Rap music taunt led to violent Blacktown street brawl that left a teenager dead
Social media and music is playing a huge role in the feuds between a new generation of Sydney street gangs with one song allegedly used to taunt a teenager before he was allegedly murdered in a Blacktown brawl.
Police & Courts
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A music video brazenly taunting stabbings and attacks on rival teens is believed to be the flashpoint that sparked the latest deadly chapter in Sydney’s postcode wars.
Rival street gangs engaging in tit-for-tat violence over several days are allegedly behind the 17-year-old’s death at the hands of multiple people outside a house in Blacktown in September 2021, police say.
It was the fourth death allegedly stemming from the violence which has played out in western Sydney since 2019, where several gangs operate around the suburbs of Blacktown, Doonside and Mount Druitt.
It comes as a new generation of youths has begun taking to Sydney’s suburban streets on the back of established local gangs such as OneFour and 67 earning notoriety over several high-profile crimes in recent years.
The boy’s death last year was allegedly an escalation of days of violence between two groups, one of which has remained under the police radar until now.
M.o.b are a western Sydney gang sharing the same name as a rap group from the area who had dabbled in minor squabbles and petty crime until the deadly brawl last year.
As it has for the more well-known street gangs, social media and music is playing a huge part in the feuds of new and growing street gangs.
A song by the Sydney drill rapper CG M.o.b, who is not alleged to be involved in any criminal wrongdoing, Top Of The League, was allegedly played before the violent altercation that led to the boy being knifed multiple times in Blacktown, according to police.
The teen cannot be named for legal reasons but his death prompted an outpouring of grief and support from the local community at the time.
“Our son was from a loving family that is now grieving his loss after he suffered a sudden and violent death,” his mother previously said.
“While we wish to retain our privacy at this very difficult time in our lives, we are appealing for anyone who knows anything at all to come forward.
“We want to ensure all those responsible are arrested and charged, and in the hope that no other family will experience what we have.”
The music video for the Top Of The League shows one minor waving a sheathed blade while another raps with precise detail about previous assaults in the music video.
In some instances key details such as the location of the attack are heavily referenced.
So popular has Top Of The League become that it has been earning worldwide acclaim from rap followers from America and the United Kingdom.
Police allege it was that song which blared from a car outside the Blacktown home in a taunt before the brawl took place and left several other teens as young as 13 fighting for life.
Tuesday’s big breakthrough in the case – with four people charged with murder during dawn raids – came five months after the 17-year-old boy died in wild scenes.
Police will allege groups allegedly brawled the day before the fatal attack in a violent confrontation that also saw two people stabbed.
The next day the group allegedly turned up outside a William St, Blacktown, house blaring the same CG M.o.b song and minutes later police had their hands full trying to calm the scene.
The dog squad, PolAir and the highway patrol and officers from several nearby commands were called in to break up the fighting.
Police allege the groups rocked up brandishing machetes, kitchen knives, a zombie knife and golf clubs to the usually quiet suburban street.
One source connected to the case described the details as “something out of a Hollywood movie”.
The chain of events that led to the boy’s death were detailed inside the police facts in their case against Ibrahima Diallo, 21, who has been charged with murder and a raft of other offences relating to the brawl.
Diallo’s solicitor Oussama Elfawal was contacted for comment this week.
Diallo was one of four people charged in dawn raids, including three minors. All appeared in court this week charged with murder five months after the brawl.
The boy’s death last year sent shockwaves through the community, but it would only be a matter of days before another tragedy rocked the suburbs.
Jason Galleghan, 15, died in similar circumstances at nearby Doonside, allegedly at the hands of teens who filmed the bashing while yelling about their postcodes in a disturbing video published online.
His death sparked wider calls from within the community to end gang violence in their suburbs and has prompted moves to build youth centres around Blacktown and Doonside.
In the year since they first emerged on the scene police have since been able to map the complex network of these street gangs.
In one instance they linked Fijian street gang KVT to another deadly feud currently waging between the Hamzy and Alameddine families.
KVT are allegedly linked closely to the Alameddine network in a move police understand to be “feeder groups” now pledging their allegiances to bigger gangs.
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