Ghetto Brothers gang leader, Puerto Rican nationalist and Rubble Kings subject, Benjamin “Yellow Benjy” Melendez, passes away at 65—according to his wife Wanda Melendez.
“He died of natural causes,” author Amir Said tells HipHopDX. “He had kidney failure and had been waiting for a kidney transplant. His condition had gotten much worse over the last couple of years. I was told by his wife that yesterday (May 28) he fell and cut his arm badly. He was then rushed to the hospital. But given the complications of his kidney failure, sadly, he did not make it.”
Melendez, who is also celebrated for negotiating a gang truce between Harlem and the Bronx in 1971, is the subject of Rubble Kings, the 2015 documentary that centers the era of gang violence and drug epidemic in 1970s New York City.
“Benjy was one of the most transformative figures I’ve ever known,” Said added. “He went from street gang leader to social activist and inspired everyone around him. He stood as a social activist, a musician, and a friend to many in the 1970s South Bronx — what was then the worst urban area in the United States.”
Our condolences go out to Benjy’s family. May he rest in power.