Kodak Black (born Bill Kahan Kapri on June 11, 1997) is an American rapper from Pompano Beach, Florida, known for his mumble rap style and hit singles "No Flockin" and "ZEZE".
Rising from the Golden Acres projects, he gained fame in the mid-2010s with a series of mixtapes before reaching #1 on the Billboard 200 with Dying to Live (2018).
Early life
Kodak Black was born Dieuson Octave on June 11, 1997, in Pompano Beach, Florida, the son of Haitian immigrant Marcelene Octave.
He later legally changed his name to Bill Kahan Kapri.
Kodak Black was raised by his mother in Golden Acres, a public housing project in Pompano Beach.
Kodak Black started rapping in elementary school and began to go to a local trap house after school to record music.
He spent his youth reading thesauruses and dictionaries to further his vocabulary.
Kodak Black frequently participated in brawls and breaking and entering with his friends.
He was expelled from school in the fifth grade for fighting and was arrested for auto theft while in middle school.
About his upbringing, he said that he was given two options: "sell drugs with a gun on his hip or rap".
From the age of six, Kodak Black used the nickname "Black". He also used the nickname "Lil' Black".
When he joined Instagram he chose the username "Kodak Black", "...'cause you know Kodak, that's pictures and all that."
This later became his stage name when he started to rap and is the name favored by his fans.
Philanthropy
On October 1, 2018, Kodak Black donated $10,000 to the Jack and Jill Children's center, which is a provider of early children's education.
In November 2018, Kodak Black announced that he was building a school in Haiti
On December 20, 2018, Kodak Black donated enough money to Paradise Childcare in Broward County, Florida, to provide gifts for 150 children in the area. In addition, he also donated $5,000 for the organization's annual Christmas party.
In late 2018, he donated $2,500 to South Carolina police officer Terrence Carraway, who was killed in a shootout on duty.
On May 3, 2019, Kodak Black donated $12,500 to a girl named Paige Cook, the girl's goal was to give pencils and notebooks to give to all 7,600 students in the Cleburne Independent School District in Texas, a low-income district.
In 2018, Paige raised enough money to buy over 40,000 pencils.
In the wake of the 2019 STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting, Kodak Black's lawyer reached out to the family of Kendrick Ray Castillo, who was shot and killed after lunging at the attacker, on May 11, and offered to pay for Castillo's funeral and set aside an annual $10,000 scholarship for any student wishing to go to college for science or engineering.
His lawyer stated that the family had not yet responded.
Kodak also allegedly donated $50,000 to Gekyume, the son of late rapper and collaborator XXXTentacion.
Kodak and XXXTentacion were friends up until his death in 2018.
A little bit 'bout career
Kodak Black's career has been marked by periods of mainstream success, as well as public controversies and legal issues.
His legal troubles began in middle school and spiked crucially throughout the late 2010s.
Black was accused of rape in 2016 and faced the charge of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in South Carolina.
He was given a plea bargain in 2021 to the lesser offense of assault and battery and was sentenced to probation.
In 2019, Black was arrested for making false statements to possess weapons and was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison; his sentence was commuted by President Donald Trump in 2021.
