How Yo Gotti Killed His Brother’s K*ller On Camera

Dolph got killed on camera.

Jook got killed on camera.

You know, Young Dolph got smoked first on camera.

Big Jook was allegedly behind it.

But when Jook himself got hit, everything flipped and his brother Yo Gotti wasn’t about to let that slide.

Like that’s the goal to me.

That’s the real street to me.

So now, the way he got his revenge on camera has got everyone talking.

Let’s break it down.

The killing of Big Jook.

On January 13th, 2024, Anthony Big Jook Mims was at a repass.

For those who don’t know, a repass is the meal the family holds after they put somebody in the ground.

People pull up in their black suits, eat together, grieve together, hold each other up.

It’s supposed to be a safe space, a moment where even the streets understand you don’t bring the smoke.

Big Juke pulled up to that repass for exactly that reason.

A relative named Eric Boven had passed away on December 31st, 2023.

The family was gathering to send him off right.

Big Juke, 47 years old, was the older brother of Memphis rapper and CMG label boss Yo Gotti.

The spot was Perin’s restaurant and Event Center at 6385 Winchester Road in the Hickory Hill area of East Memphis.

Witnesses had Big Jook outside in his black suit, chopping it up with family, hugging people, moving through the crowd like everything was good.

Then the shots ran out.

A Memphis police officer was already in the vicinity when the gunfire started.

That officer ran to the scene and found two males, both hit with multiple gunshot wounds.

EMS transported both victims to area hospitals.

Big Jook was pronounced dead on arrival.

The second victim pulled up to St.

Francis Hospital in a private vehicle.

He was critical at first, but ended up pulling through.

Word hit the internet fast, and the first thing people started talking about, even before police dropped any official details, was whether Big Jook’s mother had been right there when it happened.

I think they said his mom was around him when he got shot.

I’m not sure to be honest with you.

I haven’t even done my homework on that situation.

It’s just an unfortunate uh an unfortunate thing.

The mama details spread everywhere.

Then Boozy, who actually knew Big Jook personally, confirmed what he’d been hearing from his people.

Big Juke, who was Yoatti’s older brother, just got killed after leaving a funeral.

And I heard he was with his mother when it happened.

And then on top of all that, footage of Big Jook on the ground started circulating on social media within hours.

The video of Jook bleeding out went viral and anybody who had been following the whole Dolph situation caught the irony immediately.

It is very messed up and ironic that, you know, Dolph got killed on camera, J got killed on camera, you know, for the whole world to see.

On the day of the murder, Deputy Chief Paul Wright stepped in front of the cameras and told the press that investigators believed the victim had been targeted.

A witness on the scene had already told responding officers that the shooters dipped out in a white SUV.

By January 14th, 2024, MPD dropped surveillance images of the Getaway Whip, a white Ford Explorer, black wheels, dark tints, no visible plates.

Those images were the only hard evidence MPD ever put out publicly.

No weapons recovered at the scene, no suspect descriptions released, no arrests.

One year later, January 2025, MPD told the commercial appeal, “No updates are available at this time.

” 18 months in August 2025, MPD public information officer Terresa Carlson sent an email that said, “No updates at this time.

This is an ongoing investigation.

As of March 2026, over 2 years deep, the case is still cold.

That white Ford Explorer is still the only lead they’ve put out.

But to really understand why Big Jook got caught lacking that day and why trap Laura Ross called it ironic, you got to rewind a full decade.

You got to go back to the moment Yoatti tried to lock Dolph down on a deal.

the beef that started it all.

Back in 2014, Yoatti was already a dawn in Memphis rap.

He’d been grinding since the mid 90s, stacking his reputation brick by brick.

And CMG, Collective Music Group, was his operation, his label, his house.

Young Dolph was still coming up.

He was running Paper Route Empire, dropping tapes on his own terms and building a following off pure independent hustle.

His whole brand was about owning what he had.

No co-signs, no handholding, no label telling him what to do.

Around August 2014, Gotti slid in with an offer to bring Dolph onto the CMG roster.

According to what Dolph later said publicly, Gotti had been in his DMs and hitting his line for about 2 years prior, texting, reaching out, staying persistent.

The pitch was straightforward.

We’re both Memphis.

Let’s link up.

Let’s get this bread together.

Dolph looked at it and said, “No.

” He took his reasoning to sway in the morning and explained it to the world.

He didn’t want anyone thinking he popped off because of Gotti.

He didn’t want the streets or the fans crediting his comeup to somebody else’s wave.

Paperroot Empire was going to eat on its own.

And when you hear how their very first meeting actually went down, Dolph’s decision starts making a lot of sense.

You know what I’m saying? Like the first time I even met little dude go in the studio.

