A decade after skyrocketing to viral fame with his debut single “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” Atlanta rapper Silentó will spend decades behind bars after pleading guilty to killing his cousin.
According to Fox5 Atlanta, the hip-hop one-hit wonder, whose real name is Ricky Hawk, pleaded guilty but mentally ill to voluntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, and other charges in connection with the 2021 shooting death of Frederick Rooks III.
Following his plea, a DeKalb County Superior Court judge sentenced Silentó to 30 years in prison.
Silentó, known for the ‘Whip/Nae Nae’ song, was sentenced to 30 years after pleading guilty to murdering his cousin pic.twitter.com/A9sGrrrQRc
— Dexerto (@Dexerto) June 11, 2025
What We Know About the Death of Frederick Rooks III
In the early morning hours of Jan. 21, 2021, Dekalb County police responded to a reported shooting at a home off of Deep Shoals Circle and Corners Crossin in Panthersville, Georgia.
Police found Rooks, 34, with multiple gunshot wounds and pronounced him dead at the scene. One of Rooks’ family members told police that he was last seen with Silentó, who picked him up from a friend’s home in a white SUV. Security camera footage from a neighbor’s home caught a white BMW SUV fleeing the scene shortly after the gunshots rang out.
Prosecutors say that Silentó admitted to shooting his cousin when police arrested him weeks later. Bullet casings from the scene also reportedly matched a gun found on the Soul Train Music Award winner at the time of his arrest.
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Silentó Reportedly Battled Mental Illness
Following Silentó’s 2021 arrest, his PR manager, Chanel Hudson, shared a statement to social media.
“Over the past several years, Ricky has been suffering immensely from a series of mental health illnesses,” she wrote. “We will continue in his efforts of treatment, but we ask in the meantime the public uplift him and his family in immediate prayer and positive energy!!”
Silentó was just 17 years old when he independently released his debut single, “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” on SoundCloud. Reaching No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, the song inspired a viral dance craze.
Unfortunately, the Georgia native never matched that level of success again, with his 2020 single “No Sense” never cracking the charts at all.
Silentó had prior skirmishes with the law in the months leading up to Rooks’ killing. In October 2020, DeKalb County police arrested the rapper for allegedly driving 143 mph on Interstate 85. Two months earlier, he faced two charges of assault with a deadly weapon after reportedly trying to hit two people with a hatchet in their home in Los Angeles.
Featured image by Marcel Thomas/ZUMA Wire/Shutterstock
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