Detroit rapper Edward (YNS Cheeks) Tavorn was indicted in a federal racketeering, drugs, murder and weapons case out of Michigan this past week, bringing another run-in with the law for a Motor City-based Glo Gang affiliate. The Glo Gang is the hip-hop music label owned and operated by 21-year old Chicago rap star and Kanye West-protégé Chief Keef. Tavorn, 30, is considered one of the founders and leaders of the Young N’ Scandalous Gang, an alleged crime syndicate and street gang that rules over the notoriously-tough Brightmoor neighborhood on the far Northwest side of Detroit. He was one of five high-ranking Young N’ Scandalous members nailed in the case last week. YNS Cheeks, part of a hardcore hip-hop act called YNS Da Mob put out by independent Detroit label, Skantless Records, isn’t named in any of the case’s murder counts. Back on Friday, he appeared in court to plead not guilty from a wheelchair, recovering from reportedly being shot three times. Just two years ago, Motown rap prodigy and Glo Gang affiliate Cordell (Yae Yae Jordan) Jones, then only 18, was convicted of a murder connected to a strip club shooting and sentenced to 60 years in prison. Per Detroit Police Department records, Tavorn started the Young N’ Scandalous organization with co-defendant Corey (B-Mo C) Toney in the mid-2000s. On October 20, 2006, YNC Cheeks was pulled over in his Lincoln Navigator SUV and the cops found an unregistered gun. In May 2010, he was caught in a raid of a private residence near the corner of Fenkel and Westbrook with weapons, ecstasy pills and cocaine base. Then in July 2016 in another raid of a house he was present in on Riverview, the DPD and DEA found drugs and ammunition. According to last week’s indictment, he authorized the spring 2016 robbery of a rival’s drug house on Beaverland. Young N’ Scandalous Gang enforcer Andre (Big Man) Chatham is alleged to have taken part in two of the three murders charged in the case – one the result of a summer 2013 gas-station armed robbery and the other stemming from a spring 2016 drive-by shooting. Chatham, 27, faces life behind bars if convicted. YNS Cheeks is looking at up to 25 years if convicted of the charges against him. Chief Keef (L) & Kanye West (R)