First time he sent everybody out the studio.

First meeting.

Gotti cleared the room.

Then he started talking and what came out of his mouth was not what Dolph expected.

You ain’t like Zilla.

I ain’t got to hold your hand like Zilla.

You ain’t like Sto.

I ain’t got to hold your hand like Staro.

I ain’t got to babysit you like them.

They my first time meeting you.

You gonna really sit and downplay your artist and throw your artist upon the bus to try to persuade me in to come over there.

He threw his own artist under the bus on the very first day just to close a deal.

That was enough for Dolph.

Red alert on site.

No respect for a man who would do his own people dirty to get what he wanted.

Dolph walked.

Contemporary reporting consistently marks these 2014 statements as the first public spark of the rift.

No fights, no direct confrontations, just a dead deal and a principle that Dolph aired out loud.

Gotti’s public stance was always the same.

There’s no real beef.

In a 2017 sitdown on the Breakfast Club, Gotti said, “I don’t got no issue.

We never had one argument.

We never touched each other ever in life.

We never exchanged no money ever in life.

” He called it marketing.

He said he wasn’t even going to engage.

Whenever you hear somebody saying something about me, don’t expect to see me respond on like it’s not going to happen.

Cap or not, Gotti kept his mouth closed publicly.

But Dolph Dolph was nowhere near done running his mouth.

Some older heads in Memphis had a whole different read on where the beef actually came from in the first place.

It wasn’t about any deal.

Memphis OG Crunchy Black put it plainly on the 1090 Jake show.

I remember uh you know I had Crunchy Black on my show and we were talking about this and from what he understands being a Memphis OG, he’s saying that all this started over a girl, a female.

That’s what an OG from the city said kicked the whole thing off.

Not a label deal, not a rap lyric, a girl.

Whether the root cause was a deal, a woman, or both.

What’s not up for debate is that by 2016, the thing had grown legs, and those legs were about to start kicking.

Escalation, diss tracks, shootings, and 100 rounds.

By early 2016, Young Dolph decided he was done playing it subtle.

Less than 2 weeks after Yoatti’s single Down in the DM hit number one on the Billboard mainstream R&B hip hop airplay chart in February 2016, Dolph posted a sub tweet pointing at Bra, understood by everyone as Gotti, and referenced the dead CMG deal directly.

One week after that, he announced the name of his debut album, King of Memphis.

That had been Gotti’s nickname.

Dolph was snatching it off his neck.

CMG affiliate Black Youngsta, born Sammy Marquez Benson, stepped into the ring in March 2016.

He dropped a diss track called Shake Some after catching a line on Troubles Ready remix that he felt was aimed at him.

The bars left no room for interpretation.

How the you king of Memphis, you ain’t from the city? You from Chicago, boy, you better lay low.

Killers move when I say so.

Then Youngsta and his people pulled up to Dolph’s own neighborhood.

Castalia in South Memphis strapped up and filmed a video, put it on the internet.

That’s not a rap move.

That’s a statement.

The loudest shot came on February 1st, 2017 when Dolph dropped Play with Yo.

The whole track called Gotti Ho Gotti from top to bottom.

It clowned him for begging Dolph to sign.

It pulled up his baby mama.

And the cover art, a screenshot of 24 missed calls from a contact Dolph had saved in his phone as Hogatti Baby Mama.

When he got asked if that screenshot was real, Dolph didn’t even flinch.

So, I seen the cover says, “Ho Gotti, play with your B 24 miss calls.

” So, was this is this a real Was that a real screenshot? Come on now.

Was it a real screenshot? Yeah.

Was that a real screenshot, man? Come on now.

That’s was That’s So, so you saved That’s her name in your phone.

Yeah.

That was the name he had her saved under.

Real talk.

And Dolph made it clear this wasn’t a clout move.

He wasn’t doing this to get a feature on the radio.

This was straight principle.

Why would I let me let me drop this song about this [ __ ] so it can get me hot? Hell no.

This getting me hot.

That [ __ ] is doing nothing for me.

Right.

It’s the point, bro.

The It’s the principle.

Don’t Don’t play with me.

Play with your Gotti went to Twitter and said he wasn’t stooping to Dolph’s level.

Then dropped don’t beef with me.

Never named Dolph.

Kept it measured.

Dolph released the full play with your video.

nearly 7 minutes with a goddy lookalike getting clowned through the whole thing.

Then the streets moved.

On February 25th, 2017, while Dolph was in Charlotte for the CIA tournament, his bulletproof SUV got lit up with over a 100 rounds at the intersection of 8th and North Caldwell.

Dolph wasn’t in the whip.

He came out clean and performed his show that same night.

Later dropped 100 shots to let everybody know he was still breathing.

