After six years of going nowhere, Amir Crump's rap career was finally on the rise.
Crump's hip-hop group Desert Mobb put out a full-length CD in October, launched it at a sold-out record release party at Beauty Bar downtown and had a song from it picked up recently for use in a popular video game.
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Wherever his musical aspirations might have led him will never be known.
Police allege Crump on Wednesday carried out one of the most brazen assault rifle attacks in Las Vegas history, firing more than 50 rounds at police officers and killing a veteran cop before officers fatally shot the 21-year-old rapper.
"This guy was a very crazed, obviously mentally imbalanced criminal," Sheriff Bill Young said Wednesday night.
That description has left Crump's friends confounded as they mourn the rapper, who performed under the name "Trajik."
"I just can't believe this. Amir has always been cool, totally respectful, never violent ever," said Dave Rosen, who manages Desert Mobb and has known Crump since the rapper was 16.
"I'm shocked because things were going really, really good for him."
Rosen described his longtime friend as a musician with a bright future.
Local and Internet sales of Desert Mobb's debut album, "Lyt Cyti," had been boosted recently by the use of it in "L.A. Rush," a top-selling video game for Xbox and PlayStation2.
"Things have never gone so well for him," said Rosen, who produced the CD.
Rosen described Crump as a peaceful musician, and before Wednesday's gunfight, police said, the rapper's rap sheet included a petty theft conviction, but no violent crimes.
But lyrics on Desert Mobb's album suggest the rappers are not pacifists.
"Try to kill me/I'm gonna kill you instead," goes a lyric to "Dead Or Alive," one of the track's from "Lyt Cyti."
On the group's Web site on MySpace.com, they describe their lyrical style, dubbing it "'Frozen Propane' to symbolize that even though they are deep freeze cold, thangs can get heated if need be."
Asked to reconcile the violent imagery in Desert Mobb's lyrics with the peaceful friend he knew, Rosen said Crump's persona in his songs was just a pose.
Violent lyrics "just kind of go along with the music," Rosen said. "I never saw it in him in real life. I mean, my old Jewish mother, a 64-year-old white lady, loved him and carried a picture of him around because he was so cool and nice to her."
Review-Journal writer Lynnette Curtis contributed to this report.
