Rap legend Kidd Creole sentenced for killing homeless man

NEW YORK - Hip Hop legend Kidd Creole has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing a stranger with a steak knife on a Manhattan street.

The stabbing death of a homeless man took place in 2017 in Midtown.  A Manhattan jury found him guilty of first degree manslaughter last month.

Kidd Creole, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, is one of the founding fathers of hip hop as The Kidd Creole of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.

Police had charged him with second-degree murder in the death of 55-year-old John Jolly.

Tourists found Jolly wounded on East 44th Street near 3rd Avenue just before midnight on an August 2017 night.  He had been stabbed multiple times in the chest with a steak knife, the NYPD said. Medics brought him to Bellevue, where he was pronounced dead.

Security camera video recorded Kidd Creole stabbing the man. Police picked Kidd Creole up at his home in the Bronx a day later.

Prosecutors accused Kidd Creole of stabbing the other man after becoming enraged because he thought Jolly was gay and hitting on him.  Creole's attorney had argued that the stabbing was in self-defense.

"Mr. Jolly’s death was devastating to his family and those who knew him. Every life we lose to violent crime ripples throughout our entire city, and we will continue to ensure everyone in our borough can live their lives with the sense of safety and security they deserve," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr said in a statement.

Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. They had a string of high-impact hits in the early 1980s and are considered pioneers in what is now the most popular music genre in the world.