Media reports and later courtroom testimony connected Black Youngsta and two others to the Charlotte shooting.

They turned themselves in to Meckllinburgg County authorities in May 2019.

Every charge got dropped.

Then on September 26th, 2017, Dolph caught shots outside the Lowe’s Hollywood Hotel in Los Angeles.

Multiple gunshot wounds, critical condition.

Police locked up Cory McClendon, described as a Memphis associate of Gotti on attempted murder charges.

McClendon walked, no conviction.

Two separate hit attempts on Dolph, 100 plus rounds in Charlotte, multiple shots in LA, and Dolph survived both.

Meanwhile, CMG’s own road manager and VP, Howard Keon Wright, caught a 10 to 14-year sentence in September 2018 in a North Carolina state court for his role in a separate 2016 Charlotte CIA shooting, firing into occupied vehicles and a hotel area.

CMG’s name kept coming up in Charlotte.

The pattern was there for anyone paying attention.

Dolph wasn’t pressed, though.

He had survived everything they sent at him.

He was moving like he was untouchable.

He wasn’t.

the murder of Young Dolph and the $100,000 hit.

On November 17th, 2021, Young Dolph pulled up to Makita’s homemade butter cookies on Airways Boulevard in Memphis, a local bakery, a spot he supported.

He went inside, grabbed what he needed, came back out.

Two men walked up on his vehicle and aired it out.

The medical examiner documented at least 20 gunshot wounds on Dolph’s body.

The surveillance cameras at the bakery caught the whole thing.

That footage was later played for a jury.

Four men got indicted for the murder.

Justin Johnson, aka Straight Drop, Cornelius Smith, Hernandez Goven, and Jamarcus Johnson, Justin’s half-brother, who took a plea deal in June 2023 and started cooperating with the feds.

The first trial, Justin Johnson’s, kicked off in Shelby County criminal court on September 23rd, 2024.

And that was the moment the prosecution put Big Jook’s name on the record in open court for the first time.

Shelby County Deputy District Attorney Paul Hagermanerman stood up in his opening and told the jury that Big Jook, Anthony Mims, Gotti’s older brother, had put a $100,000 bag on Young Dolph’s head.

He called Big Jook the number two guy at CMG.

He laid out that Big Jook had met with Johnson and Smith before the hit, promised them cash, plus a potential CMG record deal, and ordered the whole thing as get back for Dolph’s disses and his refusal to sign back in 2014.

The breakdown on the money, $40,000 each to the two shooters, $20,000 to the middleman.

The star witness was Cornelius Smith, one of the actual triggermen.

He took the stand, admitted he was one of the shooters, and pointed himself out on the surveillance video shown to the jury.

He broke down how Goven had come to him and Johnson with Big Jook’s offer.

He described premurder meetings where the plan got put together and he testified that after they aired Dolph out, Johnson facetimed Big Jook directly and confirmed the job using sign language because they weren’t on speaker.

Prosecutors backed all of that up with phone records, calls, and messages between the defendants and Big Jook’s number in the days leading up to the murder.

Before any of this ever made it to a courtroom, though, Big Jook had already been running his mouth on the internet.

After Dolph got killed, he went live.

And the energy he was giving off was not the energy of a man who had any remorse.

If you look on YouTube, Big Juke was uh laughing about Young Dolph on live.

You know, CMG don’t miss Twice.

Uh you know, talking about snakes and stuff like that.

CMG don’t miss twice.

That clip circulated for months.

In hindsight, knowing what prosecutors later alleged, it reads completely different.

On September 26, 2024, the jury came back and found Justin Johnson guilty on every count.

First-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, and felon in possession of a firearm.

Judge Jennifer Mitchell sentenced him to life.

Deliberations lasted less than 4 hours.

Hernandez Goven’s trial went in August 2025.

Smith testified again.

MPD Sergeant Jesse Browning walked the jury through phone records.

seven contacts between Johnson and Goven around early November 2021 and direct links to Big Jook’s number.

On August 21st, 2025, the jury let Goven walk acquitted on all counts.

As of March 2026, Cornelius Smith, who had been the prosecution’s main piece on the board in both trials, had a plea deal lined up.

His formal guilty plea hearing was scheduled for March 30th, 2026.

No charges ever came for Yo Gotti personally.

Big Juk never saw a courtroom.

He was already in the ground by the time Justin Johnson’s trial started.

And the trial record made it clear that Dolph wasn’t the only name allegedly on that list.

There was a list of people that Big Jook, you know, allegedly put hits on.

Yeah.

You know, like you said, Young Dolph was 100,000.

Uh Keeglock, who was the second biggest artist on label, was 50,000.

Pre Woo 50,000.

Snoop Bands 20,000.

And Mucci Grape 5,000.

