A Hard Start
Silentó didn’t enjoy an ideal childhood after being born into a family that used drugs and suffered with mental health issues. His publicist Chanel Hudson-O’Connor tells A&E Crime + Investigation, “Having a background in psychology, I immediately was like, something’s off.”
Silentó told her about his bout with mental illness, and she encouraged him to talk about it openly on The Doctors, which has since been canceled
Silentó revealed on the daytime talk show in 2019 that he was born with marijuana, cocaine and heroin in his system. “I’ve been fighting demons my whole life,” he said. “I saw family members talking to walls. I watched family members fight. I watched family members try to kill each other.”
The then-21-year-old also shared that, after being placed in the care of his great-aunt at age 14, he was prescribed ADHD medication and sleeping pills despite never being “officially diagnosed with ADHD.” “It got to the point where I got incarcerated and sent to juvenile [detention],” he claimed.
Proving His Doubters Wrong
His escape was in music and dance. Silentó attended Redan High School in Stone Mountain, a small town several miles outside of Atlanta. After losing a talent show at school, he responded by creating “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae),” based on his experience of entertaining classmates with his moves in the cafeteria. Silentó gloated to USA Today, "It was an awesome opportunity making this song and having it where I can go back to school, and people can just be like, 'Wow, you did it.'"
Released in May 2015, the song became an instant hit, with fans making dance videos of their own. Part of its charm was that the lyrics were devoid of gangsta angst or expletives. The tune and accompanying video offered wholesome fun in which teens, parents and grandparents alike could participate. Hawk chose the moniker Silentó to express his belief in “less talk and more action.”
In June, Silentó made his national television debut on Good Morning America at age 17. A month later, “Watch Me” peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 chart at No. 3. The music video has nearly 2 billion views on YouTube.
Career on Pause
Despite his success, Silentó’s family pushed him to finish high school. Several years passed and the rapper wondered why his career hadn’t moved forward.
“He missed that window of opportunity when the song originally came out.” says Hudson-O’Connor, who became his crisis manager, friend and confidante. “That took a mental toll.”
Compounding his stalled career was a sexually explicit video circulating in which one of the performers looks like Silentó. “People thought it was him,” Hudson-O’Connor recalls. “They just ran with this narrative. Also, during the time of COVID, studios were closed. He didn’t have an outlet to express himself.”
In 2020, at the height of the COVID scare, Silentó attempted to take his own life.
During that period, Hudson-O’Connor says that Silentó “found out that a very close family member of his stole a lot of money from him.”
“We’re talking about millions of dollars,” she explains. “He went on this whole independent investigation where he hired an auditing team to find out what happened. He was trying to reach as many family members as possible.”
Aside from the loss of revenue, Silentó felt betrayed by those he trusted most. Consequently, “his circle of trust is not big,” Hudson-O’Connor says.
A Run of Disturbing Behavior
The mental toll and confluence of misfortunes led to a violent outbreak. On August 28, 2020, Hawk was arrested in Santa Ana, Calif., on suspicion of inflicting corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant. The following day, ABC News reported he was allegedly looking for his girlfriend when he entered a stranger's home in the San Fernando Valley with a hatchet and swung at its occupants.
If those were the only incidents Silentó, then 22, was guilty of, he would have faced a maximum of six years in prison and been released in his late 20s. Instead, his crimes escalated.
On January 21, 2021, Silentó got into an altercation with his cousin Frederick Rooks III in front of his grandmother’s house. Silentó and Rooks were in Decatur, a city near Atlanta, in the early hours of the day when the rapper shot his cousin in the face and leg, according to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. Rooks was pronounced dead on the scene.
Hudson-O’Connor believes Silentó’s intentions were noble: “The cousin was not supposed to be at the property. I think Ricky was just trying to be protective.”
Silentó’s Quick Confession
Because Silentó confessed to the crime, prosecutors lowered his murder charge to voluntary manslaughter. The Associated Press reported that in June 2025, Silentó pleaded guilty but mentally ill and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
“After speaking with Mr. Hawk’s defense counsel and reviewing his documented history of mental health challenges, I knew that reaching a plea agreement was in the best interest of everyone involved in the case,” district attorney Sherry Boston said to A&E Crime + Investigation in a statement. “Mr. Hawk took responsibility for his actions that resulted in the death of his cousin, Frederick Rooks III. Hawk will serve time in prison while also receiving the mental health care that he needs.”
At the time of his sentencing, Silentó said in an Instagram statement that he “will continue to make music and work on becoming the best possible version of myself” and he prays for “growth, evolution, and the ability to find forgiveness."
“I can’t reverse time, but I can serve the time I’ve been given lawfully and strive to positively contribute to whatever my new environment may be," he stated.
Hudson-O’Connor says that, today, Silentó appears to “be in a calmer space.” “He seems back to normal,” she adds. “As of now, he calls me every Thursday. I’m a big sister, a friend.”
