Bmf: The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia Family - Mara Shalhoup

Shalhoup offers an inside look at The Black Mafia Family, the notorious organized crime mob whose drug empire helped launch the careers of several popular hip hop artists. 8-page color insert. \n \nIn the early 1990s, Demetrius Big Meech Flenory and his brother, Terry Southwest T, rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one of the largest cocaine empires in American history: the Black Mafia Family. They socialized with music mogul Sean Diddy Combs, did business with New York's king of bling Jacob The Jeweler Arabo, and built allegiances with rap superstars Young Jeezy and Fabolous. Yet even as BMF was attracting celebrity attention, its crew members struck fear in a city. \n \nWhen the brothers began clashing in 2003, the flashy and beloved Big Meech risked it all on a shot at legitimacy in the music industry. At the same time, utilizing a high-stakes wiretap operation, the feds inched toward their goal of destroying the Flenory's empire and ending the reign of a crew suspected in the sale of thousands of kilos of cocaine -- and a half-dozen unsolved murders.\n