As a person who ends up dabbling in the rap music scene from time to time, I always find that there’s a side to the industry that’s fairly atrocious. Rap is one of the only mainstream music scenes to really have serious groupies — and like the rock scene of old, it also tends to encourage its players to flaunt money they may or may not have.

Sometimes, things go fine. Other times, it turns bloody, horrifying, and scandalous. Up until recently, I’ll be honest, I never heard of D4vd. He’s an “indie” rapper and singer who started to make major news headlines for a number of reasons.

First off, he recently collaborated with one of Kpop’s most prominent bands: Stray Kids. Secondly, he also happened to have collaborated with Fortnite (the game) to create a new anthem.

Oh, and there’s the dead girl in his Tesla trunk.

Wait, what was that last one?

Yeah. That’s why he’s becoming famous both in and out of the scene. The body of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas has been found in the trunk of his impounded Tesla car, which was initially found only blocks from his LA home.

As a content creator who is associated with the rap game, I think it’s time to discuss some very scary truths about what this case really reveals. So let’s get into it.

I’m going to lay out the very basic facts about what we know so far, because more information seems to be coming out every day.

Officially, he has not been charged with murder yet. Police are also not naming him as a suspect yet. But it looks pretty damning, especially when you look at his brand.

I’ve been looking into D4vd’s music and discography, and let me tell you. This guy’s a bit of a trip. I’m not kidding when I say that he had a lot of allusions to his relationship with Celeste, including lyrics.

Oh, and it gets more visible here in the song named “Celeste:”

In several of the music videos that D4vd released, you can find imagery of white roses (often used as a symbol of mourning) and a woman who looks remarkably like Celeste, blindfolded.

He also has an alter-ego named Pain that has a blood-spattered button-down and a blindfold. D4vd’s concerts also featured a full white casket and white roses — a funerary theme that follows the music videos that mirror Celeste’s death.

At first, this could all be written off as a thing where rappers just try to be edgy and dramatic. But when you look at the criminal case linked to this guy, the music stops being “LOLEDGYKID” and starts being bone-chilling.

Some of this music came out years before Celeste was killed. Was he hinting that he wanted her to die all along? Moreover, why was his relationship with a child treated like such an open secret?

Truth be told, there’s a lot to unpack here regardless of whether or not he did it.

Those who know me know that I have spent time wandering the streets rather than going home as a youth. As a teenager, I ended up getting involved with traffickers who pimped me out and almost sold me for parts.

Needless to say, I see a lot of my younger self in Celeste.

So, maybe it’s time that I talk about the things everyone doesn’t quite seem to understand about the Celeste situation. Maybe my insight might be able to answer certain questions people have.

Let’s talk about the biggest issue people seem to have: Celeste being a missing person for over a year. Celeste was a runaway — and it’s been repeatedly documented that she had an abusive mother. In fact, it’s very likely that she was a child of neglect.

While it’s officially unknown whether Celeste’s mother was aware of the relationship between her and D4vd, one thing is certain. A happy child is not a child who repeatedly runs away from home.

Celeste was not happy at home, and it was an open secret that she would run away, only to return weeks or months later. This is a bad sign that things were pretty terrible at home — and that her mother likely knew she had run away again.

After Celeste’s body was found, the mom panicked and contacted TMZ, not the police. How is that normal? It’s not. It’s the mark of a parent who was more interested in the spotlight and money than her kid’s well-being.

So, I don’t know how Celeste met D4vd, but it happened pretty early on. She was even in one of his earlier music videos — once again, showing a little bit of a “dance mom” vibe there. (Parents have to give consent for kids to star in a music video.)

D4vd’s friends thought Celeste was his girlfriend. There is evidence that he was aware of her age and that he covered it up for his own desires. There are many speculating that Burke may have paid Celeste’s parents off in order to keep access to her.

Resurfaced chats show that there was a definite link between the two, including some rather alarming chats. Certain sources also claimed that Celeste felt trapped by him and was financially beholden to him.

Now, I am just a random person, but this all really feels like D4vd viewed her as an obsession piece. He seemed to have this obsession that sparked him to make his albums.

The lyrics alone seem to suggest a toxic relationship. Considering how obsessed he was, it wouldn’t shock me if he just snapped. Some folks see love as a form of consumption and ownership.

People might accuse me of being disrespectful of Celeste by saying this, but I don’t mean it that way. Celeste was, in many ways, a classic groupie. Groupies were originally underaged (or barely legal) girls who accompanied rock stars as romantic interests.

As a former groupie-turned-DJ-spouse myself, I can say that a lot of groupies tend to come from tumultuous backgrounds. I’ve seen it with a groupie who used to tour with Manson. It was a rough time for her.

Some of them just do it to escape life for a while. Some of them just hope that someone will save them. While it can turn out okay for a rare few, most groupies end up being exploited.

Being a groupie is brutal, emotionally and sexually. And for sweet, innocent girls like Celeste, it can turn abusive or even deadly. The most fucked up part is that most people will crucify the groupie, not the star, for what happens to them.

So here’s the wildest thing: D4vd remains incredibly silent about the killing. He has not said a damn thing about the killing, even when asked for a statement. Not even an “I miss you, Celeste.”

Right now, he’s been playing Fortnite while people are freaking out over the murder. His manager has also come forward to dispel rumors that he is living with D4vd or aware of the relationship between him and Celeste.

The deafening silence is the most striking aspect of this.

Most of us can’t fathom staying silent after getting accused of murder, especially not the murder of a child you allegedly had a romantic relationship with. It just goes against what most of us would imagine.

I mean, hell, if someone that close to me were to die, I’d be working with the police 24/7. He just…is on Fortnite. He also apparently shut down or muzzled his Reddit board and Discord servers, too.

Obviously, this is likely because he wants to ensure he doesn’t fuck up whatever criminal defense he has. Anything he says can or will be used against him, and his lawyer probably told him that much, too.

Perhaps it’s also what D4vd said in “Romantic Homicide,” that he actually hated her and he feels no guilt. Or maybe he’s trying to lock down his brand so that it doesn’t blow up in the potential event that he gets proven to be framed — and yes, some people believe he was.

If the silence freaks you out, it’s because you should be freaked out.

I don’t think most people are fully cognizant of how reptilian and soulless the music industry can be, especially in “big money” genres. What you’re seeing here is the scary level of heartlessness that is drilled into you if you want to climb to the top.

His lawyers are also top-of-the-line crisis management pros. They even handled Britney Spears’s conservatorship, so the silence was probably a major must if they were to serve him.

The music industry didn’t care about Celeste. They cared about the cash cow, D4vd. Speaking of which…

$20,000 a month rentals. Rumors of D4vd paying off Celeste’s parents for silence. Rumors of D4vd going to parties with stacks of cash, only to vanish. The numbers don’t really add up, do they?

No, they don’t. That’s a lot of extra money coming around, isn’t it?

Well, there’s a reason why music and organized crime tend to go hand in hand. Chances are high we’ll never learn what that money bought or where it came from. It’s fucked.

Truth be told, part of me wants to say that the only reason this even came to light is because Celeste wasn’t even 15 years old when she died. If it was an adult, it’d have been a footnote on the LAPD police blotter.

The money floating around the industry has a way of buying silence. Don’t be shocked if we never find out all the details. The industry has fixers for that. Just ask Diddy’s victims.