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Family Believes Teen Killed In Ongoing South Side Rap Feud

CHICAGO (STMW) -- Joshua Davis just wanted to "smoke weed, rap and get rich," his brother said.

Now the 18-year-old rapper known as "JayLoud" is dead.

Gunned down on Christmas Day while wearing a hooded sweatshirt memorializing slain South Side rapper Lil Jojo, his family believes Davis is the latest victim of a South Side rap feud.

Davis was shot to death in the 2000 block of West 69th Street -- a few blocks from his home -- after a fight with several men on a CTA bus, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

The group followed Davis off the bus when one of the men pulled out a handgun and shot Davis several times in the torso and once in the ear about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, authorities said.

Davis, of the 7200 block of South Bell Avenue, was pronounced dead an hour later at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

Police News Affairs Officer Joshua Purkiss could not confirm Davis was wearing the hooded sweatshirt when he was shot or the motive of the shooting.

But Davis' brother had little doubt.

"He's gone because of a f******hoodie. That s*** ain't right," Ricky Davis, 20, said.

Ricky Davis said his brother was wearing a hooded sweatshirt that said "Jojo World," honoring his pal, Joseph Coleman or Lil Jojo, who was slain in a September shooting that drew national attention when tweets mocking his death were posted on rival rapper Chief Keef's account. Keef, whose real name is Keith Cozart, later denied writing the tweets mocking Jojo's death, claiming he was hacked.

Keef's associates -- who rap and tweet references to a faction of the Black Disciples street gang -- had been in an online war of words with reputed Gangster Disciple Jojo that spilled onto the streets in the weeks leading up to Jojo's murder.

Ricky Davis didn't want to add to what appeared Wednesday to be a growing beef, but he said his baby brother was a "gangster rapper" with allegiances to Jojo's crew. On his Twitter account, Joshua Davis pays homage to "Brick Squad," a group of Atlanta-based rappers that share a name with what Chicago Police say is a faction of the Gangster Disciples.

"It's all about the Chicago music," Ricky Davis said. "If people weren't making that music, none of this would be happening."

But Joshua Davis was part of that scene. In YouTube videos, the tattooed teen, raps "Catch a opp, I'm a let him have it" -- an apparent reference to an opponent.

"He might have said those things, but he didn't have no enemies," Ricky Davis said of his brother.

It was Joshua Davis' dream to support his mother, a single mom of five children, Ricky Davis said.

"He simply wanted to get rich for his momma," he said.

(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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