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In the song “Grandma Dynamite,” by the band 24-7 Spyz, the singer known as P. Fluid talks about growing up in the lower South Bronx in the 1980s.
As the bullets fly, the grandmother in the song tells the singer that being a musician can “get you out of the ghetto” and onto the streets.
The success of 24-7 Spyz did just that, pulling P. Fluid, born Peter Forrest, out of his circle and onto stages across the US and Europe. He pioneered Black rock’s attention as the band appeared on MTV and performed with Nirvana, Lenny Kravitz, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Alice Cooper.
Despite the group’s success, Mr. 24-7 Spyz left. Forrest in the mid-’90s. While his former co-stars continued under the same name, he settled into an anonymous life as a taxi driver in New York City, carried elderly and disabled passengers.
On January 13, some 30 years after he left the band, Mr. Forrest’s life story came to a shocking end. Mr. Forrest, 64, was found beaten to death in his ambulance at the end of Castle Hill Avenue in the Bronx, just two miles from where he grew up.
Those who knew Mr. Forrest were shocked and confused.
“Nobody should be ripped off like that,” said Jimi Hazel, longtime guitarist for 24-7 Spyz.
His ex-girlfriend, Charmelle Dukes, called Mr. Forrest smart but not violent, adding: “I never saw him drink or do drugs.”
“He did not hang around and have enemies.” he said. “He is not the man.”
At about 8:00 a.m. that Monday, Mr. Forrest lost contact with his employer, then missed a few scheduled items and stopped answering his phone, police said.
By 10:00 a.m., the co-worker had located his car using his GPS and sent another driver to check on him. The driver found Mr. Forrest badly beaten in his trunk and lying in a pool of blood, police said. A window inside the car was broken.
Paramedics were called to the scene a short time later and pronounced Mr Forrest dead. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner later ruled that Mr. Forrest and his body his death.
Surveillance video shows a man leaving the ambulette and getting into a waiting car to flee. On Friday, Sharief Bodden, 29, of the Bronx was arrested on charges of second degree murder in connection with the death of Mr. Forrest.
Mr. Bodden, who was held without bail after his arraignment on Saturday, was also charged with possession of drugs and weapons. In the criminal complaint, prosecutors said he also had nearly 100 vials of crack cocaine. His legal aid attorney did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
At the beginning of the show, Mr. Forrest was known to wander around the stage shirtless, holding the microphone stand like a baton, while his band played a mix of metal, punk and funk, Mr. Hazel’s virtuoso guitar hangs in the sky. . Some songs are upbeat, like their rendition of Kool & the Gang’s “Jungle Boogie.”
Mr. Forrest spent his later years living a quieter life, keeping quiet about his colorful past with neighbors in the five-story walk-up he lived near Pelham Parkway in the Bronx.
“He went to work and came home,” said Renee Millard, a neighbor who lived across the street from Mr. Forrest.
“Sometimes you could hear him playing the guitar softly,” Mr. Millard said. “You can tell he knows his stuff.”
Before work, Mr. Forrest called the Palo Blanco deli across the street to order a salami sandwich and then went to the Albanian American deli below his house to pick up lottery tickets.
“I can’t imagine a nice guy like him ending up in such a sad situation,” said Jack Lazri, the owner of the Albanian-American deli, who said Mr. Forrest was friendly but not easy to talk to. street or local. from work.
Ms. Dukes attributes her ex-boyfriend’s modesty to his service in the U.S. Army, which she said helped instill the discipline and dedication he brought to his art.
“It wasn’t going around like, ‘We’re on the Billboard charts,'” he said. “He was not proud. He just loved making music.”
Mr. Forrest was the youngest of 10 children and the son of Percy Forrest, who was a baseball player in the Negro Leagues and died in 1994 at the age of 77.
Peter came to the Bronx in the 1970s when pioneers like DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash were making hip-hop. B-boy culture and cut dance was strong.
He joined the Army as a teenager, said one of his two daughters, Nikeeda Richardson, 46.
“He wanted to get off the streets and the Army did that for him, and so did his talent,” he said.
After leaving the Army, Mr. started hanging out in the East Village. Forrest, became a fixture on the downtown music scene in the late 80’s.
Created Spyz 24-7 with Mr. He was Hazel in 1986, with Rick Skatore on bass and Anthony Johnson on drums.
“We all came from the South Bronx, so we realized and it permeated the music,” Mr. Hazel said.
But there was no playground there, he said, so they headed downtown. “The music scene is ripe for experimentation, and our music puts us smack-dab in the middle,” Mr. Hazel said.
Spyz, as the group was known, was one of the prominent Black rock groups, including Living Color, that challenged the stereotype that Black Music should stick to rap and R&B.
Spyz has played at historic New York venues such as CBGB’s, the Pyramid Club and the Limelight. The group has shared bills with major rock acts such as Faith No More and Alice in Chains, Mr Hazel said, as well as hard-hitting bands such as Murphy’s Law and Agnostic Front.
Mr. Forrest’s enduring voice is multi-faceted, combining street attitude with socially conscious lyrics about racism, the environment, and peaceful living.
In the 1990s, Mr. Spyz became disaffected. Forrest for creative diversity.
On the band’s tour dates that year with Jane’s Addiction—and with another tour planned with the punk band Suicidal Tendencies—Mr. Forrest announced on stage that he was leaving. After briefly returning to the group in 1995 for a European tour and another album, he left Spyz.
Mr. Spyz fought with Mr. Hazel and Mr. Skatore and plays in the band to this day.
Mr. Forrest started other music projects after leaving Spyz in an attempt to revive his career, but “he was always sad after that,” Ms. Dukes said.
Mr. Forrest enjoyed his work on the ambulette. “I like to help the elderly and the disabled, to help them walk,” said Mrs. Dukes. “It made him happy.”
But he never stopped focusing on his music and continued to write, rehearse and perform.
Ray Anderson, who started playing in a band with Mr. Forrest as a teenager, and later with BlkVampires, a black goth-metal band fronted by Mr. Forrest, said: Forrest who performed regularly at the Manhattan club.
“It’s his goal to reach the level he achieved with Spyz, so he hasn’t lost that ambition, that drive,” Mr. Anderson said. “He always wants to get back on top.”
