A rapper on the Murder Inc. label was shot to death on a Queens street corner
Thursday night, fueling fears of a new violent rap war.
The ambush of D.O. Cannon, whose real name is Gerard Fields, came four days after the strikingly similar fatal shooting of a less-accomplished rapper who ran with Murder Inc.'s rivals.

Fields, 26, was gunned down as he stood in front of an abandoned storefront at 177th St. and 104th Ave., a known drug location.

Police said a man in a gray sweat suit walked up to Fields just after midnight and let his gun do all the talking, hitting the rapper twice in the chest and once in the leg.

As the gunman fled in a cream-colored car, Fields' friends threw the bleeding rapper into a black Volvo and sped to the emergency room of Mary Immaculate Hospital, where they abandoned him before cops arrived, police sources said.

He died a few minutes later.

Police were not ruling out the possibility that Fields' slaying could be related to Monday's fatal shooting of Shadaha (Jah) Bey, who was often seen with rap superstar 50 Cent's crew, GUnit.

Bey, 26, was shot to death on the corner of Guy Brewer Blvd. and 104th Ave. in Jamaica - a few miles from where Fields was killed.

Bey's father, Yusef, said his son was a G Unit rapper who worked security for 50 Cent.

"This has to stop," Yusef Bey said from his South Carolina home yesterday. "It has to stop within the community."

Public feud

Yesterday, two memorials with votive candles and graffiti "RIP" scrawls marked the blood-stained sidewalks where Fields and Bey died miles apart.

Murder Inc. and 50 Cent have been involved in a fierce, very public feud.

Murder Inc.'s most popular artist, Ja Rule, has written lyrics mocking 50 Cent as a stool pigeon: "So on ya grave its gon' read: Here lie Fifty, who snitched on many."

50 Cent repeatedly has taunted Ja Rule in his lyrics and said the hit song "Wanksta" is about his nemesis.

"We have not made a connection, but we are investigating both shootings very carefully," said a police source.

The source said detectives say Fields may have been shot in retaliation for trying to shoot a man named Vincent last week. That incident was not reported to police.

"We believe the victim attempted to assault someone and was killed as an act of retribution," the source said.

Fields - who has served two prison sentences for armed robbery, including the stickup of a woman in 1994 and a gunpoint mugging of a man a year later - is featured as D.O. Cannon on Murder Inc.'s latest album, "The Inc."

In a biography filed on the Def Jam Web site, D.O. Cannon boasts that he "struggled in the streets of poverty."

"I got to say I love everybody: fat, slim, rich or broke," he wrote. "Music is life, that's what makes us function."

Mary Fields, 68, said that hours before he died, her grandson was blasting his latest lyrics. She raised Fields after his mother died of heart problems when he was 11 years old.

Fields became the father of a boy 10 months ago.

"He played it as loud as it would go, then he cut it off and went out," Mary Fields said, "and that was it."


The Players


The latest rap war & pitting Ja Rule and other rappers on the Murder Inc. label against Eminem and 50 Cent began with inflammatory lyrics. Now it has escalated into violence. The main players:

50 CENT

The multi-platinum rapper made a name for himself by making fun of others; his first hit was about robbing artists like Bobby Brown and Jay Z.

He wrote a song about Ja Rule called "Wanksta." He was shot in Jamaica, Queens, in 2000 but did not cooperate in the police investigation.

In January, he was arrested in Manhattan after cops found a gun in his car. Two weeks later, his managers office was shot up by unknown gunmen.

JAM MASTER JAY

The slain hip-hop pioneer discovered 50 Cent. After Jay's murder, cops offered 50 Cent police protection, but he declined.

EMINEM

The preeminent rap king throws down on every album. He has 50 Cent on his Shady Aftermath label; both make fun of Ja Rule.

IRV GOTTI

Rapper became the founder and CEO of Murder Inc., a label overseen by Universal Island Def Jam division. Gotti label is under investigation for possible links to a crack kingpin named Kenneth (Supreme) McGriff.

KENNETH MCGRIFF

Has been implicated by federal prosecutors in the 2000 shooting of 50 Cent. McGriff, who is in prison on federal gun charges, is credited with starting the Supreme Team crack gang, which ruled south Queens.

JA RULE

His feud with 50 Cent started after he was robbed by one of 50 Cent buddies. They have traded insults in their raps; in "Loose Change," Ja Rule called 50 Cent a snitch. "So on ya grave it gon read: Here lie Fifty, who snitched on many."

The album also included this line - "An' Murda Inc. will send they deepest condolences and sympathies ta Aftermath, ta Shady, Interscope and Jimmy" references to some of Eminem's alter-egos and music labels.


rapnewsdirect.com

heh shit is getting crazy in NYC

I was just on Guy Brewer last Saturday.

so lol where i chill is not 2 far from there.  rockaway blvd.  as a matter of fact i went bowling right by guy Brewer

Whats the name of the bowling place?

i went to belrose on jamaica ave a few days ago thats not 2 far from jamica an guy brewer.  i usually go to americana lanes.  Now its cozy bowl but to me it will always be americana lanes on rockaway blvd or i go to woodhaven lanes on woodhaven blvd

Oh....Dont sound familar to me.

why which 1 were u thinkin of.  whitestone thats in queens an its right off the whitestone expressway an plus its close to the bronx an ur from the bx