King Von
August 09, 1994
Bennett was born on August 9, 1994, in Chicago, Illinois. 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; 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.
August 09, 1994
Dayvon Daquan Bennett (August 9, 1994 – November 6, 2020), known professionally as King Von, was an American rapper from Chicago, Illinois. He was signed to Lil Durk's record label Only the Family and Empire Distribution. During Bennett’s life and following his death, he was implicated in various homicides and alleged crimes related to the Chicago gang scene.
2010
At age 16, Von went to jail for the first time. In 2014, he 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. After being acquitted of all charges, Von began focusing on his music career, collaborating with Lil Durk. Before his arrest for the charges, he attended South Suburban College in South Holland, Illinois. He earned his GED while in juvenile detention. During this time, he joined the Black Disciples street gang.
November 21, 2012
On November 21, 2012, Bennett was arrested and booked into Cook County jail for unlawful possession of a firearm.
April 2014
In July 2021, the Chicago Police released documents concluding that Bennett was responsible for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Gangster Disciples member Gakirah "K.I." Barnes in April 2014, but were unable to prosecute him due to inconsistencies in witness statements.
May 2014
On July 24, 2014, Bennett was arrested in connection with a shooting in May 2014, resulting in the death of Malcolm Stuckey and the injury of two other men. Bennett was charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. The shooting took place in Englewood, Chicago. After witnesses failed to testify in 2017, Bennett was found not guilty.
December 06, 2018
After fellow rapper Lil Durk signed King Von to his Only the Family label, Von released his single "Crazy Story" on December 6, 2018, and it became his breakout single.
February 05, 2019
In June 2019, Bennett and fellow rapper Lil Durk were arrested in connection with a shooting in Atlanta. Bennett and his co-defendant Banks appeared before a judge in a Fulton County courtroom for a probable cause hearing. Prosecutors claimed that the two rappers robbed and shot Alexander Witherspoon outside a popular drive-in on February 5, 2019. After weeks in jail, Durk was released on a $250,000 bond, while Von was released from a $300,000 bond.
May 2019
In May 2019, "Crazy Story 2.0" featuring Lil Durk was released, and a subsequent music video was later released on May 20, 2021, and peaked at number four on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart. On September 13, 2019, a third rendition of the single called "Crazy Story, Pt. 3" was released. On July 9, 2019, Lil Durk and King Von released their collaborative single "Like That". On September 2, 2019, Von released his single "What It's Like". The single then appeared on his album Grandson, Vol. 1.
September 19, 2019
On September 19, 2019, Von released his 15 track mixtape, Grandson, Vol. 1, featuring Lil Durk on a pair of tracks. The album debuted at number 75 on the Billboard 200 and number 27 on the Hip Hop/R&B albums chart. On November 16, 2019, Von released his single "2 A.M". On November 29, 2019, Von released his single "Rollin" featuring YNW Melly, accompanied with a music video. "Rollin" was included on his mixtape, Levon James, released on March 6, 2020, which peaked at number 63 on the Billboard 200. The album features verses from NLE Choppa, Tee Grizzley, G Herbo, Lil Durk, and YNW Melly, among others.
April 29, 2020
On April 29, 2020, King Von released his single "Grandson for President". He followed the single up closely with a music video release for "Broke Opps", a song from Levon James. He then released another single titled "Why He Told" on July 27, 2020, and followed that up with another popular single, "All These Niggas", featuring Chicago rapper Lil Durk, which garnered great success on YouTube. He then released another single, titled "How It Go", on August 26, 2020.
October 09, 2020
On October 9, 2020, King Von released "I Am What I Am", featuring New York rapper Fivio Foreign. This release was in anticipation of his debut studio album Welcome to O'Block, released on October 29, 2020. The 16-track album features production Chopsquad DJ, Tay Keith, Wheezy and Hitmaka, among others. The album includes the Polo G collaboration "The Code", which was released with a music video. After his death, his team releases the music videos for "Wayne's Story", "Armed & Dangerous", "Mine Too", and "Demon".
November 06, 2020
On November 6, 2020, at around 2:15 a.m., Bennett and his crew were involved in an altercation with Quando Rondo's crew outside of the Monaco hookah lounge in Atlanta, Georgia. The dispute quickly escalated into gunfire, and Bennett was shot multiple times. He was transported to a hospital in critical condition and died there later that day. He was 26 years old.
November 14, 2020
On November 14, 2020, King Von was buried in Chicago, Illinois.
December 24, 2020
On December 24, 2020, Lil Durk released his album The Voice as a tribute to King Von, who appears on the album cover and on the song, "Still Trappin'".
2021
In April 2023, over 2 years after Bennett's death, a four-hour long documentary titled King Von: Rap's First Serial Killer was released on Youtube by the filmmaker Trap Lore Ross, in which it was alleged that Bennett had been a serial killer who was involved in at least ten murders, including the murders of P5, Modell, Malcolm Stuckey, and Gakirah "K.I." Barnes; Bennett had been acquitted for the murder of Stuckey while he was alive and was concluded by Chicago authorities to be responsible for the murder of Barnes in 2021. In addition to the ten murders he was alleged to be the perpetrator of, he was also documented as the mandator to several other gang-related murders. According to the documentary, Bennett's primary motive to commit murder initially was a result of gang disputes, but later were simply done for thrill. The documentary was praised by many, but was soon taken down from YouTube following backlash from family and fans of Bennett. The documentary was later re-uploaded.
August 2021
In August 2021, a mural depicting King Von was painted by artist Chris Devins, in Parkway Gardens, Chicago (where Von was from). The mural was seen as controversial amongst Chicago residents – some of them argued that it would attract gang-related crime to the area, and that it was a glorification of gang violence.
March 04, 2022
On March 4, 2022, King Von's management team released his first posthumous album, What It Means to Be King. It peaked at number one on the Billboard 200. Shortly thereafter, the music videos for two excerpts from his discs were released; "Too Real" was released on March 7, 2022; the other one "Get it Done" on the day of his birthday, August 9, 2022.
