Scott Sterling was born March 2, 1962 and died August 27, 1987. Better known by his stage name Scott La Rock the original DJ for the hip hop group Boogie Down Productions. Sterling, a social worker, met rapper KRS-ONE in 1986 at the Covenant House group home in the Bronx where KRS was staying. The pair together with rapper D-Nice formed Boogie Down Productions. Their 1987 debut album Criminal Minded was an instant hit and has since been considered a hip hop landmark which inadvertently created gangster rap.
Sterling met an untimely and violent death in 1987 when his friend and BDP associate Derek "D-Nice" Jones who had been assaulted by some local hoods and asked Sterling to try to defuse the situation. The next day Sterling and a group were riding in a Jeep Cherokee when they came to the stoop where the offending parties lived on Morris Avenue in the South Bronx; Sterling’s intention along with the group was to try and squash the beef but one of the hoods pulled a gun and began shooting at random ripping holes through the side and top of the Jeep. Hit in the neck and critically wounded Scott La Rock was driven to Lincoln Hospital less than a mile away. Conscious and talking to the doctors as he was wheeled into the emergency room. Friends were telling hospital personnel "Don't you know who this is, he's Scott La Rock, he has a big album coming out!" Scott La Rock then stated to the doctor that he was feeling cold and tired. At first it was thought that his injuries were not life-threatening and his friends saw him wheeled away into the E.R. They went to the diner on Grand Concourse to wait it out. Unfortunately Scott La Rock died in the operating room within one hour of being shot leaving behind an infant son Scott Sterling Jr. The man who shot him was finally arrested a few years later and brought to trial in the Bronx County Supreme Court.
Though Scott La Rock's death was a tragic blow KRS-ONE decided to continue Boogie Down Productions crediting subsequent releases as being "Overseen by Scott La Rock". The Stop the Violence Movement was in large part a result of Scotts murder.