CULTURETECHLENSYNW Melly
VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)
Combined Graph record U-07019 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-5753.
YNW Melly, born Jamell Maurice Demons on 1 May 1999 in Gifford, Florida, is an American rapper on 300 Entertainment. He broke through with "Murder on My Mind" (2018), which peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100 and was certified 4× platinum; the albums I Am You (2018), We All Shine (2019) — including "Mixed Personalities" with Kanye West — and Melly vs. Melvin (2019), released while he was incarcerated, followed, the last reaching No. 8 on the Billboard 200. In February 2019 he was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the October 2018 deaths of Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr., and pleaded not guilty. His first trial ended in a mistrial in 2023; bond was denied again in May 2026 and a retrial is scheduled for January 2027, with prosecutors seeking the death penalty, per regional and national reporting.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
YNW Melly, born Jamell Maurice Demons on 1 May 1999 in Gifford, Florida, is an American rapper on 300 Entertainment. He broke through with "Murder on My Mind" (2018), which peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100 and was certified 4× platinum; the albums I Am You (2018), We All Shine (2019) — including "Mixed Personalities" with Kanye West — and Melly vs. Melvin (2019), released while he was incarcerated, followed, the last reaching No.
The record
- Also known as: Jamell Maurice Demons, Jamell Demons
Notes
Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Census Intake Wave 1 — 747 Program, Wave 7; first packet at the founder's 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): no YNW Melly entity in the live graph at 3,443 entities (exact / normalized / alias + token containment); ID CTL-E-5753 free. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger, Tier 3 — Famous Birthdays ABSENT census, readiness rank 240 (Rappers list). The census supplied the NAME ONLY; no fact in this record is sourced to it (CTL-GOV-004). SCOPE GATE: PASS — Black American recording figure. Vital status: LIVING — incarcerated awaiting retrial; bond denied 6 May 2026 (Broward County). Procedural facts only are carried; no guilt finding exists in the murder case and none is implied. CONFLICTS CARRIED: One May 2026 report describes him as turning 28 on 1 May 2026; TCPalm's account (turned 27 at his April 2026 hearing) is consistent with the sourced 1999 birth year. The 28 figure is flagged as erroneous and not used. STATISTICS (sourced, dated): "Murder on My Mind" peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is certified 4× platinum (as of 2022); Melly vs. Melvin peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200 — AllMusic/Wikipedia, accessed 2026-10-16. MEDIA: photo HELD (candidate: Wikimedia Commons and label/press photography of this subject exists; no file page was read at file-page level in this pass, so no image is cleared — CTL-PHOTO-001; a CTL-created graphic is the standing alternative); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-5753-ynw-melly.svg); video HELD (the Shorts Link Map catalog was checked by name and variants — no matching-entity CTL Short exists for this subject; the three catalog string-hits for "Ne-Yo" resolve to Nina Simone and John Coltrane rows, not Ne-Yo billings); audio HELD (no CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio; the subject's recordings are third-party copyrighted material). MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot under the media-layer rule; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created SVG (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record's sourced facts) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short in the Shorts Link Map catalog (checked by name and variants), and no official/em) | audio = HELD (No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio at staging; the subject's own recordings are third-party )
Relationships
- Kanye West — collaborated with
YNW Melly's "Mixed Personalities" (2019) features Kanye West.
Sources
- AllMusic artist biography — breakthrough, albums, Billboard 200 Nos. 8 and 11, mistrial/retrial posture — https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ynw-melly-mn0003736777 (primary source · build store)
- TCPalm (7 April 2026) — born 1 May 1999, Gifford, Florida; retrial scheduled January 2027; co-defendant plea — https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/2026/04/07/ynw-melly-update-trial-release-date-florida-shooting/89501245007/ (build store)
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Record CTL-E-5753 · Combined Graph record U-07019 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
Cite this record
Chicago: CultureTechLens. “YNW Melly (CTL-E-5753).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-5753/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). YNW Melly (CTL-E-5753) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-5753/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “YNW Melly (CTL-E-5753).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-5753/
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