King Von

CTL-E-5345 · Person · musician · 1994–2020

VERIFIED evidence grade of this record

King Von, born Dayvon Daquan Bennett on August 9, 1994, in Chicago, Illinois, was a drill rapper raised in the Parkway Gardens housing complex on the South Side, the area known as O Block around 64th Street and King Drive. A childhood friend of Lil Durk, who urged him to take rap seriously and signed him to his Only the Family label in partnership with Empire, Bennett broke through in 2018 with "Crazy Story," a tightly plotted street narrative that showcased his gift for first-person storytelling. His mixtapes Grandson, Vol. 1 (2019) and Levon James (2020) preceded his debut studio album, Welcome to O'Block, released October 30, 2020. One week later, on November 6, 2020, Bennett, aged 26, was shot and killed in an altercation outside an Atlanta nightclub. His music charted at scale only after his death: Welcome to O'Block rose to No. 5 on the Billboard 200, he earned his first Billboard Hot 100 entries posthumously, and the posthumous album What It Means to Be King (2022) debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.

The record

• Also known as: Dayvon Daquan Bennett, Grandson

Notes

Statistics: Welcome to O'Block debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 (about 26,000 units, week of release, Oct. 30, 2020) and rose to No. 5 in its second week (44,000 units) after his death, per Billboard · first Hot 100 entries arrived posthumously on the chart dated Nov. 21, 2020, led by "Took Her to the O" at No. 47, with "The Code" (No. 66), "All These Niggas" feat. Lil Durk (No. 77), and "Crazy Story 2.0" feat. Lil Durk (No. 81), per Billboard · What It Means to Be King (2022) debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums (59,000 units, week ending March 10, 2022), per Billboard · spelling: his legal surname appears as both Bennett and Bennet in published sources; this record uses Bennett, the spelling in his label's and Essence's obituary reporting · Curator's Judgment: DRAFT — for founder review: People who have passed get their flowers: Bennett was drill's most gifted narrator, a Parkway Gardens storyteller who compressed whole blocks of South Side life into three-minute first-person accounts, and who told interviewers he returned to O Block to give money back to the people there. He died at 26, one week after his debut album; the record honors the craft and the giving-back alongside the plain fact of how his life ended. · Photo slot: CLEARED CANDIDATE — Wikimedia Commons File:King Von.png, Danny Rome, CC BY 3.0, license verified from Commons API metadata on 2026-10-15; direct URL https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/King_Von.png ; not downloaded — visual pass follows merge per standing pattern.

Referenced by

• Lil Durk — collaborated with → this record

Sources

• Essence, "Chicago's King Von Dead At 26" — https://www.essence.com/celebrity/king-von-obituary/ (primary source)
• Billboard via RadioX/Socast, "King Von's 'What It Means to Be King' Debuts at No. 1 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums Chart" — https://radiox.cms.socastsrm.com/2022/03/15/king-vons-what-it-means-to-be-king-debuts-at-no-1-on-top-rb-hip-hop-albums-chart/
• Billboard via RadioX/Socast, "King Von Charts on Hot 100 for First Time After His Death, Led by 'Took Her to the O'" — https://radiox.cms.socastsrm.com/2020/11/16/king-von-charts-on-hot-100-for-first-time-after-his-death-led-by-took-her-to-the-o/
• REVOLT (reporting Billboard), "King Von posthumously achieves highest-charting album debut with 'Welcome To O'Block'" — https://www.revolt.tv/article/2020-11-09/66267/king-von-posthumously-achieves-highest-charting-album-debut-with-welcome-to-oblock

Record CTL-E-5345 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: VERIFIED · 4 sources (1 primary) · 1 mapped relationship · CTL research: PPL-001.
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