King Von is shot and killed outside an Atlanta hookah lounge

Why it matters

Dayvon Bennett, who recorded as King Von, was shot and killed during an early-morning confrontation outside the Monaco Hookah Lounge in Atlanta on November 6, 2020. He was 26. The other principal in the confrontation was the Savannah rapper Quando Rondo. Quando Rondo's bodyguard, Timothy Leeks, fired the shots. Quando Rondo was eventually acquitted of murder. Leeks pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2024. King Von was one of the central figures of the Chicago drill movement that ran from the early 2010s into the 2020s. He had been a Lil Durk affiliate, signed to Durk's Only the Family/Empire arrangement, and had been one of the most narrative-driven MCs of the entire drill scene; his songs functioned almost as short stories about specific events from his pre-rap life in O-Block Chicago. Welcome to O'Block, his major-label debut LP, had come out one week before his death and would chart at #5 on the Billboard 200 in the immediate aftermath. He was 26. The Chicago drill scene has, in the years since, continued losing principals at a rate few regional scenes survive. The continued losses are part of what the scene is now. You should know the catalog. You should know the cost.