Rapper Swae Lee’s half-brother shot and killed their father after “hearing voices” in his head.
Michael Sullivan was charged with first-degree murder last month (Mar21), more than a year after the fatal shooting of Floyd Sullivan, Jr. in Mississippi in January 2020.
Rae Sremmurd’s Half-Brother Charged With First-Degree Murder Of His Father
Rae Sremmurd star Swae, who was Floyd’s stepson, admits the family tragedy turned his life “upside-down” and he only agreed to talk to Michael in a call from jail after their mother, Bernadette Walker, begged the rapper to reach out.
“I haven’t talked to my lil’ bro since it happened,” he confessed in his new Snapchat series, Swae Meets World. “It’s just been in my head, but I know there’s gon’ come a time when I gotta face my demons.
“I gotta go back to Mississippi and just come face-to-face and just get to the bottom of it, once and for all.”
Sharing how he was struggling with his conflicting emotions, he added, “My stepdad’s my real dad… He raised me, taught me everything I know… I don’t know if I can talk to my brother after what he did.”
Swae chronicled the trip home and his chat with Michael – nine months after the murder – in the latest episode, which dropped on Wednesday (April 21st).
As he reunited with his mom following a visit to Floyd’s grave, she said, “I still can’t really believe it happened… I really hope that you can still be his (Michael’s) brother and forgive him. He’s still my son.”
In the phone call, Bernadette asks Michael to explain what was going through his mind at the time of the killing, and he told Swae: “I was hearing voices, and I thought dad was trying to make me kill myself…”
Bernadette previously revealed Michael suffered from Schizoaffective disorder, and may have been off his medication prior to the incident, and Swae is now starting to realize just how troubled his youngest brother had been growing up.
He reflected: “I always feel like my brother was battling with us, battling with everything, battling with mom and dad (when he was younger), but whatever he’s going through, like, mental health, this s**t is really serious.”
“I ain’t never gonna understand that thought process in that situation of why he did what he did, but he’s still lil’ bro,” Swae shared.
“It’s like two parts of me: one, I wanna make sure you (Michael) good, and one is angry like, ‘D**n bro, you took my pops away (sic).'”
He concludes the episode by admitting he is still working through the grieving process as he hopes to one day move past the heartbreaking situation.
“I don’t know if I can make peace with what happened to my family,” he said. “This ain’t something that just go away, but with time comes forgiveness. You gotta keep moving forward. If you’re living in the past, how you gon’ move into the future (sic)?”
Swae performs as one half of hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd with his brother Slim Jxmmi.