BACK OF THE YARDS — Every Friday for six months, Rashaun Stephany had been going to a South Side recording studio and laying down the tracks for his own record.
June 8 wasn’t any different, except that his sister was graduating high school that day and Stephany promised he’d have a song recorded for her by the time she got back from the ceremony.
“I’m proud of you, little sister,” he said, according to his mother Alease Davies.
But before Stephany, 22, made it out of the neighborhood and before his sister made it to her graduation, shots rang out in the neighborhood.
Stephany and his cousin, Mario Jackson-Dishman, were standing feet from Stephany’s home, in the 5100 block of South May Street. The two were part of a group watching a video on Stephany’s phone when two gunmen wearing ski masks approached and fired, family said.
Stephany was shot in the shoulder and was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
According to police and Davies, the murder has not been solved.
Stephany's sister never made it to the ceremony.
“She didn’t want to go because she wanted to be there for her brother,” Davies said.
Davies said her son, a Richards Career Academy graduate, wasn’t in a gang. He had no adult criminal record in Cook County, according to court records.
Stephany was the oldest of four kids and was his mother’s helper.
“I could depend on him for everything,” she said.
His main focus, though, was his music.
“I’m about to blow up,” he had told his friends. He spent most of his time inside his homemade studio in his mom’s Back of the Yards home.
Stephany's rap name was Kamakazi Mazim, and his songs included “Dey Snitchin,” “Good Boy Beat” and “Bodybagzz.”
Besides the music, Stephany was fond of reading and debating, his mother said. He had also hosted the “Elma and Company Show,” on Can-TV, a public access show featuring dance and music.
“He loved the camera,” Davies said.
