JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (AP) - The line “Moneyteam or die” served as a mantra for a six-member Johnstown rap group in early 2014.

But in the years since, the slogan has proven tragically prophetic.

Three of Moneyteam’s six members have lost their lives to gunfire.

Two of them - Zachary Andrews and Kyfen Jones - died in homicides that remain unsolved, while another group member was struck in the leg on the night last month when Jones was slain.

Yet another member of Moneyteam died last year from a gunshot.

“It’s a tragedy. It’s sad,” said Wadell Rowe, Jones’ uncle and the founder of the Hornerstown recording studio where Moneyteam spent long days laying down tracks.

“People forget there’s a human side to this,” Rowe said.

“To me, they weren’t bad kids. They were kids with good upbringings and if things happened differently, they might be pretty far in their career right now.”

Rowe said he doesn’t have the answers to explain the path fate took instead.

But for too many, youthful pride and the drive to play the role of the street-hardened rapper have become a dangerous mix in today’s Johnstown, where that life can often mean going head-to-head with big-city drug dealers “willing to do the kinds of things people are saying on those (rap) records,” Rowe said.

“One of the things I used to caution them about was the wording of their music,” Rowe said during an interview at his Horner Street studio, Rolow Entertainment Artists and Record Company.

“They had that setting that to be a part of hip-hop, you gotta be hard … be tough.”

The lure of Hollywood’s image of street life is a powerful one, Rowe said.

And perhaps even more so in a struggling town where opportunities seem few and far between.

‘Stars in their eyes’

Rowe knows the music business well.

He said he chased his own dreams to Seattle nearly 30 years ago and ended up working in production at the Paramount Theatre there before getting into band management.

He spent years in Japan, too, before deciding to return to Johnstown, he said.

As it turned out, his young nephew - Jones, then not yet a teenager - drew him back, Rowe said.

“He was my biggest fan,” Rowe said, noting that Jones used to spend days dancing to one of his band’s cassette tapes.

When he got a few years older, Jones said he wanted to follow in his uncle’s footsteps but didn’t know where to turn for help in the music business.

It took a few years, but Rowe set up his Rolow studio in 2011.

Moneyteam - comprised of Jones, Andrews, Leon Harris, Ravaunn Hardrick, Jordon Rose and Jalen Gibson - were among the first acts in the door.

“They saw stars in their eyes,” Rowe said. “They wanted to be the best there was.”

He recalled times when the high school friends spent nights recording music until 5 a.m.

Their ambition was evident, he said.

In one song, Andrews, the group’s leader, rapped: “Every day I wake up, I lose another breath. So when I die, that’ll be the only time I rest.”

‘Don’t talk to cops’

Moneyteam’s tracks often portrayed them as seasoned street drug dealers, with members rapping about “gettin’ work” and “moving bricks.”

In some of their music videos, members wave fists full of cash and talk about doing whatever it takes to get rich - either through hustling drugs or hip-hop.

In one song, the sound of gunfire is used to interrupt catchy beats.

“We don’t talk to cops,” one member rapped in the track “Never Seen,” suggesting later that they had other ways to settle scores.

Profanity and derogatory terms for women also were rampant in many of the group’s songs.

Rowe said he often tried to encourage acts such as Moneyteam to focus “on the positive,” saying he often told them he’d cut their studio fees if they kept their messages clean.

Usually, that plea fell on deaf ears.

“Everybody wants to be hard,” Rowe said. “These kids see people on the street doing stuff, dealing, and they want to be like them.

“What they don’t understand is that life isn’t just talk. It’s real.”

Police suggested that those lines between the songs and the street might have blurred at times for some of Moneyteam’s members.

In June of 2010, Andrews was charged with felony robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault after a man who had been pistol-whipped and robbed outside a Hornerstown bar identified Andrews from a photo lineup as one of his assailants.

Andrews eventually entered a guilty plea to simple assault and received a sentence of one to 18 months in county prison, but was credited for time served and granted automatic parole.

