Rapping against cyberbullying

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (WPRI) - Friends and family of a local child are blaming the little boy's suicide on cyberbullying. A local artist is hoping his words can help.

In a studio on Union Street in New Bedford, 17-year-old Tiequan Conceicao intones into a microphone.

We could go back and forth,
You can call me a hypocrite,
'Cause every-
Thing I say not to do,
I be livin' it...

He started rapping when he was five, and along the way he's seen far more than most teenagers.

"Some days it's boring and quiet, and you don't hear nothing... Then you hear a gunshot, or someone getting stabbed," he said.

"I wake up to read the newspaper every day because I've lost so many friends to the streets already."

He reels off a list of their names.

"Arthur Burton, Cecil Lopes, William Payne, Tasmin Soares..."

"All murdered, every single one."

Tiequan has been rapping under the stage name Bogie Bam -- and has all the online connections for a struggling artist -- including a YouTube channel.

It was someone he never met who inspired him to rap for a grieving mother -- and a shocked community -- after the suicide of a New Bedford 6th grader.

An 11-year-old boy,
Got the whole town missin' 'im,
I never even met 'im,
I never even seen 'im,
But if you ask about the son,
You could say that he's the reason...

"When I first heard the story -- an 11-year-old committing suicide -- it just didn't seem realistic to me," he said.

The child's mother and friends believe he was bullied in the days leading up to the suicide.

Bogie Bam hopes his words -- mixed with a music video created by 3rd EyE Unlimited -- push a message to bullies and especially their victims.

"If you get bullied, you don't have to take it to that level," he said. "There's always someone you can tell."

The District Attorney's office will not comment on the specific details of this case because of the age of the victim, but told Eyewitness News the investigation is continuing.