The January murder of Mazaradi Fox — a Queens rapper who counted 50 Cent as a lifelong friend — was 16 years in the making, cops said Tuesday as they announced an arrest in the case.
The suspect was retaliating against Fox for a murder Fox allegedly participated in back in 1998, officials said.
The arrested man, Jamal Scott, 35, is the ’98 victim’s older brother, according to police sources.
Scott, of Jamaica, Queens, was charged with second-degree murder and four counts of attempted murder and felony assault early Tuesday for blasting a Nissan SUV full of people, including Fox, 42, whose real name was Jamal Green, and three others.
Fox, who once rolled with 50 Cent’s G-Unit crew, stumbled out of the ride and died in a driveway at Farmers Blvd. and 134th Ave. Three other people in the SUV were wounded by the hail of bullets.
Cops said the gunman in the brazen 4:10 p.m. shooting Jan. 3 was wearing all black and a ski mask and fled in a dark Hyundai sedan.
Scott’s brother Curtis was 21 when he was shot dead by Fox and another man outside Jamaica’s Baisley Park Houses on July 7, 1998.
The gunfire erupted after Fox got into an argument with several men and ordered an associate to open fire, cops said.
Curtis Scott, who was walking down a hill on Foch Blvd. was hit above his left eye. A second man, Jamal Ethridge, 23, was struck in the chest.
Jamal Scott was with his brother when he was shot and killed, officials said.
Fox was never found guilty of murder, but was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon in 2001 and sentenced to four years in prison.
He was released in 2005, but incarcerated again in 2011 on an attempted assault conviction. He was freed again on Dec. 20, 2013 — two weeks before he was killed.
Jamal Scott has 10 prior arrests, mostly for drugs and weapons possession charges, officials said.
His arraignment was pending Tuesday afternoon.
Fox’s girlfriend, who did not want to be identified, couldn’t understand why Scott was gunning for her beau of seven years over a beef that’s more than a decade old.
“(The shooting) was almost 16 years ago,” she said. “Jamal didn’t pull the trigger. He didn’t shoot him. He just happened to be there when it happened.”
“This is 16 years ago and you’re still harboring that?” she asked. “Killing Mazaradi, that’s not going to bring your brother back.”
“I don’t know them. I don’t talk to them, but I knew the situation,” she said, when asked about Scott and his family. “I knew that Jamal never pulled the trigger.”
Fox, a native of Jamaica, Queens, was a childhood friend of 50 Cent’s.
However, he never signed with his label, according to a spokesman for 50 Cent’s record company.
Fox had wanted to get back into the rap game.
“I’m ready to get the money and get the business,” he said in a 2013 jailhouse interview. “I’m ready now. I was young in the game and now I’m ready.”
He added that 50 Cent was a friend for life.
“We going to be homeboys till we’re both buried I guess,” he told DJ Self. “That’s my man forever.”
When news of Fox’s death broke, 50 Cent tweeted his condolences.
“Saddened by the news of Mazaradi’s tragic passing my thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends,” the “In Da Club” rapper wrote.
