Music
Blade Icewood
1977–2005 · rapper
Charismatic leader of the Street Lord'z whose 2004 hit “Boy Would You (Boss Up)” launched the “Blade Dance”; he was shot and killed on Seven Mile in 2005.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 28- Birth name
- Darnell Lindsay
- Also known as
- Blade
- Detroit years
- 1977–2005
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Darnell Lindsay, known as Blade Icewood, was one of the most promising Detroit rappers of the early 2000s and the de facto leader of the Street Lord'z, a crew that defined the city's flashy, independent street rap before the internet era. In 2004 he released “Boy Would You (Boss Up)”, whose video introduced a dance of raised, shaking fists that became known as the Blade Dance, or “boss up”; Detroit-born NFL players later carried it onto national television as a touchdown and sack celebration. The same year he was shot and paralyzed, and on April 19, 2005, he was killed outside a car wash on Seven Mile Road, a death linked by rumor to a feud with another crew and part of a violent period in Detroit hip-hop. Younger acts such as Doughboyz Cashout cite him as their inspiration, Tee Grizzley saluted him in a lyric, and his son performs as Lil Blade. TV One's Sins of the City revisited his murder.
Highlights
- Leader of the Detroit crew Street Lord'z.
- “Boy Would You (Boss Up)” (2004) spawned the Blade Dance, later seen in the NFL.
- Inspired Doughboyz Cashout and a generation of Detroit street rappers.
- His story was told in an episode of TV One's Sins of the City.