The age-old question in Hip-Hop is always … Does art reflect life or does life reflect art?
Recently, a video entitled “Where Corbin” has been trending on TikTok.
Corbin Johnson’s body was reported missing in 2018 and was discovered in 2019. The spillover from the platform into other spaces on the Internet has caused the case of his death to be researched.
One article on News4JAX.com <> has received over 700,000 clicks since the trend has popped off.
Corbin’s mom, Melissa Jackson, says that people have been reaching out to her in response, offering their condolences. She asked why, and when found out that it was a TikTok challenge gone viral, she said, “I think that it’s just ignorant. I really do think that it’s ignorant.”
The song is called the “Beatbox Remix/ Bibby Flow” by Julio Foolio featuring COJACK.
In the song, one lyric says, “Corbin got kidnapped they found his bones he was rotten (Where’s Corbin?)”
Unfortunately, Corbin was connected to a feud between two Jacksonville gangs (ATK and KTA), that happen to be rappers. Both gangs blur the lines by detailing their beef in their rap music videos.
Reports claim Corbin was a member of ATK.
From videos like these, social media, and their local intel, the polic know that Yungeen Ace is the star from ATK, and Julio Foolio is the star from the gang’s opps, KTA.
On an IG Live feed, Foolio was asked “Where’s Corbin?”
“Talking about where is Corbin, I don’t know where Corbin is. That’s all I’ve got to say,” the rapper said about his former rival.
Many TikTokers have pulled the videos down, after finding out the real meaning behind the song.
According to an article in First Coast News published in
2021, the Jacksonville Sheriff has said that the information that they have come from the crews making their social media posts and videos.
The cops say that the videos are the equivalent of “the gang graffiti of the 80s.”
In fact, law enforcement are considering shows by YouTubers like Queenzflip’s QuietRoom
TrapLife Documentaries and Insider Hotspot to tell them what’s going on in rap music and how it relates to the streets.
The viral videos, bloggers, and self-incrimination come mostly from the artists, allowing law enforcement to pinpoint when things got super-hot for both gangs after the murder of Zion Brown in May 2017, Julio Foolio’s cousin.
Arrested for the killing was Yungeen Ace’s homey, Deontrae Thomas, 19.
In retaliation for Brown’s death, Yungeen Ace was shot eight times. Three other men were shot in this altercation: Royale D’Von Smith Jr., 18, and Jercoby Da’Shad Groover, 19. This all happened in 2018.
In celebration, Julio Foolio posted a picture on his Instagram of himself with an airbrushed T-shirt of Royale D’Von Smith Jr., aka 23, that said: “Rest in P### 23.” He captioned it, “I’m getting a new T-shirt made for my show.”
In 2019, in a shootout at the Paradise Gentlemen’s Club on Baymeadows Road, another ATK rapper Boss Goon was shot up and killed in his car after his performance. Shot in the back was ATK rapper Ksoo and his father, who was shot in the back.
KTA rapper Lilbuck was murdered shortly afterward. The following February, Julio Foolio’s little 16-year-old brother Adrian Dennard Gainer Jr., aka Bibby was killed.
In celebration of those murders, Ksoo entitled his 2019 release of his album, Bibby Out. After posting several videos about killing KTA members and “smoking Bibby,” Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrested Ksoo in March, charging him with killing Bibby and Lilbuck.
Between February and March, several attempts were made on both Julio Foolio and Yungeen Ace’s lives.
Julio Foolio then posted videos about “who I’m smoking,” and naming Ace, ATK, and 23.
This smoking on homies kept coming up, even in the March music video, “Who I Smoke,” featuring Spinabenz, Whoppa Wit Da Choppa, Yungeen Ace, and FastMoney Goon.
Julio Foolio then released a diss track called “When I See You,” a remix of Fantasia’s “When I See U.”
While they think they are funny, they are really playing themselves out. Before the release of either video, law enforcement has been checking the tapes to arrest people.
Jacksonville’s Sheriff Williams said when announcing the arrest of six convicted felons seen in rap videos with firearms, he shared, “Social media has impacted our society in many ways. Most of those impacts are positive. Unfortunately, these advances in technology also provide the criminal element with a new platform to promote their trade in the street culture market.”
This is true. Julio Foolio, twice, took to Instagram to talk about the murders, including Corbin’s.
Corbin’s mother said, “For the most part, it is disgusting a lot of people. A lot of people, if you do have some people that think it’s funny and laughing about it. But for the most part, it really is touching a lot of people’s hearts.”
“To answer the question where’s Corbin, Corbin is right here. He’s in my heart. If you’re looking for Corbin, that’s where Corbin is, he’s right here. I have him with me every day,” she said.