September 3, 2020 – Motor City rap artist DaJuan (Street Lord Juan) Wren was let out of prison five years early on a drug sentence last week courtesy of a compassionate release. One of the true kings of the underground hip-hop scene in Detroit, he was convicted on narcotics-trafficking and weapons charges in 2011 and given a 15-to-20-year prison term.
Wren, 43, was a founding member of the seminal Street Lordz rap crew, legends of the Detroit underground hip-hop movement. The Street Lordz 1998 debut album, Platinum Roleez Don’t Tic Toc, is considered a classic and featured guest appearances by Too Short, Spice One and E-40. In 2004, Street Lord Juan released his solo debut, The Real Me.
Blade Icewood (aka Darnell Lindsay), the de-facto leader of the Street Lordz group, was slain in April 2005, killed outside a car wash behind the wheel of his Range Rover in a feud with a rival rap crew. His dad, Charles (Choicey Chuck) Lindsay, was an original member of Young Boys, Inc. (YBI), the iconic and highly-organized early 1980s Westside Detroit drug organization.
By the end of the decade, the DEA had begun investigating Street Lord Juan for dealing heroin, cocaine and marijuana. He was being supplied by Antonio (Pancho) Simmons, the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel’s main distributor in Michigan. Two of the men in the Simmons drug network, Michael (Moe Green) Cathey and David (Razor Blade) Wynn, were star witnesses at Wren’s trial.
Simmons, 47, pleaded guilty in the case and has a summer 2024 out-date. Wren was found guilty on heroin and marijuana charges as well as possessing an unregistered handgun DEA agents found in a March 2009 raid of his Royal Oak, Michigan home.
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