Singer: Slayings off limits to horrorcore rappers

[September 28, 2009]  PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- The quadruple murder allegedly committed by a horrorcore music fanatic is just the kind of scenario so-called "death rappers" write songs about.

But the woman whose music brought Richard "Sam" McCroskey and his victims together says no one in her circle will be rapping about this case.

"People can call it hypocritical, but I call it respect," Razakel, the self-described "Queen of the Wicked (expletive)," told The Associated Press Saturday in an exclusive interview. "I'm not going to talk about people I loved like that. ... It would be disrespectful."

Normally, the genre is all about murder, gore and vilifying organized religion, particularly Christianity. But the recent slayings in the little college town of Farmville, Va., have shaken the underground music scene.

"We rap about it, and it finally happens," Razakel, 25, who refused to divulge her given name, said by telephone from her home near Albuquerque, N.M. "It should be like a slap in our face, right? Well, no. S--- happens."

McCroskey, 20, of Castro Valley, Calif., is charged with first-degree murder in the death of the Rev. Mark Niederbrock, 50. Similar charges are expected in the killings of Niederbrock's estranged wife, Debra S. Kelley, 53, their daughter, Emma Niederbrock, 16, and her friend, Melanie Wells, 18, of Inwood, W.Va.

All four were found bludgeoned to death Sept. 18, in Kelley's home. McCroskey and Emma had met online through the horrorcore scene, and all five had just returned from the Sept. 12 Strictly for the Wicked festival outside Detroit.

Razakel and boyfriend Andres Shrim, aka SicktanicK the Soulless, were among the festival's organizers and headliners. McCroskey, an aspiring rapper himself, was a Web site designer and promoter of Shrim's label, Serial Killin Records.

Razakel said it was she who first introduced Emma and Melanie.

Emma discovered Razakel's music about two years ago and began communicating with her through instant message and MySpace, the rapper said. They shared a love for such diverse musical acts as Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, Porcelain and the Tramps, and Slipknot.

"We both liked the same stuff, like photography and makeup and doing hair and all that," said Razakel, whose MySpace page features a crowned female demon holding a fetus in one hand and a severed head on a pike in the other.

The Chicago native didn't know it at the time, but they were also both daughters of Presbyterian ministers.

"I always had an idea that she ... was brought up strict," she said. "I was brought up strict. And so I thought I could relate with her, because I know how it goes, and I messed up a lot, and I just, I didn't want to see her go down the same path. And so I was there for her."

About a year into their online friendship, Melanie contacted Razakel. The singer noted they lived just a few hours apart and suggested Emma and Melanie meet.

"They were inseparable," she said.

She and Shrim first met Emma and Melanie -- who went by the names "RagDOLL" and "Ms. Free Abortions," respectively -- last summer at the Underground United concert in Chicago, Razakel said.

McCroskey, who went by the screen name "LiLdEmOnDoG," had been doing Web work and promotions for another horrorcore label, Wicked Intent Records, when he first approached Razakel about a year and a half ago. They met in January at a gathering in Apple Valley, Calif.

"He was actually really shy to approach me or Sick," she said. "And I had to call him out."

She said McCroskey was a wizard with Flash Art and really beefed up the label's and its artists' Web pages. He filmed concerts and took photographs.

In the meantime, Emma and Melanie had become members of Razakel's online promotions team, dubbed "the unholy apostles."

Contrary to earlier reports, Razakel said McCroskey and Emma did not meet until he flew to Virginia on Sept. 6. Emma wrote gushing messages to McCroskey's MySpace page, professing her love for him.

"But she never flat out told me, `He's my boyfriend,'" Razakel said. "I just knew that they were close and getting closer, and at the show they were going to meet up and take it on from there."

McCroskey's sister, Sarah, said his friends spoke of a falling out they had at the show. McCroskey, who recently began rapping under the moniker "Syko Sam," told the cab driver who took him to the Richmond, Va., airport the day before his arrest that the two had fought over an amorous text message Emma had received from another man.

Razakel knew nothing of that. Before the concert, the girls hung out in her hotel room, and she spent hours putting dread falls in Melanie's hair.

"I thought everything was cool," she said.

When she heard of the killings, and that McCroskey was the suspect, she said she couldn't believe it.

"This sounds kind of messed up, but to me it makes more sense if some random person would have broken into that house and did all that before it makes sense with Sam," she said. "You could push over this kid and walk all over him."

The Monday before she died, Emma texted Razakel a little heart on her cell phone.

Many have blamed Razakel and horrorcore music for the killings. She said she gets her ideas from books and the news, and refuses to accept responsibility for what happened.

"To me, it's people do whatever they do," she said. "Our music wasn't playing in his ears when he bludgeoned four people. He did that on his own."

But while Razakel said she has no feelings of guilt, people should not assume she is unfeeling.

"We rap about some ugly, evil, evil stuff, but that doesn't mean we're not human," she said.

[Associated Press; By ALLEN G. BREED]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.