Maino recently told his side of the story of Taxstone’s shooting, an incident amid a Troy Ave beef which hit the podcaster with a 35-year prison sentence for his role in the incident. During his latest appearance on VladTV with DJ Vlad, the host first clarified some false reports about the New York City rapper playing a role in the shooting. They posited that he actually had nothing to do with it at all, although the MC and Vlad revealed that he does have a personal connection to it. Apparently, his ex-girlfriend was also shot during this incident, and while he didn’t speak on what he saw as a witness to the shooting, he did contextualize his thoughts on the matter.
“I said exactly everything that I said about it already, I don’t want to keep harping on that,” Maino began. “And I don’t want to keep giving life to n***as that I don’t believe even deserve life, you know? Once you work out a deal with the prosecution and get on the stand for your own wrong deeds, to work out a deal with the prosecution and go get on the stand and point your finger at another n***a, it ain’t no me and you. We ain’t into nothing.
Maino Speaks On Taxstone Shooting With DJ Vlad
“S**t happens, though, Vlad,” Maino continued. “That’s the thing, like… You know, I come from a world where we’ve had gunplay accidents, right? ‘Cause I see things on the Internet. ‘N***as shot your girl!’ I’m like, ‘What?’ She got hit by mistake, right? When I was 14 years old, I shot my friend in the stomach by mistake. We was playing with the gun, some s**t happened, and then I shot him in the stomach by mistake. I didn’t mean to shoot him.
“We still friends to this day,” Maino explained. “I’ve had a lot of gun accidents. That’s not the only [one]. S**t happens. When you playing in some type of life and you a young n***a, things can happen. When you outside and you involved in back-and-forths with other Black males, and you playing with guns and s**t like that, s**t can happen. Everybody knows that. Friendly fire is a thing, right? I’ve watched that happen many times. […] When you understand the context of that, then you can understand who I am and the way I deal with things. So when you talk about her getting hit, she wasn’t hit on purpose.”
About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a music and pop culture news writer for HotNewHipHop. He started in 2022 as a weekend writer and, since joining the team full-time, has developed a strong knowledge in hip-hop news and releases. Whether it’s regular coverage or occasional interviews and album reviews, he continues to search for the most relevant news for his audience and find the best new releases in the genre. What excites him the most is finding pop culture stories of interest, as well as a deeper passion for the art form of hip-hop and its contemporary output.
Specifically, Gabriel enjoys the fringes of rap music: the experimental, boundary-pushing, and raw alternatives to the mainstream sound. As a proud native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, he also stays up-to-date with the archipelago’s local scene and its biggest musical exponents in reggaetón, salsa, indie, and beyond.
Before working at HotNewHipHop, Gabriel produced multiple short documentaries, artist interviews, venue spotlights, and audio podcasts on a variety of genres and musical figures. Hardcore punk and Go-go music defined much of his coverage during his time at the George Washington University in D.C.
His favorite hip-hop artists working today are Tyler, The Creator, Boldy James, JPEGMAFIA, and Earl Sweatshirt.
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