Biography:

Dayvon Daquan Bennett^[a][5] (August 9, 1994 – November 6, 2020), known professionally as King Von, was an American drill rapper from Chicago, Illinois. He was signed to Lil Durk‘s record label Only the Family and Empire Distribution. During Bennett’s life, and after his killing, he was implicated in various homicides and alleged crimes related to the Chicago gang scene. On November 6, 2020, he was shot and killed at age 26.

Bennett garnered acclaim for singles “Crazy Story” and “Took Her to the O“, which reached the forty-fourth position of the Billboard Hot 100, and for the studio album Welcome to O’Block (2020), which placed fifth on the Billboard 200.^[6]

Early life

Bennett was born on August 9, 1994, in Chicago, Illinois.^[7] He had six half-siblings from his father, Walter E. Bennett, and three siblings from his mother, Taesha. He was raised mostly by his mother in the Parkway Gardens Projects in Chicago, more commonly known as “O-Block“.^[1][8] His relationship with his father was inconsistent due to his father’s incarcerations. When Von was 11 years old his father was killed by an unseen gunman. Von would later pay tribute to him in multiple songs.^[9]

At age 16, Bennett went to juvenile detention for armed robbery. While incarcerated, Bennett earned his GED. After being released, Bennett attended a few classes at South Suburban College in South Holland, Illinois before dropping out.^[10]

In July 2014, Bennett was charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder in connection with a shooting that killed one and injured two others.^[11]

Career

Crazy Story’s series and Only The Family affiliation

After fellow rapper Lil Durk signed King Von to his Only the Family label, Von released a series of singles: his first ever single was “Beat Dat Body” featuring fellow Chicago rapper THF Zoo, released on June 17, 2018, that was accompained with a music video;^[12] Von appeared subsequently on July 31, 2018, in Lil Durk Presents: Only The Family Involved album, with the song “Problems” that had a related music video that was released on August 9;^[13] Bennett then dropped another single on October 18, 2018 named “War With Us” still with a new music video associated.^[14] While his notorious single “Crazy Story” was instead released on December 6, 2018,^[15] and it became his breakout single, reaching the number 81 on Billboard Hot 100.^[16][17]

On Valentine’s Day 2019, Von’s girlfriend, rapper Asian Doll, released a music video for her track about the artist, “Grandson”, in which Von appeared.^[18]

In May 2019, “Crazy Story 2.0” featuring Lil Durk was released, and a subsequent music video was later released on May 20, 2020; the song peaked at number four on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.^[19][20] On September 13, 2019, a third rendition of the single called “Crazy Story, Pt. 3” was released.^[21] On July 9, 2019, Lil Durk and King Von released their collaborative single “Like That”.^[22]

Grandson, Vol. 1

On September 2, 2019, Von released his single “What It’s Like”, as the single forerunner of his first mixtape album announced in September 2019.^[23]

The mixtape was dropped some weeks later on September 19, 2019, it consists in 13 a tracks mixtape, and it is named Grandson, Vol. 1, executively produced by Chopsquad DJ contains three features on it, that are represented by Lil Durk on “Twin Nem” and on the Remix of “Crazy Story“; the other feature consists on the collaboration with Chicago artist and OTF affiliate Booka600 on “Jet” . The mixtape also includes tracks “Crazy Story“, “Crazy Story, Pt. 3“, and his second ever single “War With Us” dating back to October 18, 2018.

Grandson, Vol. 1 debuted at number 75 and later peaking at number 53, on the Billboard 200, also it reached number 27 on the Hip Hop/R&B albums chart, and number 9 on the Independent album chart.^{[24][25][26][27]}

Levon James

On November 16, 2019, Von released his single “2 A.M” followed by a corresponding video to be released the same day.^[28] On November 29, 2019, Von released his single “Rollin” featuring YNW Melly, accompanied with a music video.^[29] He later releases, on February 21, 2020, “Took Her to the O“, with a music video, which will become his most successful single.^[30] “Took Her to the O” and “Rollin” were later included on his second mixtape, Levon James, that was released on March 6, 2020, which debuted at number 63 and later peaking at number 40 on the Billboard 200.^[31] It was released through Only the Family Entertainment/Empire and consists in a 16 track mixtape executively produced by Chopsquad DJ, featuring verses from NLE Choppa, Tee Grizzley, G Herbo, Lil Durk, YNW Melly, Booka600 and Yungeen Ace.^[32]

An official video for “On Yo Ass” was released coinciding with the album release date on March 6, 2020, the song is a featuring with Chicago artist G Herbo, with a production from Chopsquad DJ.^[33] Later was released an official video for “Trust Issues” song featuring Florida rapper Yungeen Ace, on March 20, 2020; in the song Von switched up his gangsta focus to show his softer side.^[34][35] On April 6, 2020, Bennett releases an official music video for 3 A.M. on YouTube,^[36] following on April 29, 2020, the release of his single “Grandson for President” that later will be accorpated as a single for What It Means to Be King album. He followed the single up closely with a music video release for “Broke Opps”, another song extracted from Levon James album. Ending with the last video extracted from the project that concerned to “Down Me” song, featuring Chicago rapper Lil Durk, in which Durk did not appear, and that was directed by CrownSoHeavy.^[37]

Credits:

Wikipedia