Darryl “Hommo” Baum: 50 Cent, Mike Tyson, and the Cash Money Brothers

Darryl “Hommo” Baum was a Brooklyn man known for two things: serving as boxer Mike Tyson’s childhood friend and bodyguard, and being identified by investigators as the gunman who shot rapper 50 Cent nine times in May 2000. Baum himself was shot in the back of the head three weeks later, on June 10, 2000, in a killing ordered by the Cash Money Brothers gang and eventually prosecuted in federal court.¹

The Shooting of 50 Cent

On May 24, 2000, at roughly 11:22 a.m., Curtis Jackson III was shot in front of his grandmother’s home in South Jamaica, Queens. Nine bullets struck him in the face, arms, legs, chest, hands, and hip. He drove himself to Jamaica Hospital and spent five months in physical therapy; the bullet that hit his cheek left him with a permanent speech impediment.²

Investigators believe Baum was hired to carry out the shooting. The reported motive was retaliation for 50 Cent’s song “Ghetto Qu’ran,” a track from his unreleased debut album Power of the Dollar that named Queens drug figures including Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff of the Supreme Team.² McGriff accused Jackson of being an informant and placed him on an industry blacklist.³ McGriff was later convicted in federal court on drug trafficking, racketeering, and murder charges and sentenced to life in prison in 2007.⁴

Jackson has said the song “Many Men” from Get Rich or Die Tryin’ identifies the man he believes shot him.⁵

The Mike Tyson Connection

Baum was a childhood friend and bodyguard of Mike Tyson.⁶ After Baum was killed, Tyson interrupted training for a comeback fight in Scotland to attend the funeral in Brooklyn.⁷ On June 24, 2000, two weeks after the killing, Tyson knocked out Lou Savarese in 38 seconds at Hampden Park in Glasgow and told the audience, “I dedicate this fight to my friend Darryl Baum.”⁸

The friendship resurfaced in a 2008 federal trial. Cooperating witness Dwayne “Thor” Meyers testified that Tyson and a Brooklyn man named Muhammad Nur each put up $50,000 toward a bounty on Damion “World” Hardy and an associate known as “Taz” over Baum’s death. According to Meyers, the hit “never came to fruition.”⁹ Tyson denied the allegation.⁷

Why the Cash Money Brothers Killed Him

Baum was shot at Quincy Street and Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn on June 10, 2000. The killing was ordered by Damion “World” Hardy, leader of the Cash Money Brothers, a gang that had controlled crack-cocaine distribution around the Lafayette Gardens housing project in Bedford-Stuyvesant since 1991.¹⁰

The retaliation traced back to June 12, 1999, when Hardy’s brother Myron “Wise” Hardy, a CMB co-founder, was shot and killed in a Lafayette Gardens turf dispute by Rumel Davis, a nephew of rival drug dealer Ivory “Peanut” Davis. Damion Hardy responded by ordering killings of Ivory Davis and anyone tied to him. Baum was targeted because of his association with Ivory Davis.¹ Trial testimony also indicated Baum had tried to force a CMB member known as “Taz” to sell drugs for him.⁶

The Killing of His Brother Tyrone

The violence did not stop with Darryl. On July 25, 2003, his brother Tyrone “T-Rock” Baum was shot three times in the head near a construction site at Reid Avenue and Hancock Street in Brooklyn. Hardy ordered the killing because CMB members believed Tyrone was seeking to avenge his brother. Dwayne Meyers and Abubakr Abdur Raheem were the shooters.¹

Who Was Convicted of the Murder

The 2005 federal indictment named Eric Moore as the triggerman who shot Baum in the back of the head, with Zareh Sarkissian driving the getaway car.¹ When the case against Hardy and his top enforcer Aaron “E-Bay” Granton went to trial before U.S. District Judge Frederic Block in Brooklyn, the FBI identified Granton as the person who carried out the killings of Darryl Baum, Tyrone Baum, James Hamilton, and Ivory Davis on Hardy’s orders.¹⁰

On April 29, 2015, a jury convicted both men on all counts, including murder in aid of racketeering. Hardy was found guilty on all 24 counts.¹¹ On May 11, 2015, Judge Block sentenced Hardy and Granton each to six terms of life imprisonment.¹⁰ The Second Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentences on August 21, 2017.¹²

1
U.S. Department of Justice. Cash Money Brothers Indictment Press Release
2
New York Post. Here’s How 50 Cent Went Broke
3
The Sun. Jam Master Jay Murder, Gang Feud, Arrests
4
Biography. Kenneth McGriff
5
BET. 50 Cent Interview: Get Rich or Die Tryin 20th Anniversary
6
New York Daily News. Accused Gang Leader Damion Hardy Wanted to Kill Mike Tyson, Witnesses Say
7
ABC7 New York. Tyson and Baum Relationship
8
ESPN. Tyson Defeats Savarese
9
Fox News. Witness: Boxer Mike Tyson Put Up $50,000 for a Hit on Brooklyn Gang Members
10
FBI. Leader and Top Enforcer of Cash Money Brothers Criminal Gang Sentenced to Six Terms of Life Imprisonment
11
New York Times. Damion Hardy Found Guilty of Drug and Murder Charges After Lengthy Legal Battle
12
FindLaw. United States v. Hardy, No. 15-1645-cr