Kenneth McGriff

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Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff (born 1961) is a former drug dealer and former leader of Supreme Team. Some claim that the fictional characters Nino Brown, portrayed in the 1991 film New Jack City and Majestic in Get Rich or Die Tryin are based on him. McGriff served ten years for a 1989 drug conviction, and when released, he helped finance the rap label The Inc. Records, formerly known as Murder Inc. Records, with neighborhood associate Irv Gotti. He was part of the major indictment on Murder Inc. in 2003. Associates are Lorenzo "Fat Cat" Nichols and Gerald "Prince" Miller. The book Queens Reign Supreme details his life.

McGriff is alleged to have a hand in the murder of Run D.M.C. D.J. Jam Master Jay, and the shootings of 50 Cent. One rumor behind the shooting is that McGriff allegedly felt that 50 Cent had exposed just a little too much on the kingpin of Jamaica, Queens in his 2000 mixtape song "Ghetto Qu'ran".

McGriff was known for his brutality. He would order military style raids on rival drug dealers, with gang members storming a home in vans and automatic weapons on execution missions. The downfall of the Supreme Team occurred with the murder of an undercover cop, Edward Byrne, in retaliation for police activity against Lorenzo Nichols. The law enforcement attention was so great that George H.W. Bush carried Byrne's badge on the campaign trail in 1988.

In "Let There Be Light", track 12 of the 2006 hip hop album "Hip Hop Is Dead", rapper NaS referred to McGriff by an incorrect name. In the fourth bar of the second verse, Nas said the words, "now every rapper wanna claim he hang with Kenneth "Supreme" Griffith". The mistake with his last name, however, is not uncommon.

On February 1, 2007 McGriff was convicted for murder-for-hire in Federal court, on charges he paid $50,000 to have two rivals gunned down in 2001 (rapper Eric "E-Moneybags" Smith and Smith's associate, Troy Singleton). The jury deliberated for five days before finding McGriff guilty of murder conspiracy and drug dealing. On February 9, 2007, the same jury sentenced McGriff to life in prison.