dre was the talk of the town. His albums like California Livin' , Young Black Brotha and What's Really Going On? were heard from practically every boom box, every car, and every night club in the Bay Area.

Just when it appeared that Dre was about to take it to the next level he found himself deeply embroiled in some major

controversy. Around the time Mac Dre was hittin' it big, Vallejo was experiencing a rash a bank robberies. The FBI and

police officials had linked the crimes to V-Town's notorious Romper Room Gang. This particular crew seemed to literally

toy with police as they robbed bank after bank but left no proof for the police... Adding

 

fuel to this fire was Mac Dre who boldly gave written shout outs to the Romper Room Family on the back of his 'What's Really Going On' ep. He also had

Romp Productions etched on the back of his ep. In addition Dre dropped a song called Punk Police which added to the taunting. Here Dre addressed the issue of the Vallejo bank robberies and even called out then Vallejo Police chief by name.. Needless to say some undue attention was directed toward Mac Dre as a result.

 

According to Mac Dre, the Romp was a not just a loosely knit Vallejo based clique,

it was also a slang term used by many in Vallejo. Mac Dre defended his song 'Punk Police' by noting that seemingly all young Black men in Vallejo were suspected criminals according to police. As an artist he felt he had a right to express himself and in this case The Romper Room bank robberies was what everyone was speaking on.. Dre merely offered his perspective. The Vallejo Police department remained unconvinced as they shifted their attention to Dre and his associates.

It was their understanding that the Romper Room Gang resided within Dre's Crest Side neighborhood. Hence even if he wasn't directly involved, they believed that he knew some of the members. His record Punk Police seemed to imply this. The police also weren't buying his story about the usage of the name Romp on the back of his lp. The Vallejo police department and FBI referred to the bank robbers as The Romper Room Gang. On the back of the lp Dre gives shout outs to the Romp Family.

 

While Mac Dre sat in a Fresno prison awaiting trial he called into KMEL

Radio's very popular anti-gang program...Street Soldiers. Here he ran down his version of the story and also made it

known that the police had gotten a 'witness' to lie against him. If memory serves me correctly Dre may have even named this person. The next day KMEL Radio was visited by The FBI who literally put the fear of God in the management and staff. Station officials were accused of trying to mess up the case as well as endangering the life of their key witness due to the fact that Dre named him. In addition the FBI informed the station management that Dre's live interview was completely unauthorized. The result was no more live interviews from prison from Mac Dre..but his name and legacy was not forgotten.

His partner and producer Khayree formed a Vallejo based record label called Young Black Brotha which was named after Dre's first lp. He even recorded a ep which featured Dre rappin' to beats over a prison phone. The ultimate tribute came

when Khayree released an lp from another Crest side rapper who adapted the Mac surname... His name is Mac Mall. Folks may be familiar with Mall from his hit song and video 'Get Right' on Relativity records.

In 1992 Mac Dre was charged with conspiracy to commit robbery and was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison after he refused the deal the police had offered him, which was informing law enforcement about his partners. At the time Hicks owned the record label, Romp Productions. Subsequently, Hicks wasn't released from prison until 1997.

 

Mac Dre was released from prison in 1997 and completed another album. A few weeks after his release some of his Vallejo homies decided to hold a home coming picnic for Dre. Seemingly the entire Bay Area showed up for the festivities. Among the 500 + guests were Vallejo's finest who claimed that they had received reports about folks drag racing.. Rocks and bottles were thrown at the police and some sort of riot broke out resulting in major news coverage for the event. Apparently the entire park was torn up..

J-Diggs, a member of the Romper Room crew and accompanying friend of Dre to Fresno, stated Dre had nothing to do with any robberies and was convicted for a refusal to give information to police: "All they wanted out of Dre was to say, 'Yeah, I knew they was going to rob a bank. I didn't have nothing to do with it.' He could've went home, but he kept his mouth shut. Out of the crew, Dre is the only person I can say went to prison for nothing, for basically not telling on nobody."

While in Lompoc, Mac Dre would go on to obtain his G.E.D; he stated that, "I had nothing else to do, I had to go back and get mine".

During his time in prison, "Mac Dre Presents: The Rompalation" was released in 1996. After his release from prison in 1997, he recorded his second album Stupid Doo Doo Dumb. It was released April 28, 1998. Following those albums, Hicks met with Executive Producer Bernard Gourley and recorded the album Rapper Gone Bad with production help from Tone Cappone, Lev Berlak, and Warren G.

He worked with well-known artists such as J-Diggs, Keak da Sneak, E-40, B-Legit, Brotha Lynch Hung, Dubee, Mistah F.A.B., Rydah J. Klyde, Richie Rich, Lil Ric, San Quinn, Mars,Yukmouth, PSD, Andre Nickatina, Mac Mall, Smoov-E (aka Eli Meltzer), Messy Marv, and Too Short. He also provided an uncredited hook to the track "Gotta Survive" from Young Lay's Black 'N Dangerous album that featured 2Pac.

 

On November 1, 2004, on a freeway in Kansas City, Missouri, an unknown assailant began shooting at a vehicle in which Hicks was a passenger. The driver crashed and was able to get to a phone to call 911, but Hicks was pronounced dead at the scene from a bullet wound. There have been no leads as to the perpetrator, and the case currently remains unsolved. Hicks was buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland. In 2006, his tombstone was stolen from the cemetery.

RIP Andre (MAC DRE)