Shorty (American rapper)

Jerome Shorty Muhammad died on June 19, 2019, in Los Angeles, California of kidney and liver failure. He was 51 years old. He is survived by 7 children, two grandchildren, his mother, one older brother and younger sister.

Many hip hop celebrities paid homage to Shorty after he died in 2019.

In 1992 Shorty collaborated creatively with longtime friend J-Dee, T-Bone, and Ice Cube to form a recording group bearing the name "Da Lench Mob." The debut album entitled “Guerillas in tha Mist” was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on December 18, 1992, indicating US sales of over 1,000,000 units.

While on tour, members of rap group Public Enemy namely Professor Griff exposed Ice Cube, Shorty and The Lench Mob to Black history and social consciousness. In several interviews Shorty attributes his transformation from a life of crime to gang intervention by the teachings of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad while on tour with Public Enemy. In 1991 Shorty joined the Nation of Islam in Los Angeles and changed his last name from Washington to Muhammad and married the same year.

In September 1990, Shorty and The Lench Mob posse clashed with Eazy E's hip hop act Above the Law during the annual New Music Seminar conference at the Times Square's Marriott Marquis hotel. The parties agreed to fight in a bathroom, away from cameras but instead squared off in front of the convention crowd. Shorty threw the first punch at Above the Law's Total K-Oss, and J-Dee took on KMG the Illustrator. Actor LaDell Preston plays Jerome “Shorty” Muhammad in the critically acclaimed 2015 film “Straight outta Compton,” directed by F. Gary Gray where this altercation was dramatized.

Born in Indianapolis, Indiana, Shorty's mother Mabel Washington moved him and his older brother Jeff to Los Angeles CA in 1968. Jerome competed locally as a pop lock dancer with other friends in his neighborhood. The dance team put aside dancing in order to protect their neighborhood from rival groups and formed “Marvin Avenue Gangster Crips” in Los Angeles, CA of which Shorty an adolescent was a founding member of the street organization. The organization is named after Marvin Avenue, a street located West of Hauser Blvd, between Venice and Washington Blvd.

Jerome Muhammad (September 14, 1967 – June 19, 2019), born Jerome Washington, better known by his stage name Shorty, was an American rapper, producer, gang intervention activist, and member of Ice Cube's spin-off Platinum hip hop group Da Lench Mob.