Today I got a notification from my concert app that Rio Da Yung Og would be performing soon, to which my first thought was: but isn’t he still in jail? Turns out he is, and the notification was an odd error, but it got me thinking about how many rappers we’ve lost in the past five years alone.
The entire rap scene is changing – and not for the better. In the early hours of Tuesday, November 1st, Takeoff (Kirshnik Khari Ball) was shot and killed in an altercation at a bowling alley. This situation only further pushes the outrage surrounding the increasing normalcy of rappers being murdered, dying young, or being used by law enforcement to send a message. In Takeoff’s situation, he was merely a bystander who was standing in the wrong place at the wrong time, but other rappers are essentially being used as high targets for recognition, whether that be by the judicial system or by murderers.
In November 2021, Young Dolph, a notorious Memphis rapper, was gunned down while he bought cookies for his mother. In February 2020, Pop Smoke (who was only 20 years old) accidentally posted his address on Instagram and was murdered in a home invasion the next day. The robbers made around $2,000 off of the invasion, for the cost of his life. King Von, an up-and-coming rapper from Chicago, was murdered in November 2020 during a confrontation. There’s even an entire website dedicated to rappers who have passed (mostly young) with over two-thirds of deaths listed as “shot and killed”.
Beyond dying young, many rappers have been unreasonably sentenced to jail. In the case of YSL (Young Slime/Stoner Life Records), founded by Young Thug, RICO charges attacked the group. According to multiple news outlets, Gunna, who is one of the most popular rappers in this group, is innocent. He will have served 7 months before his trial even begins in January 2023. Merely days after the news about YSL came out, Lil Keed, who was also under the YSL record label, suffered organ failure and passed away. He was sober at the time of his death. The entire situation is frustrating because some of the men targeted by RICO charges are innocent. They’re being used as pawns and law enforcement isn’t thinking about how it will affect them, just because they’re large public figures.
It feels like the entire rap scene is changing as more and more recognizable rappers are either sentenced to jail, dying young, or murdered. With Young Thug, Gunna, Pop Smoke, Young Dolph, Lil Keed, King Von, Takeoff, Nipsey Hussle, Rio Da Yung Og, Pooh Shiesty, Tay-K, Mac Miller, and more Billboard charting artists either dead or in prison, music won’t be the same as it has been.