Silentó

Richard Lamar Hawk (born January 23, 1998), known professionally as Silentó, is an American former rapper and convicted felon. Raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Hawk is best known for his 2015 debut single "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)", which peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 when he was 19 years old. In 2021, he was arrested in DeKalb County, Georgia, after a string of arrests for various crimes and charged with the murder of his cousin, Frederick Rooks III. In 2025, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Richard Lamar Hawk (born January 23, 1998), known professionally as Silentó, is an American former rapper and convicted felon. Raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Hawk is best known for his 2015 debut single "Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)", which peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100 when he was 19 years old. In 2021, he was arrested in DeKalb County, Georgia, after a string of arrests for various crimes and charged with the murder of his cousin, Frederick Rooks III. In 2025, he was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Early life

Richard Lamar Hawk was born on January 23, 1998 in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He has stated that he was born with multiple drugs found in his system, including cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, and that he grew up seeing his family members attempting to kill one another and talking to walls. At age 14, he lived with his great-aunt and was soon placed in a juvenile detention center. He was raised in Atlanta, where he began performing music as part of a group while in eighth grade before making solo music as a high-schooler.

Personal life

In May 2019, Silentó appeared on the daytime talk show The Doctors to discuss his adverse childhood experiences and his resulting anxiety and depression. According to Chanel Hudson, his publicist at the time, he was scheduled to make subsequent appearances on other television shows and partake in further therapy sessions, but did not attend either. He also stated that he attempted suicide in 2020.

Legal issues and manslaughter conviction

In March 2017, after failing to appear at two of his scheduled performances in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—one in Al Ain and another in Abu Dhabi—the city of Al Ain placed a travel ban on Silentó, ordering him to forfeit his passport and barring him from leaving the UAE until he paid the shows' promoter (US$81,690) in lost fees. He soon posted a crowdfunding link to his Twitter for his return to the United States titled "Free Silento". In August 2020, Silentó was arrested by the Santa Ana Police Department and taken into custody by the Orange County Sheriff's Department on a charge of inflicting injury on a cohabitant, then released. The next day, he entered a random home in Valley Village, Los Angeles, wielding a hatchet in search of his girlfriend, which he swung at two people before his friend came to inform him he was at the wrong house. He was disarmed by the family in the home, arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department, and charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. Silentó was then arrested in Atlanta and charged with speeding, reckless driving, parking in a prohibited space, and driving on roadways laned for traffic in October 2020 after driving at on Interstate 85, where the speed limit was , and telling officers that he was able to drive that quickly because he was "not a regular person". He was released later that day. At around 3:30 a.m. on January 21, 2021, in DeKalb County, Georgia, Silentó's 34-year-old cousin, Frederick Rooks, was found bleeding profusely by police, with gunshot wounds in his face and leg, before dying. Silentó was arrested in connection with the shooting and charged with malice murder and felony murder. Silentó's grandparents asked the judge to deny his $25,000 bail request. In June 2025, Hawk was sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty but mentally ill to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. He also received a consecutive five-year sentence for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for firing a gun in the direction of two other people.

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1378812568 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.