New York City Rapper Hollywood Play Shot Dead in Front of Queens Club

A local New York hip-hop artist was reported shot dead in front of a lounge where he was hosting a birthday party early Sunday morning.

Frank Snyder, 35, known by the hip-hop name Hollywood Play, was exiting Tavern Lounge on Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven, Queens, at 3:15 a.m., when a black sedan pulled in front of the club and a gunman got out and started shooting, police said, cited by the New York Post.

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Snyder was shot in the leg and in the neck. He was taken to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to the NYPD.

Police investigators said that they still cannot confirm whether Snyder was the target of the attack. No one else was injured and a witness, bartender Tiesajah Reynolds, told the New York Post that the unidentified shooter was aiming for the rapper.

“They targeted him,” Reynolds said. “There was a couple other people outside. I feel like they had to wait for the right moment to get him. I don’t understand, why him? Why come after him? They had to be waiting for him.”

Snyder, a father of six, was a regular at the Tavern Lounge and was often seen selling his CDs for $5 dollars. “He didn't have enemies, but there was a lot of jealousy. He did shows in the club every Saturday,” Debra Snyder, the rapper’s mother said.

Snyder is another in a series of rappers shot this year. Earlier, a 20-year-old musician XXXTentacion (real name — Jacey Onfroy), often described as a controversial but emerging star in American hip-hop, was shot in southern Florida in July.