Rapper YGG Tay arrested on drug charges
Feds accuse popular musician of supplying drugs, cite lyrics in ‘Errday’ video as evidence
Federal agents arrested the popular Baltimore rapper YGG Tay at a Cockeysville apartment Monday on charges he supplied heroin and cocaine to the murderous West Side “Trained to Go” drug crew and others for years.
The rapper whose name is Davante Harrison was arrested with nearly $9,300 cash in a designer Dolce & Gabbana fanny pack and a loaded .40 caliber Glock pistol with an extended magazine, agents wrote in charging documents. They searched his rental car and allegedly found 3.2 grams of heroin and 8 grams of an unknown white powder.
That same day, they arrested fellow rapper Damont Brown at his Owings Mills apartment on a drug charge.
The agents wrote in court records of a 2016 YouTube rap video by Harrison and Brown titled “Errday.” In the video, the two men rap and flash cash on Braddish Avenue in West Baltimore. The agents cited their lyrics.
“I be on the block like every day, collecting knot like every day,”
Brown raps. “Me and Tay up on the interstate, in the rental with some Virginia plates.”
“Knot,” the agents write, is a street term for a drug dealer’s wad of cash.
Agents found a bag with 40 grams of heroin in Brown’s apartment, they wrote, along with a digital scale, sifter and mixing bowl.
As part of the case, agents arrested a third man, Christopher Jerry — described as a “close associate of Harrison” — on drug and gun charges at an apartment in South Baltimore’s Riverside neighborhood. They allegedly found two loaded handguns and a stash of drugs in his kitchen: 488 grams of heroin, 40 grams of cocaine and 28 grams of crack cocaine. They charged him with the intent to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin.
A magistrate judge ordered the three men to be held until a detention hearing Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Online court records did not list their attorneys.
As YGG Tay, Harrison has become one of Baltimore’s most popular rappers. His music videos have been watched millions of times online. And the case comes as the latest accusation against him.
Last year, federal prosecutors told a judge the rapper had offered to pay a bounty of $20,000 for the murder of a police informant providing authorities information about the “Trained to Go” crew. The informant, Guy Coffey, 28, was gunned down in June 2018.
Harrison was not charged with any crime, and he told The Baltimore Sun he felt blindsided by the accusation.
“That is completely false,” he told The
Sun. “I’ve never even seen this guy before. I’ve never had a conversation about this guy. I don’t know how I’m connected to this guy. They have no evidence, so they shouldn’t be saying that to no judge.”
Federal prosecutors have said Harrison’s rap crew, known as the “Young Go Getters,” had aided the “Trained to Go” drug crew.
Led by brothers Montana Barronette and Terrell Sivells, the West Baltimore drug crew dealt large amounts of heroin — at least 1,000 grams — around the SandtownWinchester neighborhood. Federal prosecutors also said the crew worked as guns for hire by other dealers. Ajury found members of the gang murdered nine people.
U.S. Attorney for Maryland Rob Hur has said they caused a “staggering amount of violence.”
Baltimore Police had labeled Barronette as “public enemy No. 1.” Barronette and Sivells are both serving life sentences.
In the “Errday” video, Harrison and Brown rap about drug dealing and gun violence. Harrison says their actions are “guaranteed to still make the news.”