Rapper’s Family Holds Funeral In Nightclub With Terrifying Guest Of Honor

Family members say they made the right decision to prop up and display a young rapper’s corpse in a Washington, D.C. nightclub April 3 while loved ones danced around him.

Bliss Nightclub hosted the celebration, and video of the embalmed, upright corpse quickly spread on social media. Twenty-four-year-old rapper Markelle Morrow, known as “Goonew,” was shot and killed on March 18. His mother and sister say they did the right thing when they decided to display his body during a celebration of his life, adding that it was what he would have wanted.

The rapper’s mother, Patrice, and his sister, Ariana Morrow, explained to fans that every aspect of his memorial was planned with Goonew’s personality and preferences in mind.

“My mom made it very clear, she said ‘I don’t want it to be a funeral it’s his last show… I don’t want nobody to ever look down on my son,’” Ariana said. That’s why they made the decision to prop up Goonew’s embalmed body and present him to his loved ones in an authentic way.

The family said the funeral home helped them create their club-themed memorial and even suggested a crown be placed atop Goonew’s head as a nod to the way fans used to reference the artist as “The King Of Maryland.” Patrice and Ariana went on to say they had dressed Goonew in his personal style, adding that dressing his body in a traditional suit would have been “fake and phony.” The family stated that Goonew did not attend church, so a church service didn’t seem to be an appropriate setting for the event.

Goonew was shot and killed on March 18 in Prince George’s County, in what the family believes to have been an armed robbery.

After the celebration a horse-drawn carriage took the rapper’s body through his neighborhood and to his final resting place.

“He was the life of the party, so that’s why I sent him home that way, having a party,” his mother said.