Andrews’ uncle, Dwight Andrews, later called the incident a “misunderstanding,” saying the young man shouldn’t be defined by the incident.

‘Open for whatever’

The year 2014 started out strong for Moneyteam, Rowe said. The group had already released one album and was working on new tracks.

And when the word came that they would open for well-known former Ruff Ryders rapper Cassidy at Ace’s in Johnstown on March 29, their excitement grew, Rowe said.

The group’s desire to strike it big seemed to intensify in their final months together, he added.

He recalled Andrews telling him he was “open for whatever changes” were needed to become more commercial.

And one of his last recordings was a track with his longtime girlfriend, Victoria, that Rowe called a major step forward.

“He walked in with her and their baby and he just looked like he’d changed,” Rowe said. “I think about that day a lot.”

Moneyteam, Rowe said, “was really starting to get noticed.”

All of that changed in an instant on April 13, 2014 - just weeks after the Cassidy concert.

That’s when Andrews was shot and killed in his Grove Avenue home.

The 21-year-old had just returned home when he was shot dead by two assailants, police have said. A friend who was with him was also struck, but survived.

Johnstown police charged a man but the Cambria County district attorney’s office withdrew the charges in January, saying there wasn’t sufficient evidence to proceed.

West End homicide

Rowe said the group continued rapping without their leader.

Videos posted on Youtube were tagged #RIPSTATIS - a reference to Andrews’ stage name - and at least one video included a tribute to their friend.

Less than a year later, on Jan. 18, 2015, Harris died of a gunshot wound in his Hornerstown home, according to Johnstown police Detective Dan Fisher. Harris was 18 years old.

A staffer in the Cambria County Coroner’s Office said Harris’ death was ruled a suicide, although police said they understood it to be an accidental shooting.

Jones, 24, died Nov. 9 in the city’s West End.

According to police, he and Hardrick were walking on Edith Avenue when they encountered two people who opened fire at them, striking Jones multiple times and hitting Hardrick in the leg, Cambria County District Attorney Kelly Callihan said on Nov. 11.

Police have offered few details about the Jones case, saying they fear jeopardizing their investigation. Fisher declined to say whether police had identified any suspects or motives in the shooting, although he did say that police are not sure whether the shooter or shooters were targeting Jones, Hardrick or both.

At a press conference the week after Jones was killed, Johnstown police Capt. Jeff Janciga said that a shooting in Dale Borough the night before Jones’ murder “may or may not be related.”

As many as eight shots were fired in that Nov. 8 McMillen Street shooting, in which a man was struck in the knee.

‘Don’t be fooled’

Efforts to reach Moneyteam’s surviving members for comment were unsuccessful this week.

Rowe said the young men are hurting.

The six shared a bond - like brothers, he said.

Rowe said the Jones and Andrews households are hurting, too, noting that the young men left families and young children behind.

“No matter what someone might be to you, it’s always important to remember they are loved by someone else,” he said, shaking his head in dismay.

“No one should have the privilege to take someone’s life.

“That’s God’s job.”

Today, surviving Moneyteam rappers and colleagues still tag “MTOD” - Moneyteam or die - onto videos they post. And Rowe said that sentiment is symbolic of the bond they shared.

But to him, there’s another message in Moneyteam’s story: Life isn’t guaranteed.

And the hardcore hip-hop lifestyle that tempts youth isn’t what it might seem, he said.

Tragically, more than a handful of young black men who’ve walked through his studio are dead today, Rowe said.

“Don’t get fooled by the glitter,” he said. “It might look shiny on TV, but it’s not.”

The streets aren’t kind. And when you find success, jealously often follows, he said.

“A lot of young minority men have a lot of pride, and when it’s tested, they feel they have to react to it … sometimes just to show they’re tough,” Rowe said.

“But what they don’t understand … is when you’re gone, you’re gone.

“There’s no coming back.”

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Information from: The Tribune-Democrat, https://www.tribune-democrat.com

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