So he was allegedly putting hits on a whole bunch of people.

and then ultimately he got killed himself.

He allegedly had a whole price list on PR and then somebody put a price on him.

The irony, the cycle, and what it cost.

Big Jook posted on Instagram the morning of January 13th, 2024, hours before the shooting.

The caption read, “Stay alert to stay alive.

Watch your back at all times.

” He was shot that same afternoon.

Boozy had been on the phone with Big Jook just 5 days before it happened.

They were working on music together.

Juke was setting up a verse for a collaboration out in California.

Probably about five days before his death.

Really? He was setting a verse up with this dude with me and Cali.

5 days active, working, then gone.

When Boozy found out and the video started flooding his phone, his reaction was the same as everyone who had been watching Memphis from a distance.

When people sending me videos, I’m like sad, bro.

Like death sad, bro.

Especially when you when you Dolph was sad to me, bro.

Yeah.

Boozy’s first move after getting the news was to call Big Boogie, a CMG artist, and tell him straight up, “Get out of Memphis.

” I call Boogie.

Who’s that? Big Boogie.

That is the artist one of um Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Big old one guy artist Big Boogie and I just told him that’s what you do when you’ve been around long enough.

You start telling the young boys to move because once the smoke starts blowing it don’t check ID.

And the thing that haunted everybody who followed this story from the blogs to the barberh shops was the pattern.

Dolph died on camera.

Big Jook died on camera.

Both on surveillance.

Both went viral.

The same energy, the same outcome, just different names.

I mean, even the King Vaughn situation, you know, there’s there’s a pretty twisted poetic irony in the fact that, you know, Duck got killed on camera and these guys were laughing about it for months.

Next thing you know, Von’s dying on camera, you know, damn near in the same kind of same kind of way.

Duck on cam, van on cam, Dolph on cam, big Jook on cam.

The cycle does not discriminate.

It comes for whoever is next in line.

Trap Laura Ross broke down what he imagined Big Jook’s last moments must have felt like.

And it landed heavy.

I’m sure Big Jook in his final moments, his last few thoughts was, “Why did I do this? It’s not that serious.

” And now I’m dying over a song, over an insult, over just a bunch of nonsense, over a song, over a disc, over a deal that fell apart a decade ago.

And then the deepest part of it, and now his mother, who was right there, and I’m sure he’s looking at his mother going, “Wow, you’re going to have to live with this because I wanted to be a gangster when I didn’t have to be a gangster anymore.

” He didn’t have to be a gangster anymore.

That’s the part that hits different because Yo Gotti had built something real.

The man had taken himself from North Memphis to a level most people in this city will never see.

And his whole philosophy, the one he preached publicly, was that getting out was the real flex.

Come on, man.

Obviously, to get money, move to a better place, move your people out the hood, get as many as you need you can take with you.

And like that’s the goal to me.

That’s the real street to me.

That was Gotti’s creed out loud on record that getting the bag and pulling your people up, that’s what the streets are really for.

By 2024, Gotti’s net worth was sitting around $100 million.

He had a minority stake in DC United of Major League Soccer.

He had his restaurant Prime open in Memphis.

CMG had Glorilla crossing over to pop radio.

Moneybag yo still dropping.

Keylock still eating.

Glorilla had a custom diamond chain made with Big Jook’s portrait on it and gifted it to Gotti.

He reportedly received it on his own birthday, but held off and wore it publicly on Big Jook’s birthday as a tribute.

He got a large back tattoo, clouds, doves, and lljuk.

Long live Jook.

Reports noted CMG’s operation expanding toward Dallas with Gotti moving with a lower profile in Memphis in the months after the killing.

None of it brings Big Jook back.

None of it answers who was behind the wheel of that white Ford Explorer.

And as of today, nobody has been charged for his murder.

The surveillance still shots of the getaway vehicle remain the only lead MPD has put out publicly in over two years.

No suspects named, no motive officially confirmed.

The case is still wide open.

A rejected deal in 2014 turned into a decade of smoke, a body count that includes one of the most respected independent artists in southern rap history.

And the older brother of the man that artist was originally beefing with.

Both of them caught on camera, both of them gone.

Multiple men are serving life sentences, others walk free, and the streets are still quiet about who pulled up on Juke that January afternoon.

21.

Savage said it plainest when the topic of the cycle came up directly.

Stop this senseless violence.

How? Oh no.

I don’t think that ever would stop.

It’s just my opinion.

Like people been killing forever.

Mhm.

That [ __ ] just life maybe.

But here is what else is true.

Every man at the center of this had already made it out.

They had the money, the music, the platform.

They had everything Gotti said the real street goal was supposed to be.

They had all of it and they still ended up here.

Thanks for watching.

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