After the Uprising Season 2: Darren Seals
Darren Seals, rapper, famed activist and some said modern Malcolm X, is found shot dead inside his burning Jeep Wrangler in the early morning hours after Labor Day 2016.
Six years later, the former Missouri state senator who was in the Ferguson movement with him, Maria Chappelle-Nadal, joins co-host Ray Nowosielski and our NAACP Image Award-nominated investigative team for a two-plus years investigation and all of its twists and turns. Darren was hailed by many as the successor to Malcolm X.
The attention he garnered found him the alleged target of law enforcement harassment, and maybe worse. Over 10 “true crime” podcast episodes, we cross a landscape of rap artists, protestors, gang members, cops, FBI agents and a serial killer, from the violent streets of St. Louis to the elite headquarters of JayZ’s Roc Nation in New York City, from government offices to prison cells, picking up the trail left by Darren's murderer -- with an ending you have to hear to believe.
3:10:40 to 3:19:23
After the Uprising creators John Duffy & Ray Nowosielski gave testimony before the St Louis County Council on Nov 7 2023 about prosecuting attorney Wesley Bell related to their Season 2 investigation into Darren Seals’ murder, all episodes to be released by iHeart over summer 2024.
Listen to Season Two
S2E1: The King is Dead
St. Louis County, 2016, the early hours after Labor Day. Darren Seals, 29 year old rapper and famed Ferguson activist, is found shot dead inside his burning Jeep.
S2E2: Serial Killer
The strange torched vehicle M.O. of Darren Seals’ murder bears a striking similarity to another that took place two years prior, DeAndre Joshua.
S2E3: Roc Nation
The streets talk, and they say Darren Seals was killed during an argument about music. But is this a red herring?
S2E4: Crime Scene
Amir Brandy, co-founder of Real STL News, and his videographer friend Darnell Singleton, undertook their own on-the-ground investigation into Darren Seals’ murder beginning the day he was found.
S2E5: The Bonnie Situation
Before her sudden passing in 2023, Darren Seals’ mother Bonnie Otis sat down over several months for roughly 30 hours of conversations with this podcast.
S2E6: Confidential Human Source
Darren Seals’ mother was certain the answer to his murder lay with the FBI. Dismissed as “conspiracy theory,” her assertion seems suddenly bolstered when a redacted document is released that reveals the existence of a U.S. government surveillance operation on Darren over his final six months.
S2E7: Satan’s Seed
One of the lead suspects for the murder of Darren Seals was himself murdered in 2020. When our investigators obtain the police report into that killing – and audio from the police interrogations – many of the pieces begin to fall into place.
S2E8: A Dangerous Game
Our investigators seek out the surviving members of the rap group Darren Seals managed during his final year, the Bottom Boyz.
S2E9: Mosi’s Secret Box
We think we know what happened to Darren Seals.
S2E10: Long Live the King
After two and a half years of investigation, our podcast team is finishing this episode when something unexpected arrives: the 196-page St. Louis County police investigation report into Darren Seals’ murder.