Maurice Shelmon, known publicly as Ant Jefe, was taken into custody by LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division and booked on a felony murder charge, according to TMZ.
Shelmon, a cohost on the hip-hop podcast and YouTube platform No Jumper who has also released several rap projects, is currently being held on $1 million bail.
Following the arrest, No Jumper founder Adam22 addressed the situation in both an interview with TMZ and during an episode taping of his show, reacting to the breaking news. Adam said the arrest came as a major surprise because Ant had largely stepped away from street activity in recent years.
“[Ant has] been a great podcaster for the last year or so and as far as I knew, he wasn’t really in the streets like that anymore, so this was all a huge shock,” Adam22 told TMZ.
During the No Jumper episode taping, Adam22 and his cohosts initially tried to figure out whether Ant had actually been arrested before learning details about the felony charge and million-dollar bail.
“It could just be a regular situation and he’ll tell us about it next time we see us,” one of the panelists initially said before more information surfaced. The conversation quickly became more serious once the group saw references to robbery-homicide involvement and the reported bail amount.
“Something happened to him that is keeping him out of the zone here because I don’t really think there’s any other explanation," said Adam.
At another point in the episode, the No Jumper crew reflected on how Ant had posted a cryptic Instagram video the day before his arrest in which he talked about “the devil working” and trying to “weather the storm.”
“That very much was in agreement with the kind of thing that you would allude to if you were in a legal situation,” Adam said while reacting to the clip. “It felt like he was stealing himself for a legal battle or some kind of dealing with something that's difficult.”
Prior to joining No Jumper, Ant Jefe previously served eight years in prison on a RICO case and frequently discussed street culture, gang politics, and crime-related issues during podcast appearances.
Authorities have not publicly released additional details regarding the murder case at this time, and TMZ reported LAPD had not responded to requests for comment.
