A 14-year-old boy who was stabbed to death on the 472 bus in Woolwich, southeast London, on Tuesday has been named locally as ‘Grippa’ – an aspiring rapper.
Just 2 weeks ago on Christmas Day, Kelyan Bokassa AKA Grippa released a song called Bangers N Mash:
As you might have guessed, the song is all about stabbing and shooting people, which makes the teenager’s death all the more tragic. On Grippa’s final Instagram post, he asked his followers “any mindys?’, with ‘mindi’ apparently meaning ‘knife’ in Somali. Just what the hell are these kids doing exactly? Well, stabbing each other from the sounds of things.
A manhunt is now underway for Grippa’s killer with no arrests being made as of yet. Another teenage boy was stabbed and remains in a critical condition following an incident in the same area the previous day – but it’s not yet known if the two incidents are connected.
Just a sad state of affairs all round. From his lifestyle to his death, it all just seems like such a huge waste. A 14-year-old aspiring rapper making songs and Instagram posts about guns and knives, and ends up stabbed to death on the bus over some petty postcode beef. The worst thing I did at 14 was smoke weed, meanwhile these lads are being exposed to extreme violence and gang activity from a young age, to the point their ‘music careers’ are essentially just listing the names of people they stabbed.
Grippa’s mum told the BBC:
“He cares about the people around him. He loved to have his friends around and when they were round he would want to cook for them, He was very articulate. He knows what he likes and knows how to express it. He was good in music. Anything he loves… he was doing to his best ability. He was good at football… and he was was extremely good at drawing.”
She also added that he had experienced some “extremely challenging times” and had been taken into care for a number of years. She added Kelyan was “underweight, very hungry, tattooed and exposed to drugs.”
RIP Grippa and thoughts with his mum and his friends and family at this time. Here’s hoping that other young men involved with similar lifestyles in London and around the UK look at what happened to Grippa and take heed that they could be next, so that maybe they can get out before it’s too late.
For something a bit lighter, click HERE to watch a mum come home early and shut down her son’s rap music video shoot. Street cred ruined.
