YNW Melly’s star was rising fast in the fall of 2018. His mixtape I Am You — released that August by 300 Entertainment — was a successful label debut, certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, with its lead single, “Murder On My Mind,” going 6x Platinum.
Ben Dandridge-Lemco profiled Melly for The FADER’s GEN F series a day before the project dropped, and production wrapped on a short documentary about his life in late October.
Born Jamell Maurice Demons in Gifford, Florida — an impoverished, unincorporated community in the Vero Beach metro area — when his mother was just 14, Melly came into this world with the odds stacked against him.
Nineteen years later, he was a superstar. Read Next: YNW Melly and YNW Bortlen charged with witness tampering On October 26 — four days after the 21-minute movie documenting his rise was completed, according to its credits — two of the men depicted in the film as his closest companions were killed in an apparent drive-by shooting, with Melly and another man also present.
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