On the same day podcaster Taxstone was found guilty of manslaughter for a 2016 shooting inside Irving Plaza, Troy Ave released a diss record and music video directed at him.
Ave was one of three people who were shot during the altercation, which also resulted in the death of his bodyguard Ronald “Banga” McPhatter, and he appears to be overjoyed by the verdict in the case. His new song about the case and Taxstone is titled “Dear Hater I Won (Taxstone Found Guilty),” and he goes all in on the former podcaster’s character.
“Since you n****s like writing letters here go one/Dear hater, I won/I’ma boss, you a bum/Suck a dick, to the code,” he raps on the track, which only features one verse. "I sat many months, you wrote to the judge soon as you walked in," he continues, in reference to how Tax reportedly sent a letter to a judge on the case to describe Ave as the “bad guy” in the shooting. "'Mr. Collins and his entourage be doing a lot of shootings/A recent one outside this New York city club that sued him'/And now it's people suing, plotting to take where I stay/Got attempted murder 'cause I took the gun from him and bust back.”
Alongside the track he shared a video that shows him outside of a courthouse celebrating the verdict. The clip also showcases the infamous security footage that shows Ave firing a gun in the venue during the 2016 incident, while screenshots of court documents are dropped throughout.
As he testified in the murder trial earlier this month, the altercation allegedly started when the two men ran into each other at the New York City venue. He said that Taxstone pulled a gun on him and fatally shot his bodyguard. Ave said he was shot twice in the leg by Taxstone, and they got into a physical altercation which allowed him to grab the gun from Taxstone and fire back in self-defense. He missed the shot, and was initially arrested for attempted murder following the incident.
Taxstone is scheduled to be sentenced on April 19.
