Troy Ave has always been one to evoke a reaction, be it closer to love or hate. Yet few can deny the man has experienced hardship, especially after a shooting at the Irving Plaza left Troy's bodyguard Ronald "Banga" McPhatter dead at Taxstone's hand. Now, speaking with AllHipHop, Troy opened up about his upcoming trial.
"I go to court on September 13th," explains Troy, referring to his involvement in the infamous shooting. "I just came back from court, so we gon’ see." As he tells it, the matter is cut and dry. "The proof is in black and white paperwork, in the FBI paperwork. I don’t even have to argue anything, it’s there. They see that it’s not my gun, I never brought no gun in the club. DNA evidence proves that, so where’d I get it from?" He confirms that he was given the gun by Taxstone, expressing disbelief that he was ever vilified in the first place.
"If this were to happen somewhere else, I would have been a hero," he states. "Because if you look at it, I saved mad people from getting shot. There’s three other victims, more people could have died. If I didn’t do what I did, fought the gun away and wrestled — it’s fight or flight. I chose to fight. I went head-on with a gunman and by the grace of God, took the gun out his hand. So why am I not looked at as a hero?"
50 Cent, Bullet Wounds, & Irving Plaza Shooting Trial">Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images
He claims the media spun the story in a false light, painting him as hellbent on spraying the club up on a whim; in reality, he was already present as the special guest performer. And now, with his trial kicking off on Friday the 13th, Troy Ave stands by his decision to testify. It's no wonder he's looking forward to putting this one behind him, given he still carries the scars of that day with him. "My leg be hurting from that whole Irving Plaza s**t," he explains. "I can’t really run, jogging be hard. I can’t bust the dope dance moves in my videos like I used to. It’s all good though, I just adapted. I ain’t trippin’."
He also opens up about his relationship with 50 Cent, whom he looks to with great respect. "If it wasn’t for him, it wouldn’t be no me in this capacity," reveals Troy Ave. "I saw him the other day and told him that. We had a lil wrestling fight in the hallway or whatever. I always say, Fif is one of the reasons I started rapping. I wouldn’t be having all this money and all that if it wasn’t for him. I might have been still selling drugs. I might have got caught up and went to jail, or been dead and that would’ve been the end.
For more from Troy Ave, check out the full interview over at AllHipHop. Should you be so inclined, send him some good vibes ahead of his looming trial, and look for more updates to surface as that develops.