Between Showers

Hey, remember that rapper who ate that girl?

On February 2, 2002, 26-year-old Singleton murdered Tynisha Ysais in her apartment. Her boyfriend Thomas Moore testified that he and Singleton spent the evening prior to the murder smoking PCP, also known as “angel dust.”

The victim was found in her apartment by her friend Alisa Allen. Her chest had been torn open and a three-inch blade was found broken off in her shoulder blade. Teeth marks were found on her face and on her lungs, which had been torn from her chest. Eyewitnesses reported that when Singleton was picked up by police, he was naked, covered in blood, standing in the middle of the street and staring at the sky. A medical examination performed shortly after his capture found human flesh in his stomach which was not his own.

On November 7, 2003, Singleton was sentenced to life in prison. He had been convicted of murder and aggravated mayhem the previous June after pleading not guilty by reason of insanity at the time of the murder. The court ruled that his intoxication and plea of insanity were not satisfactory reasons for committing the crime.

In 2004, Stress Free Ent. and Black Market Activities released a solo LP on behalf of Singleton titled It’s All Bad. Features included Killa Tay, C-Bo, Lil Keke, Roger Troutman II & Too $hort.

Ysais’ mother, Carolyn Stinson, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Black Market Activities, Singleton’s record label. The label, in similar fashion, has put out albums for X-Raided while he was awaiting trial and eventually convicted of murder (Xorcist (album), Unforgiven, Vol. 1, etc.). The suit charged that the label had provided Singleton with drugs “to encourage [him] to act out in an extreme violent manner so as to make him more marketable as a ‘Gangsta Rap’ artist.”

“Part of what makes a Gangsta Rap artist marketable is the fact that the artist is a current ongoing participant in violent gang activities,” the lawsuit said.